How did this begin? Part Three

So, after drinking green smoothies and walking I felt the need to clean up the rest of my act.  I started looking into nutrition issues and happened about Dr. Andrew Weil's Anti-Inflammatory diet and food pyramid.  This information underscored everything I had read about fighting cancer.  I do not want to have cancer take over my life again.  Ever again.  I thought about the changes this would entail (no processed foods, less animal protein, more fiber, lots more vegetables, more whole grains, lots of green tea) and I thought I could do this. I started in and it was not all that hard.

After a few weeks I was surfing through Netflix one evening and came across the next game changer...the film Forks Over Knives.

Let me put a warning here - Do NOT watch this film unless you want your life upended!  Once I watched that film I was in whole hog (so to speak!)   I read all the material I could get my hand on about this and I am convinced.  Committing to a plant based diet is my best chance to live a long and happy life.  Hopefully without cancer, heart disease or diabetes.  Does that mean I am a vegan?  Yes, I guess it does.

Here are a couple of things I have learned about myself over the years - drastic change is much easier for me than incremental change.  One of doctors writing about this change likened it to a combination lock - If you have 2 of the 3 numbers right the lock won't open.  You need full commitment to it for it to be fully effective.  Can you improve your health by just giving up meat?  Certainly. But by giving up dairy and eating a low fat plant based diet you are even further ahead.

So I have been doing this for about the last 6 weeks at this point.  I have lost about 30 lbs since we moved last spring.  No counting points, no measuring food.  Just eating whole grains, lots of vegetables, no processed foods, lots of legumes.  No animal products.  No meat, no dairy, no eggs. No artificial sweetener (goodbye Diet Coke!).   It's pretty clear cut.

On this blog I hope to post photos of some of the food I make.  See what you think!

How did this begin? Part Two

The story continues after we moved.  It was hell moving.  It took up all of our mental space for several months, but we made it.  As soon as we moved I started walking to work.  At first I was walking in the snow and ice and it was hard, but I was determined to do it,  I figured that was the way to insure I was exercising!  Thirty-five minutes to work and thirty-five minutes home.  Three miles a day.  I have been diligent about doing this since we moved in early March 2014.

With the added activity I started s l o w l y losing weight.  No other significant changes. We decided to try to eat at home more and eat out less.  This was due to us spending a lot of money on the move and the fact that we had eaten out most meals for many months while we were packing and moving.

In June, our daughter turned me on to the idea of making green smoothies every day.  She shared the site Simple Green Smoothies and the idea of a 30 day Green Smoothie challenge.  Below the picture there is a link to info on making a green smoothie.  Let me say, they are delicious!!!

How to make a green smoothie

This was a game changer!  I started making these smoothies every day and felt so good starting off the day with this good healthy treat.  This plus walking to work was all to the good, right? RIGHT!

I started reading more and more about "clean eating" and good nutrition.  I was starting off the day so well, it seemed like it was time for the rest of my day and meals to catch up! 

The story continues in Part Three!

How did this begin? Part One

Becoming a vegan is a pretty radical step for many people.  And it was for me.  This is definitely a case of one thing leads to another.

A few years ago I had an encounter with (and beat, so far!) ovarian cancer.  My oncologist told me that I needed to do what I could to minimize the chances of the cancer returning.  He recommended the book Anticancer: a New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber which I got and read.  This is a terrific book that recommends changes in lifestyle to reduce the inflammation that exacerbates the growth of cancer cells, such as adding more cruciferous vegetables into the diet along with turmeric, garlic, ginger.  Also eliminating sugar and exercising at least 30 minutes a day.  My doctor also recommended eating as much organic as we could afford.

I took this all to heart and made some small incremental changes.  We started eating organic.  We bought a Vitamix and started making smoothies from time to time.  I convinced myself that I was cumulatively exercising at least 30 minutes a day. Right.

Let me say, changing fundamental habits such as the way you eat and the amount of exercise you do is hard,  Really, really hard.   I wanted to lose weight and so I joined Weight Watchers (again!) and half-heartedly followed the program.  There is no real secret to losing weight. To do so you need to eat better and exercise more.  End of story.

Looking back I think I was trying to game the system and that food manufacturers/marketers were aiding and abetting me.  I quit going to Weight Watchers when I realized at my last meeting that everyone there (including me) was trying to eat what we always ate, but were looking for a "low points" way to do it.  Fake whipped cream, fake peanut butter, low fat cheese, on and on and on.  I would lose 2 pounds and gain 2 pounds and lose 2 ponds and gain 2 pounds.  I stepped up my exercising, but was not really losing weight.  (But muscle weighs MORE than fat, I tell you! So why do my clothes fit the same???)

A couple of years passed and the only significant change I made was that we ate organic everything we could.  I kept thinking about what I should do, but actually doing it was another story.  In the meantime we had a situation with our home and zoning that was super stressful.  It finally came to a head and we ended up moving.  That process was all-consuming and became the tipping point for major change.  One of the main criteria for a new house was it had to be located close enough to my office that I could walk.We managed to find a house 1.5 miles from my office.

The next part of the story in Part Two!