WFPBNO Mac and Cheese #vegancomfortfood #eattolose

Mac and cheese, Tuna-ish, Oil Free Salad

     Gotta eat, right? For my dinner, I gotta eat right! So here is a picture of my whole foods plant based no oil dinner. It was a lot of food and I totally stuffed myself, but guilt free. Sometimes you just have to power through the plate to hit that comfort zone. 

WFPBNO MAC and Cheese

Cheezy Macaroni

Plant Perfect

Prep Time:  20 min

Cook Time:  30 min

Total time:  50 min

Recipe
3 Yukon gold potatoes
6 T Nutritional yeast
6 T Tapioca flour
1 T lemon juice
⅓ cup white vinegar
1/2 t Tabasco
1 level T salt
1/4 t Turmeric
1/4 t paprika (or smoked paprika)
1 3/4 cups of water from the potatoes

Peel, slice and boil the potatoes in salt water until cooked. (about 30 minutes). Save at least 2 cups of the water for later.

Boil a box of whole grain rotini per package directions for 9 minutes. Don't overcook it. Strain it and set aside.

Put everything along with the 1 1/4 cups of the water from the potatoes into your blender or food processor and puree it until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook it on medium low heat stirring constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until it thickens (about 12 to 15 minutes) .

In the pot you used to cook the pasta, mix the sauce and pasta together, stirring it over low heat until it reaches the desired thickness. Add a little more water if it's too thick. Let it cool allowing it to thicken a little more and serve warm.
Season with salt, pepper etc. to taste.

The sauce is also great for nachos or over veggies!

Dr. Allan Kalmus

Leftovers for Dinner. #WFPBNO #BEYONDvegan #eattolose

     Opening the fridge tonight, I was faced with an abundance of leftovers of various ages all of which passed the rigors of a carefully, meticulously executed sniff test. The vintage vegetables were put out of there misery on my chopping block and joined their relatives in the soup pot; destiny realized and fulfilled. The younger, brighter, fully hydrated bearers of all my nutritional needs blended their family colors in the harmony of my salad bowl. Finally, on this cold night of the season's first snow, my plate was rounded out by hot ghost pepper chili over whole grain noodles and under a gold crown of nutritional yeast. Every essential amino acid, vitamin and mineral present and deliciously represented most palatably on my table of leftovers. Poetry on a plate!

     Ramen brown rice and millet noodles mixed with ghost pepper quinoa chili topped with nutritional yeast, my vegetable dal and a salad of romaine lettuce, purple cabbage, roasted beets, chopped green olives, bicolored bell peppers, chopped cashews, dried onion flakes, basil, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar.

58 Months A Vegan. Red Lentil Dal. #foodismedicine #eattolose #WFPBNO

We're expecting our 1st snow of the season tonight. As good as that sounds, homemade hot soup makes it that much better! I NEVER MADE THIS BEFORE BUT I'M GOING TO MAKE IT AGAIN!!! Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil.

RED LENTIL DAL
2 cups red lentils
4 cups water
1 tsp Sabji masala
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Set your pressure cooker for 25 minutes then let it cook until it completely vents. Stir to make it the texture of pea soup.
While that's cooking chop a medium onion, 2 carrots and 2 stalks of celery. Put all the veggies in a saucepan with 1 cup of water, 1 TBS of Tamara, 1/2 tsp of herbes de provence sea salt, 1/4 tsp smoked paprika and 1/4 tsp ground turmeric.
Bring it to a boil then turn the heat down and let it simmer for 40 minutes covered or until the carrots are fully cooked and soft.
Mix the cooked veggies including the liquid and lentils together. Stir over low heat until it looks right, adding a little water as needed then serve hot.
I like to let it sit in the fridge overnight to get really thick. Then I put it in a pot, add water to thin it a little, stir over medium heat until it starts to simmer and then serve hot.  Enjoy!!


2013

2018

57 Months A Vegan! Free Will! #WFPBNO #YourChoice #Foodismedicine #EatToLose

     I'm home, sick with the flu. Every year I get a flu shot, but this year it hit unseasonably early. It's not clear where I picked it up or even when. Clearly it was not my choice. "Free Will" played no role here. At first I was in denial thinking it must be food poisoning. But when the GI symptoms left and the fever with body aches set in, denial was pointless. So plenty of fluids, a few Tylenol, some hot tea and clean eating should have me back to normal before you know it. I'm already getting my appetite back.

Salad for lunch with lettuce, kale, fresh parsley, green and yellow peppers, tomato, purple onion, chickpeas, chopped cashews then dressed with rosemary, basil, black pepper, garlic salt, agave nectar,fresh lemon juice and red wine vinegar.

     Nobody I know would choose to get sick. Things like the flu or the common cold come out of the blue and put you out of commission for days at a time. No one goes out of their way to contract a viral infection, no matter how common or self limiting it may be. When you know that hand washing or a hand sanitizer may help you avoid a nasty virus during cold and flu season it makes sense to wash your hands more frequently. 

     That  same line of common sense thinking should also apply to chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity and Coronary Artery Disease. All three are food related. Once you accept that fact, all you have to do is learn how to avoid the foods that put you at risk. "Washing your hands" of animal based fatty foods and all oils will virtually eliminate your chance of developing any of them. If you already have one or more of these chronic problems, there is no reason they need to progress. Your food choices can halt or even reverse all of them. 

 A useful visual aid popped up on Facebook this morning.   

Me 6 years ago

     

     

I had already passed the point of obesity and was on track to developing Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease. About that time, I came to accept the fact that if I wanted to be healthy and active, it was totally up to me. Pills weren't going to reverse anything and there was no way that I could out exercise my bad diet. It was all about the food.

Here's the guy Joel Kahn MD who got me started on a healthier lifestyle.

It was all through social media, costing me nothing but the price of new clothes. All I had to do was read, listen and learn. I will always be grateful for the guidance. 

Me 3 years ago down 100 lbs

Imagine what my life would be like now had I not taken that fatty food off my plate.

All of the above changes occured prior to starting any exercise activity. It was and is really all about the food. 

Me 2018 down 110 lbs

Funny thing about losing 100 lbs.
I starting enjoying activities that I never in my life had any pleasure doing.
Here's a picture of me now, right after finishing a little 10K run that started and ended in my garage. Full disclosure:  I walked part of it.
And that's also FREE WILL!

You get to choose what you eat. Nobody is forcing you to do anything.
Change your mind and change your life.
English is a funny language.
I keep meeting people who say:
"I can't do that."
What they mean to say is:
"I won't do that."

But that's Free Will for you!

56 Months A Vegan! 36 Months A Runner!! #foodismedicine #eatlikeahorse #runlikenooneswatching

Dinner

I was going to write another blog post describing where I was healthwise 5 years ago, what was happening to people around me and how I found my way to healthier habits eating better, eventually taking up running and sidestepping away from the path to Diabetes and heart disease.  Instead I'm just going to ask you something.  Are you managing your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar with pills? Is your weight under control? Is your health where you want it to be? Will it be your doctor or you who gets you healthy and keeps you there?
Go after the cause and you won't have to deal with the symptoms.
Your going to need a starting point.
Here's a new one set up by some of my friends and....  IT'S FREE!!!!
You're welcome. Sign up. Learn...   
Copy this and paste it into your search bar:

https://www.healthyhumanrevolution.com/offers/LZEz7HX7/checkout

Diabetic Polyneuropathy and the Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Diet #FoodisMedicine

Diabetic Polyneuropathy and the Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Diet

  Allan Kalmus, DPM

www.01Reluctantvegan.blogspot.com

Diabetic Neuropathy is described by patients as manifesting itself in a number of different ways. Some experience painful burning sensation that keeps them up at night. Others feel like their feet are freezing even though the skin feels warm to touch. There can be the feeling like an insect is crawling on you or you may get sudden sharp electrical shocks that radiate into the foot or up the leg. There may be partial or complete numbness in the toes but normal sensation in the arch and heel. The entire foot may be numb and it can extend into the lower leg as well. The patient may lose the ability to tell where their foot is in space affecting balance and gait. The joints in the foot lose the ability to signal the brain when they are under stress. This will cause the joints to degenerate resulting in collapse of the arches and even a “rocker bottom” foot structure. Skin ulcers may form and easily become infected. There can also be hypersensitivity with the patient experiencing severe pain with light touch. Even the act of putting on a sock can be almost unbearable. The skin may become very dry with changes in texture and color as the autonomic nervous system becomes involved and the ability to perspire is lost.

   

Although Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics can both develop neuropathy, it appears to affect the Type 2 Diabetic earlier in the course of the disease. These findings are consistent with the pathology on the cellular level coming from 2 or more separate pathways. In the Type 2 Diabetic the Insulin Resistance associated with Intramyocellular lipid accumulation prevents glucose from being transported across the muscle cell membrane where it can be metabolised. The nerve cells act in much the same way as the muscle cells in that their preferred fuel is glucose. In the presence of trans fats the glucose is not able to cross the cell wall and the neurons are starving. The stress on the nerve cells causes them to send the pain signals to the brain as a sign that something is dreadfully wrong.

    

The healthy nerve cells also require adequate microcirculation to bring in Oxygen and glucose as fuel and to remove waste. The blood vessels are microscopic and will lose flow when plaques form just as in any of the larger arteries. In the Diabetic, the presence of peripheral neuropathy symptoms are an early warning sign of atherosclerotic changes that also affect the heart, brain and kidneys. It doesn’t take much plaque to clog a microscopic blood vessel.   Consider it another “Canary in the Coal Mine” much like Erectile Dysfunction being an early warning sign of Coronary Artery Disease.

The numbness can be correlated with a decrease is the number of superficial nerve fibers  in the skin on biopsy.

   Normal Nerve Fiber Density                                

Nerve Axon Swelling with loss of Fiber Density

    In my practice, once we establish that the limb has sufficient circulation to avoid amputation my patient and I will discuss both their medications and their lifestyle. Along with quitting smoking, increasing activity and medications I always discuss their diet. Without fail they will describe a diet high in animal products and low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and anything they have been told is starchy. Basically The American Diabetes Association Diet in one form or another. I have them watch the trailers for Forks Over Knives and Eating You Alive just to establish some mainstream credibility. If they see it on a computer or TV they tend to give it more credence than coming from me. I tell them that what they are doing is not working for them and that they are not going to get better without making the dietary changes that will eliminate animal fats from their diet. In my mind, if I don’t at least give them the option to learn what they are doing wrong and how they can help themselves without medication I’m doing them a huge disservice. Whether I think they are capable of making the necessary changes or not is irrelevant. All I can do is give them enough information to know that the option to get off most of their medications is out there and that there is a clear, safe and effective pathway to get where they want to go.

    Every one of my patients who have listened and made the simple dietary changes to a whole food plant based no oil diet have responded with a decrease in their Neuropathic Pain symptoms within 6 weeks. The patients with numbness notice gradual return of feeling in their feet in 6 months to a year. A subsequent skin biopsy after changing over for 6 months will show return of normal nerve fiber density. The dry skin disappears. They all lose weight, improve their blood pressure and become more active as the pain in their feet disappears. The need for medication to control their sugar in the Type 2 Diabetics is either eliminated or severely reduced. The more compliant they are the less medication they need. The Type 1 Diabetics find that they need far less daily Insulin. They all come back from their Primary Care Doctor visits stating that they were told: “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”

    If you are suffering from the symptoms of Diabetic Neuropathy there is not a pill, miracle food, shot, therapeutic modality or surgery that will give you the long term relief you want. Changing your diet and lifestyle are your best bet and won’t cost you a thing. The only dietary supplement you need is a very tiny amount of over the counter Vitamin B12. It is not essential that you buy all organic produce and you don’t have to join a gym or hire a trainer. You’ll get plenty of protein from plants the same way gorillas, buffalo, horses, cows, giraffes, elephants, deer, etc. do. There are no side effects. Anyone can do this. All you have to do is convince yourself that you want to take control and that your well being is worth it!!!

For an excellent collection of references go to:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/curing-painful-diabetic-neuropathy/

Thanks to Bako Labs for the photomicrographs of nerve fibers.

55 Months a Vegan!! #foodismedicine #eatlikeagorilla

Its 55 months already!  Every time I pass a mirror it's a bit of a shock. I was so fat for so long the reflection of my new normal is of someone I'm still getting to know. Not quite a stranger but also not the reflection of the person ingrained in my head. Body image is a real thing. Since I was close to becoming a member of the former 300 pound club, I've made some friends who all say the same thing. Instead of highlighting the amazing improvements, our brains register our flaws. Varying amounts of excess skin, stretch marks and sundry remaining bulges capture our attention more than the vast loss of adipose tissue and the extreme health improvement. I know how much healthier I look and how much better I feel, but my brain wants to compare my flaws with airbrushed magazine images of perfect bodies. I know where I was 5 years ago and how far I have come. I'm very grateful for the guidance I've received from my friend, Joel Kahn, MD and the resulting new lease on life the changes have given me.

   My transition to a whole foods plant based diet was pretty easy. I already liked to eat unprocessed whole grains, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, berries, seeds and nuts prior to starting. All I had to do was eat more of those things to keep me from being hungry and replace the calories from meat and dairy products. As long as my tummy felt full, there were no cravings and no feelings of hunger. Since all those things are carbohydrates which break down into glucose and glucose is the fuel on which our bodies prefer to run my energy level went up overnight! Over time I became bolder and introduced new types of plant based foods into my everyday diet. Things that I never thought I would like turned out to taste really good! The weight started to come off quickly. After 3 months I had lost 40 lbs without any exercise. I plateaued for a while and found out I was eating too many nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are both high in oil. I didn't give them up but just cut way back on them. To get the nutrition out of them that I needed I limited myself to a palm full of walnuts, almonds or sunflower seeds as a snack. At first it was every day, then every other day and now about twice a week. Nature put nuts in hard shells and up in trees to make us have to work to eat them. Buying a 1 pound bag of them already shelled for $5.99 at the local supermarket was not the way Nature intended for us to get them. More weight starting coming off until I met resistance again at minus 60 to 80 lbs.

    

     That is when I attended my first lecture on nutrition through the Plant Based Nutrition Support Group (www.PBNSG.org).  At that time I was still using either a little olive oil or vegetable oil to brown onions, stir fry veggies and to make vinegar and oil salad dressing. I learned that oils, and I mean ALL oils are inflammatory calorie dense processed food with little nutritional value. They inflame the endothelial cells that line every artery in your body leading to plaques, peripheral vascular disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. T. Colin Campbell PhD also taught me that oils increase the risk of certain cancers. As if that weren't enough, oils also plug up the ability of insulin to move sugar out of the blood and into muscle cells where it's burned as fuel. We call that Insulin Resistance and that's Type 2 Diabetes. Learning that and giving up oils I was able to reach my goal of losing a total 100lbs. 

That was around Memorial Day of 2016. That's when my niece invited me to run a 5K race with her Labor Day.  Of course I said no. I'd never run that far ever and had no intention of changing that. But my niece was persistent and informed me that I would get a free t-shirt along with a shiny finisher's medal if I did it. I guess dangling something shiny in front of me is all it took. I signed up and started running just a little, slowly around my neighborhood. In 3 days I was up to 1 mile.

Adding a little at a time I got the distance up to 3.1 miles within 6 weeks training 2 or 3 runs per week . Race day came. My wife and daughters came to cheer for our niece, our son-in-law who decided to join us and me. It was a brisk, clear morning with no significant wind. The race started and my niece set the pace for me. She was so nice and stayed at my side slowing herself as I strained to keep going. It was such a thrill to cross a finish line for the first time in my life that I did a little Grapevine dance as steam rose off my shoulders. As we were eating our free bananas and drinking our water the race results were posted.  Out of the 28 people in the 60 - 65 age group I came in 3rd! Bronze medal winner right here!!!

 With the running I managed to lose an additional 10lbs over that summer.

     I became a grandfather almost 3 years ago. The first thing I said to my new grandson was: "Get used to this face because its going to be around for a long, long time!" He is an excellent motivator. All he had to do was be born and I immediately wanted to live long enough to watch him grow up. Prior to going plant based I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and was prediabetic. Since eating my way out of all those high risk categories, I have a much better chance of being around long enough to see him graduate from college and remain an active and involved part of his life. At almost 3 years old he already loves to swim. I can get into the pool with him now, teach him a few strokes and not be embarrassed to be seen in my bathing suit. I hope to be the fit, happy and involved family member that I am today for many, many years into the future. Nobody knows how long they have. I know I have more years behind me than I do in front of me. You can't control all the things that may go wrong with your health but you can control what you eat. My big picture goal is to not shorten my life by eating things that subtract years from it. Plants don't do that and they give me everything I need to stay healthy.
     I was 58 years old when I finally started to pay attention to my health. I didn't wait for a health crisis to convince me to change my habits. That heart attack or stroke that may have been in my near future and could have killed me is now much less of a probability at age 63 than it was then. My family is proud of me, my friends are in disbelief and my family doctor is as confused as Hell.
Its really quite simple:
"Eat whole foods that are plants, no oil and go for a walk."
Those are things that only you can do for yourself. Do it for a month and see how you feel. Don't wait for some extrinsic motivator to come along like a heart problem that you may not survive. This is way too easy not to do. The results I have experienced are typical, expected and profound! It's easy to see the difference. Take your "before" picture today and start living that long, active, healthy "after"!