"I'm almost 59 years old and I took a look at myself and the path I was on and I didn't like where I was heading. My weight was a problem, as it had been for almost all of my life. I was taking pills to lower my cholesterol and blood pressure and pills to fight depression. My back was hurting, my right knee was hurting and my family was fearful that I was a "walking time bomb" with heart disease, kidney disease, Diabetes or even a stroke in my future. I love my family and hated knowing that they worried about my health, even though I thought I felt fine. I made the decision to be proactive about my health rather than wait for something to go wrong and be reactive."
My Doctor then shared with me that he became a Vegan 5 years ago. We talked about some food ideas and stories about weight loss, reversal of heart disease and various studies all supporting a plant based diet. He talked about President Clinton's choice to become a Vegan and how much he had improved his heart health after living through his heart surgery. Now, what ever your politics, I hope you will agree that President Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, is a very intelligent man. Yet, he made the choice to be reactive rather than proactive. Better late than never!
Generally, I'm about as bad a procrastinator as anyone of you. Probably a lot worse than most of you. I wait for things to go wrong and then react to them. After reading a little bit about the obvious health benefits of a plant based diet I made a proactive choice, a New Year's Resolution and jumped on the Vegan band wagon. I have nothing but positive things to say about how quickly and easily I lost the initial 30 lbs, how my back and knee pain have disappeared and how my blood pressure has stabilized at a healthy 112/72 all within my first 90 days. I have no intention of going back to my old ways and am looking forward to the impending improvement in the weather so I can get out with my wife (Miss Shelley) to walk the dog without struggling to keep up, to riding my bicycle again and maybe even playing golf again without pain. Yes, exercise. ME!
So, realistically, we all have to look forward to a day when were going to have to face our own fate. None of us are getting out of here alive. The big variable is how far in the future is that going to be and how will the choices we make right now, today, this hour, this minute affect what that fate will be. Many things are beyond our control. But what you choose to eat is not among those things. Make good health choices now rather than wait for a future where you regret the choices you made and no choice is left. It really is up to you!
What's it going to be: Proactive or Reactive?
Here's dinner! I caved a little and bought some processed food. I was at Costco and found they have Vegan Pad Thai and its free of MSG, GMO's, and several other capital letters. It does have wheat and peanuts so its not for everyone, like Mimi, but for the rest of us - YUM!
There is quite a bit of sodium in this, so I added a pile of Quinoa and divided the recommended serving in half, leaving me with 235 mg of sodium from the Pad Thai plus 45 mg of sodium from the Quinoa the way I prepared it for a total of 280 mg. Not great, but still only about 12% of whats recommended in a 2000 calorie diet.
This is how it looked:
(serves 4)
PAD THAI OVER QUINOA
1 package of Tasty Bite Pad Thai
1 cup of Quinoa
4 shakes of Mrs Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning
1 tsp of Sriracha sauce
2 cups of water
Cook the Pad Thai in its own pouch according to package directions.
Add the Quinoa, Mrs Dash and Sriracha to a medium sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 15 min or until the water is all absorbed.
Divide the total Pad Thai and Quinoa into quarters. Put the Quinoa on a plate and put the Pad Thai over it. Eat it!
Enjoy!
...and wear sunscreen.
