Last Friday my wife and I attended a buffet style fund raising dinner
for our local food bank. Most of what they served I chose to avoid.
White bread, white rolls, some kind of pasta dish, mashed potatoes, both
laden with dairy and fat, and a monster roast beef! Fortunately they
had a salad and a huge platter of raw vegetables, with which I filled up
my plate and went on my way.
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| Roast Beast |
When I got to the roast beef I didn't even glance at it, but carried my plate off back to my table without even thinking about it. I didn't want any. I didn't look longingly at it and wish I could partake of just a little bit. I didn't think back to my carnivore days and remember how much I used to enjoy meat. I didn't feel cheated or deprived. The truth of the matter is that when I looked at it I did not see food. It might as well of been Squid Brains, Roast Of Dalmation, or something a Klingon would eat.
I talk to a lot of people about food, nutrition, and weight loss. It's hard not to do so after you've lost 160 pounds. It is a topic that just comes up. And so many people, when they hear what I eat, feel they could never eat like I do because they love their meat too much!! I hear "I'm glad that works for you but I could never give up my meat!" all the time! Quite often from people who know how much meat I used to eat!!
Let's spend a minute and talk about how much meat I used to eat! I ate more meat than 99.99999% of people on this planet. I've never met anyone who ate more meat than I. I would buy the largest family packs of meat the grocery store had to offer, and I'd dig through and compare the stickers to make sure I got the biggest ones!! I do not have a large family!! Just my wife and I, and she never ate a lot of meat. I didn't mind... more for me!! Every meal was centered around meat. I would easily eat 2 pieces of chicken while serving up our dinner plates, and my plate would always have 3 or 4 more pieces on it! But only because I had to save some room on the plate for the potatoes or vegetables. I almost always went back for seconds, which was really thirds when you count that which I ate before even serving up the plates!! When putting away the leftovers, I'd judge how much I'd need for the next day to make it through till dinnertime, and if there was enough I might snack on a bit more while putting it away!! My daily intake of meat easily averaged in the pounds. Exactly how much I couldn't tell you, but every meal was centered around meat and if it wasn't, I felt cheated. I never went a whole day without eating meat. When I started contemplating making dietary changes, eliminating meat was OFF THE TABLE. Anyone who says they'd rather die than give up their meat... I know exactly how they feel. It's where I started, a year and a half ago.
I remember feeling the same way about something else, many years ago. As a young man I was an alcoholic. I remember coming to the realization that if I didn't do something, it'd kill me. I would not be one of those lifelong alcoholics who drank just a bit too much and stretched their disease out for many decades. No, I drank in such excess that my life wouldn't have been manageable for that long. I remember feeling that parts of me would rather die than live without alcohol. I would never say such a thing out loud though! That would be admitting just how bad my problem was! That is because there is a stigma attached to alcohol and drug addictions. Tell an alcoholic or a heroin addict that their addiction is killing them and they don't usually respond with "Yeah, but I'd rather die than give it up", even if parts of them really believe that... No, instead, because of the social stigma attached they'll usually bow their heads and agree that they really should do something about their problem. And they would, too, if they knew how to overcome that part of them that'd rather die than give up their addiction.
But there is no such social stigma with meat, and so people are a lot more free to be honest about their feelings, and they blurt it out as naturally as any other feeling they have. On the mild side some say they'd love to be able to eat healthier but they don't believe they could give up meat. On the more dramatic side they say they'd rather die than give up meat! Either way, it's an admission that even if health is on the line, they do not feel they can overcome their addiction. And let there be no mistake about it... we are talking about an addiction!!
Most every alcoholic or drug addict, if honest with themselves, would love to be free from their addiction. They'd love to not need their addiction. They hold an intense fear of cutting back because they know they'll suffer and crave their addiction all the more, and they view a world without the substance they abuse as one of constant denial, pain, and misery. They'd love to be free from their addiction but don't know how it is possible without much suffering and pain, and while they see people around them who have overcome their addiction they aren't sure they could do the same thing and fear trying will leave them even worse off than before. And so rather than try they focus on the pleasure their addiction brings them and try to convince themselves that it's worth all the suffering it brings them.
Are food addictions any different? Yes, and no. They're different in the sense that there aren't many social costs in having a food addiction. There can be some social costs if you're on the very extreme end of food addictions, but for the most part, even those don't come close to the social costs attached to other addictions. Sure, your health may suffer and you may die prematurely, but for the most part, your loved ones will still love you and everyone will have sympathy on you when your health suffers for it. Very few people take pity on an alcoholic or drug addict who abuse themselves to the point of poor health. The social stigma attached makes it clear to everyone: It's their own fault!! In this regard, our food addictions are very different than other addictions.
But are they any different in non-social costs? No. They still take a toll on our health. They still convince parts of ourselves that we will suffer immeasurably if we tried to give up our addiction, and that trying will only lead to failure, making our suffering for nothing. They convince the rest of us that the pleasures they bring us now are worth any health costs we may pay down the road.
Are there any meat eaters reading this? I'm talking about people who, like I used to be, don't think they could ever live without their meat? Would you give it up if it were painless to do so? Would you give it up if you wouldn't miss it at all? Would you give it up if you could look at it and not want it? Would you give it up if you could satisfy your appetite fully and completely without it? I'm betting some of you would, and that part of you wishes it could be this easy, but that another part of you doesn't believe it can.
I am here to tell you that the road to giving up meat need not be filled with suffering and pain. It need not leave you hungry. It need not leave you with a void in your gut. You can satisfy your appetite completely and fully without eating any meat at all!! I do!!
If you're willing to give it up "cold turkey", just start filling your stomach full of delicious and nutritious vegetables and starches and stop eating meat today!! If you're skeptical, do as I did, and transition away from meat slowly. Follow this basic principle... you tend to eat the same weight/volume of food every day. If you eat more or less on any particular day you'll tend to compensate the other direction the next. Use this principle to your advantage. Do not focus on eating less meat. Instead, focus on eating more healthy foods. Load your plate a bit higher on vegetables, a lot higher on potatoes, rice, beans. When you go for seconds, again, pile high the potatoes and rice! Still put some meat on your plate, but focus on eating MORE of those other things. You will, without any further thought, start eating less meat. And you'll learn something in the process... starchy vegetables and grains, like potatoes and rice, fill you up and satisfy your appetite just as good as meat, but they satisfy your hunger longer than meat does!! It's true!! I almost always went looking for more meat to snack on a few hours after eating dinner... but if I fill my stomach full of potatoes, rice, and beans, I'm not hungry again till the next day.
You may find that over a few weeks or months that you're just not eating as much meat as you used to, and more surprisingly... that you didn't miss it. Use these weeks/months to watch movies and videos about modern meat production and how much less healthy it is compared to how our grandparents raised meat animals. Use these weeks/months to educate yourself on the relationship between meat consumption and health. Do these things and when you realize how much less meat you've been eating by following the suggestions above, you may find yourself at a point where you decide you're ready to stop eating it altogether. And there you'll be... ready to make that decision because you WANT to.
Happy Eating!
-Norm aka John Smith
I remember the first time I ever stepped on a scale and had it read 327. I was a young man, some 25-26 years ago. 327 pounds!! I had gained almost 70 pounds since graduating high school. I remember walking home that day, feeling how all the excess weight was slowing me down, tiring me. I decided I had to do something about it! And I did! I set out with all the determination a young man could muster, and I succeeded using what we're all told is the only way to lose weight: Eat Less, Exercise More. I had very limited success in the "Eat Less" department, but being young, determined, and in otherwise good health, I went to town on the "Exercise More" half of the equation. Over the months to come I steadily lost weight and got down to my all-time low weight as an adult: 240 pounds. I had lost a whopping 87 pounds! I tried to lose more weight, but no amount of starvation or increased exercise would budge the scale any further. In fact, it was pure torture on both fronts just to keep the scale steady, and eventually I gave in and once again started to gain weight.
This experience laid the foundation for what would become my standard approach to weight loss over the years. When I got "too fat" I'd eat less and exercise more, with heavy emphasis on the exercise. This approach worked with lower levels of success each time I tried it, never matching the 87 pounds I lost on my first attempt.
Some five or six years after that, I was again well into my 300's, I'm quite sure even higher than 327, but I don't recall ever weighing myself then. That approach worked for me again, and again I lost a lot of weight, though this time not nearly as much and I only got down to around 260-270 pounds.
Then again, in my early 30's, I was again well above 327 and again, I exercised my way back down, this time to around 300. By my late 30's I was pushing 390 pounds and I again attempted to lose weight... but by this time my body had started to rebel and after all those years of abusing it with all that excess weight, I was no longer capable of doing the massive amount of exercise required for me to lose weight. I fizzled out at 360.
In my low to mid 400's I tried to do as much exercise as possible, but wasn't capable of doing enough to lose weight. The best I could hope for was to slow the speed at which I gained.
Until now!! This week I've sailed through the 327 pound mark and have lost a total of 160 pounds, almost double of what I lost on that first attempt all those years ago. What's more, exercise is not the major focus, nor is eating less. Moderate exercise coupled with a whole-foods starch-centered, plant-based, no-added-fat diet allows me to say goodbye to the torture of starving myself and of continuous exercise. There will be no torture of trying to maintain my weight once I've lost all I need to, only the continued joy of eating the foods I've learned to love on this journey I'm on! There will be no more 327's in my future! I've passed that mark for the last time! Thank you Dr. McDougall!!
Next Milestone: 300
Happy Eating!
-Norm aka John Smith
This weeks number is:
The scale shows I've lost another 6.4 pounds in the past two weeks, which is just shy of my goal of losing 1% of my body weight per week, as measured over the past two weeks, but still puts me about 0.9 pound ahead of that goal as measured from February 2nd.
Once again, I am left shaking my head in wonderment over how this is possible. I have cut back on my exercise these past two weeks out of concern I was putting too much strain on my hips and knees. In addition, I have put no effort into eating less, just sailing by on auto-pilot, as it were, and have felt more than once in the past two weeks that I've really been eating too much. I honestly expected a weight loss of 2 or 3 pounds. Sometimes I shake my head in wonderment over how often I shake my head in wonderment over the transition I've been going through. Thank you Dr. McDougall!!
These two weeks weight loss also put me past another milestone! Expect another posting about that in the next day or two!
Happy Eating!!
-Norm aka John Smith
This is not just another diet book!! Dr. McDougall's approach to diet and health isn't a fad to follow for a few weeks and maybe lose a few pounds... He tells you how to eat for the rest of your life and lose ALL the weight you need to, and keep it off, and enjoy the maximum health your body is capable of. For the rest of your life! I'm at 154 pounds and still losing. I have my copy on pre-order! Click the picture below to see it's listing on Amazon.
Happy Eating!!
-Norm aka John Smith
Things have been going great on my weight loss journey!! I've lost 154 pounds! I've regained a lot of my health! I have more mobility, stamina, and energy! I look forward to the day where I'm at a normal weight. I look forward to being able to work again. I look forward to being NORMAL again.
And in that desire to be "normal" I've been ignoring a few things, the most important being that constant crunch crunch in my right hip when I walk. The snap, crackle, and pop in my right knee is a close second. Third and fourth would be the constant grinding in my right shoulder and the occasional but painful pop in my left knee.
I have arthritis!! Not just all that I listed above, but I also have ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis of the spine. Diet can work wonders with arthritis. The low-fat vegetarian diet I follow can arrest the progression of inflammatory arthritis. This means that I can keep my anklyosing spondylitis from progressing and causing more damage to my spine. Indeed, my back is doing much better. I remember just a couple years ago I'd be so stiff in the morning that I'd have to sit on the edge of the bed for several minutes before standing up, and even then I needed a cane in each hand. I needed those two canes for the first 10-15 minutes I was up before I could walk without them. Then it'd be another hour before I was able to get dressed. Now, I wake up, usually get dressed immediately including putting on my shoes, and stand up without any help at all. I'm still a bit stiff for a few minutes but sometimes I'll head straight out the door and go for a walk. I don't even know where my canes are!! But the damage that is already done to my spine, I'll have to live with.
My diet will also help the degenerative arthritis in my knees, hip, and shoulder from getting worse. That is because it was my poor diet that contributed to those in the first place. But what my diet can't do, is repair the damage already done. And what's more, my diet can't keep me from further damaging those joints by overworking them in their already damaged state.
All this comes to mind because I had a doctors appointment yesterday with my rheumatologist. He was happy with the state of my ankylosing spondylitis but said there wasn't much he could do about the rest other than prescribe me anti-inflammatories, which I don't want to take.
So what's a fellow to do? As I lose more and more weight there will be less and less strain on my hips and knees. That will be a good thing!! But in the mean time, I have to slow down and do less. If I walk slower and slightly favor my right side there is little to no crunching in my hip or snap, crackle and pop in my knee. This will mean less walking. I should be able to continue my trike riding, as doing so doesn't seem to bother my hip or knees, though it does tend to mildly bother my back.
I don't want anyone to take all of this as me whining. I'm not. Just talking out loud about the struggle to find the balance between doing enough, and doing too much. I do, after all, need to keep my body and those joints functional for at least another 30-35 years!!
-Norm aka John Smith
This week's magic number is:
The scale reports I've lost another 5 pounds in the past two weeks, the same number I lost in the two weeks prior, for a total of 154 pounds so far!! Again, I fell a bit short of 1% of my body weight per week, but am still ahead of my goal a bit as measured from February 8th, 2012, when I first set 1% a week as my target goal.
The 150 pound mark is a big milestone! But an even bigger milestone is the fact that I am now more than halfway to my target of 186 pounds. I do not remember ever weighing 186 pounds, but it was probably way back in my middle school years. I graduated high school at 260 pounds and the least I've ever weighed as an adult was 240 pounds. I chose 186 as my target because it was 300 pounds away, an admirable goal, and because that is pretty close to what the BMI chart said I could weigh and not be considered overweight. So while I'm just over halfway to my eventual goal of 186 pounds, I'm only 73 pounds away from what I weighed graduating high school, and at the current trend, I can be there by the end of September!
-Norm aka John Smith
