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| Fettuccine Alfredo With Whole Wheat Noodles |
It has been a quite a wonderful 47 month journey into the world of a Plant Based Whole Foods lifestyle. Four years ago there was no freaking way I was going to give up meat, dairy, oil, fish and fowl. I couldn't cook without oil nor could I bake without eggs. Don't even get me started on cheese and yogurt. I loved that stuff! There couldn't really be anything wrong with summer barbeques, creamy coleslaw, potato salad and cheeseburgers! Where else would I get my protein? I live in the good old USA and that stuff is all on the menu for the building blocks of the Standard American Diet! (S.A.D.) You are not going to tell ME to stay away from DQ, KFC and those other places where I would be asked if I wanted fries with that. So what if I am over 100 lbs overweight, can't get up off the couch without help, wearing a C-PAP mask to keep me breathing when I sleep and taking pills for my high cholesterol, high blood pressure and joint pain. I have no problem swallowing pills. Just give me another one if I'm developing Diabetes. That half of a large pepperoni pizza that I ate last night was no problem. I could just work it off with exercise. If the worst happened and I started getting chest pain, I can count on a heart stent or bypass surgery to keep me going. I believe in medical science and it's ability to save my life!
But wait a second. What about those guys in my immediate circle of friends and relatives who ate the S.A.D. way, took pills for their medical problems, exercised regularly, got the stents in their heart vessels to keep them open, got the bypass surgery when the stents failed and then died anyway? Three friends died from heart attacks in 6 months. Two of them had no history of heart disease. Three more had stents put in their heart vessels. Maybe I was looking at this wrong. Maybe you can't out exercise a bad diet. Maybe you can't depend on medical science to fix your heart with surgery. It was looking like 50% of the time people my age would die from their 1st heart attack. The writing was on the wall and I needed to change that story.
There was another branch of modern medicine that I was completely ignoring. I didn't want to pay any attention to it because it was telling me that I had to change my ways. I hate change! Change is hard. Change implies that I was wrong about the way I was living. Who wants to admit that they were wrong about anything? But still, there was a ton of information about preventing and reversing heart disease, about sustainable weight loss without surgery or fad dieting, about preventing and reversing Diabetes and in general just taking control of my health by controlling what I was eating.
At first I didn't want to change anything. I loved my food and couldn't see giving up what I loved.
But after reading more, watching Forks Over Knives and Eating You Alive I started thinking maybe I could try this. Suddenly someone close to me died from a heart attack and something in my brain clicked. What would happen to my family if I wasn't around? My friend, Joel Kahn, MD, convinced me that I didn't have to be the next statistic. At the time, he didn't even know what he did for me. I made a mental contract with myself that I would go 100% Vegan for 1 year and if I didn't like it, I'd find another way. Now, 47 months later, my only regret is that I didn't know about this sooner. I've taken up cooking, lost 110 lbs, don't need blood pressure pills, cholesterol pills or my C-PAP machine anymore. I've even taken up running and I'm enjoying that too!
If you're healthy and happy with your weight, that's great! If you are looking to improve your health, protect your heart, prevent or reverse Diabetes, strokes, kidney disease and improve your feeling of well being a whole foods plant based lifestyle is the way to go!
The picture on the top is of my dinner tonight. Fettuccine Alfredo with whole wheat noodles, corn on the cob and a tossed salad with creamy garlic dressing. I'd be happy to share my recipe for the asking. Most of it involves throwing ingredients in a blender and then stirring them over low head for a few minutes. Its pretty easy and quite garlicky!
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| Pre-Vegan |
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| 2 Years Later |
What have you got to lose?