Lately I have been doing blog posts on the move towards vegan plant based diet and totally or partially eliminating dairy, meat, poultry and possibly even fish and seafood from ones diet to cure a multitude of health problems ranging from type 2 Diabetes to heart disease, sinusitis, and the list goes on.
Most of us know that each diet program and lifestyle change out there has it supporters and detractors over the years. I remember when the Atkin's diet was all the rage and was based on lots of red meat, high protein and practically ZERO carbs. It proved itself capable of showing rapid weight loss, however most people became bored with it over the long haul. There also was the concern of a link to heart disease and other ailments.
The rage today seems to be Nutri-system and everyone talks about how easy the system is to follow and how many pounds they lost in a short time. The problem for me with this type of regimen is you are living on over processed, pre-packaged food that is laden with artificial ingredients, sodium etc. The real problem as I see it, is what do you do after you have lost the weight. You become very bored with the pre-packaged plastic microwave type food and slip back into your old habits and wake up one day having put on the same 25 or 30 or 50 pounds you lost on this type of diet.
The Paleo diet was all the rage for a while in some circles. Most folks can't stay on that for the long haul either.
I was sitting down today thinking about all the YouTube videos and articles on radical diets that most of the people I know and read about are intrigued with, however cannot stay on that type of restricted diet for the long haul.
Makes me wonder if eating less food overall and including more fruits and vegetables combined with 150 mins of aerobic type exercise weekly with some strengthening exercise thrown in and drinking more water AND GREEN SMOOTHIES might not be easy to live with and much healthier in the long run that getting on the latest fad diet to lose weight and then going back to bad habits when you are bored.
After watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of reports and theories, I believe I may already be on the right track.
I am 5' 6 1/2" tall and weigh 170 lbs in my birthday suit. I have kept that weight for over 18 months now. I easily get my 150 Min's of aerobic exercise weekly (mostly brisk walking) and I do on average around 350 plus push ups weekly along with some abdominal crunch exercises and stretching.
I gave up diet and regular carbonated soft drinks as they damage the PH of your interstitial fluid and make you system acid (vs.) alkaline. My primary drink is cold clear water and once a day a splash of Pom/Pom pomegranate juice in it.
I have cut back and try to stay away from the munchies aisle of the grocery store and all high sodium potato chips, pretzels, along with cakes, pies, brownies, and all manner of doughnuts, and what I call empty calorie foods. I stay away from food that easily converts to sugar and can overload your system and raise your blood glucose levels.
I eat less red meat that I ever have and sort of just lost the craving for it. I do eat seafood and fish (normally haddock or salmon) 2X weekly and some chicken, mostly white meat.
As mentioned in my last post, I am seriously considering getting off dairy to include milk, cheese, cottage cheese, string cheese, hard cheese, cream, ice cream, yogurt etc. I am doing this primarily to see if it will help my post nasal drip etc.
(IN REGARDS to dairy, I KNOW some people can tolerate it and some can't. I am old enough that I grew up on RAW cows milk, It went from the cow through a strainer, into the bulk Tank (Cooler) and from there out the valve into a gallon jug that I took home every night for our consumption. It is reputed in some circles that many people lack the proper enzymes to digest cows milk. Two of my kids cannot tolerate it at all. I NEVER had any problems that I know of from dairy from a real health standpoint and have heard that starting out on RAW cows milk might be the reason for that. I am not a scientist, so I just do not know. I am going to give up dairy in all its many forms for a while and see what happens to my sinus problems, my blood pressure etc. I will REPORT any changes good or bad here at a later date. I will begin by eliminating cottage cheese, hard cheese, string cheese, yogurt, any sugar free puddings or deserts calling for milk or cream etc. I do use a little whole milk (NO growth hormones etc. used) in my coffee every morning an perhaps 1/2 a small fruit juice glass in my oatmeal. Within a week or so I should be dairy free and will monitor my own results. Dan
I DO EAT a variety of vegetables both raw in a salad and also frozen veggies from the grocery isle.
I also like Grandma Brown's baked beans with apple cider vinegar, along with green beans yellow beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, Lima beans etc.
I got away from "Green Smoothies" for a while however they are making a comeback for me lately and I know I felt better when I drank one or two fruit and veggies green smoothies daily.
I also follow Dr. Linus Pauling's heart therapy program with 7 to 8000 milligrams of vitamin C every day, along with 400 IU of vitamin E, fish oil, L-Lysine, L-Proline, CoQ10 etc.
I take 3 capsules of a product called CholesLo from HFL Solutions every day and 1 cap 2X daily of another product called BestProstate along with 1 cap of Milk Thistle.
I also take pomegranate caps, (benfotiamine / fat soluble vitamin B1), Pink Bark Extract, and a product from Swanson called testofen for testosterone.
I love navel oranges and crisp tart apples and try to have one or more of each every day. If I am on the road working, I also carry bottled water and perhaps one of the ZERO hydrogenated oil protein bars if I get hungry.
DO I EVER CHEAT? Yes I do, however it is rare these days. Am I perfect? Far from it. Am I forgiven? YES. I made Jesus my Lord and savior a long long time ago and I put on my armor every morning when I get out of bed. See Ephesians chapter 6.
My blood lipid profile is very good, my homo cysteine level is 9.6 and anything under (16) is reputed to be very good. My PSA test is 0.4 which is less than ONE and anything less the 4 is good especially at my age (67).
IF you do not make any changes except FOUR, I would advise you to get off sugar in its many hidden forms, start reading labels, and EAT more fruits and Vegetables and DRINK more water.
Dan
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