Diary of a Sick Crazy Carnivore

get over it

2016-04-16T15:43:00.001-05:00

Listen, I'm not going to relate this story to be unkind, okay? Here goes - at the last triathlon I did, I was doing some people watching while waiting around the pool deck for the event to start. For the most part, it was a few hundred people that looked like my neighbors - bankers, full time moms, accountants, corporate hacks, etc. There were a few there who looked ready to dominate, to be sure - nil body fat, skin suits that looked permanently bonded to their bodies, total eye of the tiger game face, etc. Since this was a typical cross section of society, there were some people there that had various degrees of a weight issue. One gentleman in particular (and again, not saying this to be unkind) had to be well over 300 pounds, and was wearing a lycra tri-suit that hovered nauseatingly between pink and purple. You know what though? He pretty much blended in. After all, 95% (no, that number was not scientifically derived) of the crowd was in lycra, and most of us didn't have bodies that anyone would put on the cover of a magazine - well, not a glamour magazine anyway; there were some nerdy folk that would have been great on the cover of any tech magazine, some others that probably had a net worth that could put them on Forbes, and personally I think I could grace the cover of Rookie Mistake Weekly (not an actual publication).

If I look at myself honestly, I see a guy that looks just fine. I'm not a youth, so my upper eye lids are a bit droopy, my beard is going grey, and since I used to be fat I'm kinda baggy around the middle. But, I'm healthy and clean and have all my body parts so I can blend in just fine. In fact, at a glance you might not notice anything particular at all about how I look - know why? We all pay SO MUCH attention to what we look like, and often have insecurities about it, that we really don't notice each other's appearance that much at all.

All that said, please do not let body image issues get in the way of exercising outdoors or at the gym. YES, you will encounter a handful of people that look like they just dropped down from Olympus. The vast majority of others out exercising will look pretty much like you. If there are clothes you can wear that would enhance your performance, and be appropriate for the exercise you are doing - wear them! My fave sport is cycling, and I have ALL the gear (see above pic). Yes, it's kinda ridiculous looking. I mean...so you see those compression leggings, matched with striped socks, tight bike shorts with the big pad between the legs, it's silly. BUT, it's the most comfortable thing for cycling, and the long sleeve jersey was perfect for that day's weather, and the compression gear is great for my varicose vein issues.

Will you look awkward and klutzy your first few times at yoga, pilates, barre, etc? Oh, hell yes you will. So was everyone else in there at first, and I've never met an instructor that won't home in on the newbies and help them out.

So that's it - get out there and get fit, regardless of how you think you look. If you are overweight, what better clothes to wear than workout clothes? It means you're ready to work on it! Later, when you have become more fit, you can look at yourself again and enjoy the change. Oh, and last word - when you do get more fit, people will notice and compliment you, but then after awhile that will stop because 'fit' is your new normal. You'll need to keep at it anyway :-)

your dog wants to go for a walk

2016-04-06T22:14:00.000-05:00

If you know just enough of my story to know that I used to be a fat, unhealthy guy, and now I'm a fit guy that does triathlons, runs 4 or 5 miles at a stretch routinely, and rides long distances on my bike, you are absolutely missing part of the story. I want to tell you about that missing part, just in case you're thinking 'oh geez, I guess the diet and exercise worked out well for HIM, but I could never do a triathlon, 10k or above, or any of that crazy stuff!'

You see, I didn't just wake up one day and say "well I haven't gone running in nearly 20 years, but I've decided I'm a runner now so I'll go run 5 miles this morning." Well, actually I did do just that, and therein lies my point - that was a really STUPID idea. My body was nowhere near ready for that; true, I had taken my fat little dog for walks while I was losing weight, but just losing the weight did not prepare my body for that much running that quickly. Yes, after that first run I felt great. For a couple of weeks I was running daily, up to six miles at a time, and then one of my knees just seized up completely and I could barely walk. It turns out there's this thing in your legs called an IT band? Anyway, it's a ligament that runs down the outside of your leg from hip to knee. The sudden increase in exercise severely over stressed my particular little IT band, and the spot where it attached to my knee was terribly inflamed and painful. My running career ground to a complete halt for several months. When it finally felt better, I resumed running, and started gearing up for the Dallas Marathon. Guess what happened? Well, that IT band apparently doesn't like freezing temps and running uphill, so part way through a 10 mile training run one dark 30 degree morning, my knee locked up and I fell on my face going up a hill. Only then did I go see a chiropractor and found out about the IT band - yes, it took having the same injury twice for me to go find out what was happening. As the weeks to the marathon slipped away, I tried to keep up with my conditioning by cycling (didn't stress the IT band that way) and stretching more often, but that was hampered because at this same time I was having a series of operations on my legs to address my varicose veins. With the marathon coming in December, I was barely able to do the one mile Turkey Trot fun run with my family on Thanksgiving. Ultimately, I had to skip the marathon, and got nothing out of the deal besides a cool work out shirt. Oh and then also my right foot/big toe was really hurting at the same time - so yeah, turned out I had some major bone spurs after all the running, plus all the marching in the Army with a heavy pack when I was younger, plus carrying the extra fat for so many years. A couple months after the marathon that I didn't run, I had foot surgery. Weeeee.

But wait, there's more! Just this past fall I joined a soccer team, after not playing since middle school. It was super fun, and my cardio conditioning absolutely paid off since I was able to keep up with the running up and down the field. Want to know what didn't work out? Playing too reckless and running into other players at full speed. TWICE I did that and seperated muscle/bones and such in my chest. Being nearly 50 and having chest pain on a soccer field sucks. I mean, I knew it wasn't a heart attack - I had just slammed my body into someone else HARD so clearly that was the cause of the pain, but still, it conjures up some scary scenarios. Anyway, it was ghastly painful and prevented a number of exercises for awhile. Last note on this topic before I move on to my point, I swear - a month or so ago I decided to try the rowing machine at the gym for some alternate cardio. Great machine. I asked a trainer to show me the proper form, then my second time doing it I promptly increased my time on the machine to 30 minutes, having done just 10 the first time, and all at an increased resistance. Well yes, yes indeed I did hurt my lower back and had to stop running and cycling for a bit in order to rehabilitate it.

You could come away from reading this thinking, "note to self - don't exercise! Don't leave the house! It'll hurt!" HOWEVER, I'd rather you come away thinking, "I should really think through what my exercise goals are, and plan accordingly/work up slowly." If you are wanting to start exercising, or are wanting to start exercising more consistently, don't get caught up in all the marathon/triathlon hype, at least not right away! Start small and go slow, it's okay! If there is a sport or activity you want to try - by all means check it out but do some thinking and research to see what that activity requires of your body and then honestly asses where you're at! A nagging injury that keeps you from exercising at all, or at least makes it more difficult, can absolutely derail you.

When I did my first half marathon, I fell apart in spectacular fashion at the ten mile mark because I hadn't properly fueled up. For the last 3.1 miles I did the wobbly leg baby giraffe walk and got totally beat by some guy that was over 70. The lesson that I'm still learning from that is that really I have another 20 to 30 years to do this sports stuff, so I don't have to conquer all the hills today. Neither do you. If you are just now starting your fitness regime, or if you're feeling discouraged because you miss gym days more often than you make them, your dog absolutely wants to go for a walk. Wouldn't it be nice for both of you? True, the runners, cross fit freaks, and barbell busters won't be impressed, but you'll have gotten pure vitamin D from the sun exposure, fresh oxygen will fill your lungs, your heart muscle will get some exercise, and you'll boost your metabolism for the whole day! Don't have a dog? Walk with your kid, walk with your spouse, walk with a coworker at lunch time - just do it! Is Jesus a friend of yours? Shoot, he'd love to chit chat with you as you walk along.

So, to review - exercise smart, plan your workouts so that you work up slowly and avoid injury, and let simple things like walks be your exercise if that's where you're at. That little picture of me and my dog Mandy is recent by the way - I'm still learning about taking the smart way, so some days I just take her for a walk, even though I do have to carry her up the hills.

I'd love to answer any questions that I can, or point you to some websites with good training info, so feel free to comment below!!

still fat

2016-03-24T16:28:00.000-05:00

Hi friends! It's been awhile hasn't it? If you're reading this blog for the first time, welcome! If you are rejoining me, thanks so much!

To review; about four years ago I was really fat (bounded around between 225 and 240), and my doctor wanted to put me on meds for cholesterol (total was 246) and he cautioned me that my blood sugar was nearly diabetic. He didn't suggest dietary changes, nor did he say suggest exercise. Heaven forbid! I mean, there's good money in managing illness, and very little in getting people healthy...but I digress. Any-hoo, I gave up my BBQ hobby, ditched all meat and dairy, and got down to 165 lbs and a total cholesterol of about 140. Oh and I exercised seven days a week, like a maniac! Couldn't keep me out of the gym! Wow what a stud! Or not. Actually my exercise level during the majority of that weight loss time was pretty minimal - I went to the gym a little, took my fat little dog for walks...some days I counted walking from room to room in my house as exercise. Seriously, weight loss is SO all about diet.

After I lost weight, I got into endurance sports - running, cycling, and (begrudgingly) swimming. When I was in the weight loss phase, I didn't run at all. I figured I had run enough in my 20's while in the Army and had no inclination to ever do it again. Now, I've completed a couple half-marathon's (two weeks apart - funny story there for another time), done triathlons, and can comfortably ride my bike 40 miles. Swimming still feels like to me like a mad scramble to not die, but running and cycling is way fun.

So four years later I have this whole diet and exercise thing down pat, right? Oh. No. Not at all. Yesterday I had an epiphany - I'm still a total lard ass, between the ears. For as much as I love my endurance sports, I do not have a great attitude about working out, my motivation level is poor, over and over again I make training mistakes that result in injuries, and I have a heck of a time staying away from the sweet treats at times (didn't I mention I work at Starbucks now? Easy peasy convenient treat heaven. Oh my.)

Here's the thing - when I changed my diet four years ago, I worked from home where my fab and fit wife did all the cooking, and I could change up my schedule anyway I saw fit in order to work out. Same for when I got into the sports - totally easy to fit it in. Then, for several months, I didn't work at all, so long runs and bike rides were all kinds of easy. Now, however, I work, so it isn't always easy to fit in the fitness. Yesterday for example, I just didn't want to take the time to go to the gym. Running was out because I had a painful cut on the bottom of my heel (it's much better now, thanks to some essential oils - much more on that kind of topic going forward in this blog), and I declined to ride my bike because the wretched winds in my town were gusting over 40 mph - not real safe when you're guarded only by a lycra covering that's a couple millimeters thick, and 19 pounds of aluminum bike.

Here was the real kicker though, and hence my epiphany - I knew I could get in a workout right at home, but I decided not too out of sheer procrastination and laziness. I have not risen to the occasion of making a fitness a lifestyle in the midst of working, raising five kids that we homeschool, going along with my oh so motivated wife's many good plans, etc. I am FAT between the ears. Going forward, I'll blog along as I seek to improve in this area - hopefully it will be an encouragement to someone...or entertainment at least?

Stay tuned!

the ugly kid in class

2012-08-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

Imagine you grew up being kinda on the homely side. Not hideous, where people would stand outside your house with pitchforks and torches, just definitely less than attractive, worse than mere 'plain' even. Had you been a homely kid, you probably would have been made fun of by the mean kids, and your homeliness would have been tolerated, or at least not pointed out, by nice kids. More than likely, as a homely kid you would have had at least one family member that teased you about your looks, because sometimes family members suck that way. As you grew older, homely, you would have been hearing less about your looks from others, but you'd have been hearing plenty from the voices inside that you had internalized from your mean classmates or mean family. Yep, those voices would still be loud and clear. Really, if you were homely, it would shape everything about how you interacted with the world, every encounter with new people would be colored by their view of you, real or imagined by you, as homely.

Then imagine that one day you woke up and instead of being homely, you were rather nice looking. Not nice looking like people would want to put a poster of you up on their wall or cast you in their next movie or anything. Just nice looking enough that when you put on some decent clothes people would compliment you on your looks. That would really change how you interacted with the world around you, wouldn't it? No longer would you automatically feel like you stood out somehow in a negative way, you might start to feel like you could blend in to a crowd in a nice way. If you woke up nice looking like that, and stayed that way, when a stranger caught your eye for a moment, that might elicit a sincere smile instead of a quick look the other way.

You know where I'm going with this. I grew up being kinda on the big side. At certain stages growing up I was lean enough, but most of the time there was just this 'bigness' about me. That was reinforced for me by one family member that teased me about it, and also by other people that would just remark on how big I was. Not that it was always said in a mean way, just an observation, but, those voices stick. As I became an adult, I certainly didn't get any smaller. In the Army I was a healthy weight for the most part, but even then my image was that of a big guy. On long marches, who got to carry the big, crew fired machine gun AND all it's ammo AND all the gear that went with it? Me, the big guy. After the Army, I put some weight on and kept it on, though over the years my weight would veer sharply anywhere from around 210 to 245. It was common for strangers and store keepers to look alarmed when they saw me. More than once I was stopped by police and questioned about what I was doing, just while walking down the street. Yes, I know the tattoos and (at one time) long hair, and then later the shaved head, added to the imposing look, but still, the bigness was the main part of my image. Need something heavy lifted? Ask me, the big guy. Need someone for crowd control at an event of some kind? Yep, I gotcha covered. The fact that I'm a very pleasant and kind person, yet looked to many people like a big imposing threat, has been a long running joke among my family and friends for years.

At 181 pounds (plant based diet; results are typical) I'm just really not a big guy at all. When people say I look really thin now, it's not just them being nice, and their not just saying I'm thin in comparison to when I was around 230. I don't get the same nervous looks anymore, even with the shaved head and tattoos. In some ways I think I look a little older this way, because maybe my skin sags a little more now that it isn't plumped out with fat. Looking older I think takes away from the imposing look. Yes, it really changes how I interact with the world. I think I'll keep rockin' the veggies folks, this is good. This baby that my wife and I are going to welcome in a couple of weeks will be the first of our kids that won't ever know a big daddy.

When I went to Google to find a picture for this post, I was thinking, 'what's a good picture for transformation?' Well, I had my first big transformation when I was four years old, thanks to a kind family member (that 'thanks' is to you Paul), so of course the first thing that came to mind to represent transformation was the cross. Jesus loved me as the big kid, the fat man, the big scary guy, etc. He also loves the homely, the lame, the simple, and of course the beautiful and brightest as well. Even if I lost my mind and scarfed down cheeseburgers and BBQ until I was 400 pounds, I would have that transformation, from Jesus on the cross. Now THAT is some spectacular transformation; sinner to saint, poisoned to blessed - Jesus Christ; results are typical.

Pastry and Ice Cream and Cookies, OH MY!

2012-07-15T15:33:00.001-05:00

Hi Friends!

My family and I just got back from 10 days of vacation in California. Mostly we visited family and friends. Also, we ate, and that's what I'll talk about here since this is mostly a food blog. Some folks were super weirded out and nervous to have us over for dinner because of the way we eat (or maybe it was also cuz there are six of us, and our children eat like locusts - come to think of it, they might get that from me...). Other people just took it in stride - one sweet family we visited with had made chocolate dipped strawberries and banana slices using non-dairy chocolate, and had also picked up a bag of Trader Joe's Vegan Chocolate Chip cookies - they said "we didn't want you to feel like you had to compromise." AWESOME! What a way to feel welcomed, right? That was a great evening on many counts, and happily the food matters were a secondary (maybe tertiary) thing so we could just relax and have a great visit. Other than that visit, I was fully in vacation mode when it came to desserts - Marie Calendar's pie (twice), Auntie Nona's chocolate cookies (YUM), chocolate chip twist at a wonderful bakery in Laguna, etc. I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in avocados - plenty of those here in Texas, but in CA they are just so much more prevalent. When I got on the scale yesterday morning, our first full day home, I was up four pounds, but today I'm back down two from that. I'm guessing that within another couple of days back home I should be back to 187. (EDIT - as of today, the third morning back, I'm back to 187).

Lately I've been considering taking up some kind of endurance sport, because it seems like that would be a good way to get REALLY lean. Any suggestions? Running probably wouldn't suit me - bad knee and flat feet; biking is cool but my old mountain bike is in a sad state of disrepair - besides, a road bike would make way more sense in the flatness of Texas and the notable lack of any riding surface other than pavement around here; swimming? hmm, too cold most of the year. Well, something will come up, right?

227 and 40 - 188 and 34

2012-06-28T09:25:00.002-05:00

Just taking an opportunity to make a quick post here - my 'office' downstairs is being cleaned so I'm upstairs committing chronocide.

When I started this journey in March, I weighed 227 pounds and my pants were a size 38 waist. That does not mean that my waist measured 38 inches, it just means that I wasn't willing to admit that I had gotten fatter by buying bigger pants. Instead, I did what many middle age guys do - started wearing my pants lower. In the dress pants that I used to wear for work, my belt was creeping ever lower down the front of growing belly, and with shorts I just gave up and wore them around my hips. I'm estimating that my actual waist size was 40 inches, but it could have been bigger. I won't name names here, but a number of guys I know have said 'oh my pants are a size 36' or 'I've been wearing a size 34' since high school.' DeNIAL. Yes, I am sure their pants ARE that size, but they have stomachs that hang over their belts, which are located perilously close to the top of their butt crack instead of many inches higher where their waist actually is.

As of Tuesday, I weigh 188 pounds, and bought some new pants that are a size 34 because I can actually wear those where they are supposed to be worn. Of the three pair I bought, they all fit a bit differently because they are from different makers. In all honestly, one pair is a wee bit tight when worn at my waist, BUT, I am not done slimming down. Not yet. None of the three are anywhere near close fitting enough to make me look like a grape smuggler.

I don't have a firm idea of a goal weight or size, but I do know that when I started this, 177 (a 50 pound loss) seemed daunting. At 188, it seems downright feasible, like maybe even in the next 4 to 6 weeks. Could I be a size 32 eventually? Do I have what it takes to keep going to the gym and working hard five days a week? What if I got to 170? In any case, it's a fun project so I will keep going. Well, fun, and I also feel way better and I'm plenty more healthy and energetic.

It's comforting to know that I'm not headed for a big ol' backslide (or a big ol' back side) when my diet changes, because I don't intend to change it. Why would I? I still LOVE eating, and there is nothing I miss enough to go back to the fat. Besides, I still choose to eat food sometimes that is not exactly fantastic for my body, but is fantastic for my mental and emotional well being. For instance, last week I lost three pounds, and that was despite having a mini cupcake with my daughter on her date day, and splitting a big basket of fries with my six year old while watching the Rangers game at our local sports bar/restaurant. I'm free to eat whatever I want! Happily, I don't actually want meat and cheese after not having it this long. French fries I will ALWAYS want, so I will have them once in awhile. And cupcakes...those are too lovely to swear off forever. So there you have it - my diet can be described as plant based, no meat, no dairy, VERY limited oil, plus french fries and cupcakes. Shoot, what doctor would say that was bad, right?

This journey is worth it. Beyond worth it. Care to join me?

The Happy Herbivore and the Crampy Carnivore

2012-06-13T20:41:00.001-05:00

I mentioned awhile ago that my wife and I were getting a bit bored with our plant based eating. To rectify that situation, we went recipe book shopping (on our anniversary!) and bought a fantastic book called "The Every Day Happy Herbivore." Did I call it fantastic? It's ultra-fantastic! So far we've tried the pesto sauce, quick black bean burgers (pictured at left on Ezekial 4:9 toast), Tortuga Rum Cake, and some desserty thing that included yummy cinnamon and apple bits. I won't risk turning the Happy Herbivore into the Angry Carnivore by posting her recipes for free here online, but lemme just say that her quick black bean burgers are QUICK and have very few ingredients. Off the top of my head I could easily recite the whole recipe! Super tasty of course! Oh, and the pesto sauce (ludicrously simple, and totally lovely) is great on pasta of course, but also great as a salad dressing. There is no meat or dairy in her recipes, and if there is any oil it's just the spray kind I think. She offers the suggestion of using parchment paper to keep things from sticking during baking, instead of spray - of course! Great idea. Oh, my link section here includes a link to the Happy Herbivore's blog - check her out and say hello for me! Or just check her out and don't say hello for me because we're not close. As in we've never met - she's an actual chef with a real blog, vs whatever this is that I do here.

LAST week my family and I were in Buena Vista, CO for a family camp that we were blessed with for FREE because one of our kids had melanoma, and the one we're expecting has some of her organs developing on the outside of her body - silly baby. For more on those stories, you can check out Zion's Caringbridge site and Selah Jane's Caringbridge site (Zion is not in the picture there on the left just because he was having some altitude sickness, not some horrible melanoma manifestation, and my wife wisely declined that particular hike, what with being 6 and a half months pregnant).

Along with this vacation time came some food choice challenges. On the way there, we stopped at a Denny's, and were pleased to find a veggie burger among all the bacon wrapped and cheese stuffed mystery meat items. I enjoyed the veggie burger very much, but my wife felt it had too heavy of a soy taste. At a hotel breakfast I tried a breakfast burrito, sans meat and cheese, but did include Egg Beaters - will NOT be going any further down the Egg Beater Road. Along with being an animal product (albeit with no cholesterol), it turns out they have zero taste and a bunch of bullsh ingredients.

Once at the camp, we did inquire at some meals about alternate offerings if everything being served was heavy on the animal products, but this being a totally free ride we declined to be picky. For the most part we were able to stay plant-strong with our eating, but I did make one exception on purpose. Breakfast one day was cooked outdoors over an open fire, at a gorgeous mountain site reached by horseback -the offerings were French toast (served by being flung from the chef to the recipient about 10 feet away, a game as well as a meal! ) with plenty of dairy, eggs with bacon and cheese and such, and quesadillas with eggs and cheese. I happily ate some of that, and the next day the breakfast was sandwiches with eggs, cheese, and bacon and I ate that because it was what was offered. Later that day, I was in some abdominal PAIN. That did not encourage me to embark on a return to the land of meat and dairy. At all.

Back now at home and in our happy plant heavy kitchen, I'm way more happy with my eating, and still dropping weight - 192 yesterday, whoo HOO!! I used to always grill up a huge steak on Father's Day, but this Sunday we'll be cooking up some fantastic vegan Thai. Can't wait!

2012-05-20T16:52:00.001-05:00

May 20th

Skinny? TINY? (also, it's more challenging now)

Lately, some very kind folks have described me as 'skinny,' and even 'tiny.' To be fair, the person who used the term 'tiny' may have had a couple of margaritas. Now, I certainly appreciate the kindness, BUT, those terms do not apply to me quite fairly at 6' (okay okay okay 5' 11") and 197 pounds. Since dropping 30 pounds, I have been wondering at what point I really would be skinny, and how much more weight do I really need to lose? Should I go for an even 50? Would I look good at 177 or would I look like Skeletor? If I looked like Skeletor would I like that? Actually I just did a google image search for Skeletor and it turns out he's not skinny, he's uber buff - weird for a skeleton. Okay, so, at 177 would I be gaunt? Is it even possible? Am I rambling? Oh hell to the yes I am. I suppose the most reasonable thing to do would be to keep eating this way and exercising and just see what happens.

For years now I've bought XL and XXL shirts. Many years ago I went through a phase where I bought all my shirts at one of those 'big and tall' men's stores, and picked everything in at least a 4X, if not a 5X or even 6X. Was I weighing in at 300+? Nope, I was about 235. Clearly, I have body image issues. In the past decade I've at times been at a size where a L would have been okay. This week I bought a MEDIUM t-shirt. It's a stretch for me - no, I don't mean I'm stretching it out, I mean it's a stretch for me to wear a shirt that touches me all the way around, at least lightly, instead of flapping like a sail.

I'm going on 3 months now of not eating meat and dairy. A few weeks in, I grilled 30 cheeseburgers for the local middle school soccer team, which was an engagement I agreed to prior to my big dietary makeover. The experience was not pleasant, the burgers looked yucky, and I had no temptation to eat them. A couple weeks ago I had the second of such engagements, and this time the burgers looked intoxicating. The aroma and texture of the worthless white bread hamburger buns, the sizzle of the cow flesh, the rich look of the thick slices of cheddar cheese....breathtaking. No, I didn't partake, not even a nibble? Know why? Because I realized I didn't want one, I wanted THREE, at LEAST. That's a problem. Moderation and me are not exactly on close terms when it comes to junky food. Then a couple days ago I went to a potluck with my coworkers and I had fried chicken, huge deli sandwiches, and large hunks of BBQ sausage - meaning, I had those things available to me, didn't eat any of it though. It was hard! I felt like an alcoholic at an open bar. Happily, I had brought lentil chili and someone else brought some unadulterated fruit.

My wife and I have been discussing how we are getting a little bored with how we're eating. What we'll need to do is read more recipes, and learn more skills. For me, the temptation to go back to meat and dairy kinda dies away every time I consider how that might take me back to the land of 230 pounds.

Since the middle of last week when the Engine 2 Diet site was kind enough to publish a guest blog that I wrote, LOTS more people have read my humble little blog here, and I've had so many wonderful comments! Thank you all so much! Feel free to keep the suggestions coming for other animal free food ideas coming!

Bacon and Gatorade

2012-05-09T20:42:00.001-05:00

My oldest boy went from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts this year, and with that change came the prospect of weekend camp outs on a monthly basis. Also, the prospect of me going along on said camp outs...I figured I should check in with the troop leader (a significantly overweight man, with a son in the troop that was on the road toward being even more overweight than his dad) about what the boys eat on those weekends for two reasons, 1) my kid had cancer, so we don't have him eat a bunch of sugary processed crap, figuring he should have fruit and veggies instead, and 2) I sure wanted to know for my own sake. Here's what I found out from the troop leader - the boys that lead the patrols are in charge of the menu and the cooking. I asked 'so, if the boys choose to bring nothing but Pop Tarts and hot dogs...?' and he said "we allow them to fail, it's part of the learning process for them." Stunning. Strangely enough, they don't have that same 'learning from failure' ideal in place at the gun range. He did say though that we could certainly bring along food of our own.

We took a cooler with fruit and vegetables for both of us, and some bread, avocado, cereal, and hummus for me. Guess who else had fruit and veggies at the camp site? NO ONE. Saturday morning my son's patrol leader did not do a headcount, and as a result my son missed breakfast - a breakfast of bacon and gatorade. That's it. That is a FANTASTIC way to eat in the morning to be ready for a full day of activity in the sun! Suffice it to say, I had a bunch of fruit and such to give my boy, along with plenty of water. For lunch the boys had meat sandwiches, and again I doled out some fruit. One of the dads who attended roasted a whole pig for the troop to eat that night for dinner. What went with it? Rice and beans - white rice with zero nutritional value, and canned black beans with loads of sodium, cooked with an excess of olive oil. My spinach and avocado salad was really good.

Yes, I know Scouting and camp outs are not just about food, BUT, I would think that since part of the Scout motto is "I will keep myself physically fit," then some level of appropriate guidance in how to eat would be a worthy idea? They have the boys work on calisthenics, but say nothing about how to fuel their bodies in order to do the calisthenics! Perhaps other troops do it better, or at least I hope so.

I gave up dairy and meat, not art and taste.

2012-04-20T20:06:00.000-05:00

April 20th, 2012

In case I haven't been clear, let me say loud and clear that eating without consuming meat, dairy, or oil DOES NOT mean sacrificing taste. If it did, I don't think I could do it, but IT DOESN'T. See the plate of food pictured here? Let me tell you about it, layer by gorgeous layer starting from the bottom;

1. chips made from baking organic corn tortillas, interspersed with slices of avocado.
2. a big spoonful of mixed legumes - adzuki, lentils, and mung beans.
3. a slow cooker mix of quinoa, black beans, tomatoes, and other vegetables.
4. garnish of diced purple cabbage, tomatoes, jalapenos.
5. dusting of nutrional yeast.

It was more than lunch, it was a food induced euphoria of taste sensations. I know that some of the ingredients I mentioned sounded unfamiliar, and there are some philistines reading this thinking it would be good IF there was a bacon weave draped over the whole thing, and I imagine some of you are thinking 'YUCK.' If I had been served this the first day I changed my diet, I would have enjoyed it. Now after a month and a half of not eating animal products, my taste buds are clean and tidy so that I can eat this and LOVE it. From a standpoint of taste alone, this way of eating is worth the switch. Oh, then throw in the fact that you reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes to a teeny level, I believe the choice is clear.

Have I mentioned I've lost 21 pounds so far? No, I don't spend endless hours at the gym. I walk my dog, and sometimes make it to the gym.

Some Observations

2012-04-13T22:13:00.000-05:00

April 13th, 2012

Here are some things I've learned over the course of the last 30 days or so of eating plants;

30 minutes of exercise requires only 15 minutes of commitment; if you walk for 15 minutes headed away from your house, you'll walk another 15 minutes to get home whether you're committed or not.
Life long carnivores such as myself can be turned off by meat after not having it for a few weeks - both hot dogs, and taco meat, just don't smell quite right to me anymore and strangely enough I don't miss the orange grease slick on my plate.
You can get organic vegetable broth as a free bonus if you buy organic vegetables - just save all the cutting board scraps in the fridge for a week, then put them in a big pot of water, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for several hours. Done.
Oil and butter are absolutely unnecessary for cooking veggies in a pan. Tonight, the wife used veggie broth and some garlic to cook mushrooms and red peppers for our paninis and they were fantastic.
I have it on good authority from a certain pregnant woman that after skipping the ice cream for a month, a little goes a LONG way when you do indulge in a little. Imagine just not wanting more.
A thought for men....um, er, how to put this..okay, let's try this - keeping in mind the basic principle of 'you are what you eat' think about the....shoot...'flexibility' of, say, a big slice of pizza vs a carrot stick. in the performance department, what fuels your body absolutely has an impact.
It does not cause physical pain to skip meat and dairy for a month. Really. TRY IT.

Can you handle this much hotness?

2012-04-11T08:16:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah, how do you like me now?

> Total Cholesterol - 155 (down from 242)
> LDL Cholesterol - 77 (down from 146)

Got those blood test results this morning - my day has absolutely started off on the right foot!!! Okay, that's all I have time for right now.

- Live long and eat a plant

Cheating

2012-04-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

April 9th, 2012

Ever heard anyone say something like; “I’m ethical and honest when I do my taxes, but once in awhile I cheat and overstate my charitable giving so that I can get more of what I deserve on my refund.” “I’m very committed to staying faithful to my spouse, but periodically I sleep with someone else just so I don’t feel deprived.” No? You have not often heard anyone come right out and say that? Hmm. Well, I’ll bet you have heard someone say something along the lines of, “I’m on a diet that really seems to be working for me, but on the weekends I cheat and have pizza so that I can stay satisfied.” Or maybe, “Oh I eat really healthy, but when I go out to lunch with my coworkers I cheat and eat wings or meatball subs to feel like part of the group.”

Hey guess what? I don’t think anyone can live that way forever – cheating, AND being ethical, faithful, and/or healthy. With money and marriage, you’re honest and faithful or you’re not – there’s no middle ground, no living on exceptions. Particularly marriage – if you think you can go into with the idea in my mind that you’ll cheat now and then, should you even wed in the first place? Duh – no. Now, I’m never going to give financial advise (other than ‘hey dimwit, don’t whip out your credit card and get stuff you can’t afford’), and I’m not big on giving marriage advice (though I often want to say, ‘hey dirt bag, keep it in your pants when you’re out and about or your wife deserves to meet you at the door with a cleaver.’) BUT this is my little corner of the internet where I feel like I can spout off at will about food.

To expand a bit – no, I do not think that it’s realistic for me or anyone else to go for the rest of their lives without eating all the foods they really love. So….do I mean I do condone cheating after all? No! Instead, I would advocate for a change of mindset. That requires two things that I can think of right off the top of my head (hopefully you’re not disappointed to learn that I didn’t really think this out before I started typing); 1) Learn to enjoy healthy food. If you keep eating it, you’ll get used to it and not in the way you can get used to losing an arm either, you can get used to a different set of flavors and truly appreciate God’s creativity in nuance in the plants you’ll eat. It'll BE the food you really love. Once it’s your norm, food loaded with crap just won’t be as big a temptation; 2) if you are skipping, for example, cheese, and you really really love it, don’t just mindlessly fall into temptation, cheat, and eat it! PLAN to eat it in a controlled situation. If you have your weight and cholesterol and such in check and you want to have a some cheese pizza on your birthday every year then I think that’s just super. If you have a fixed time when you know you will have it, you can more easily skip it in the meantime. Of course, chances are, by the time you get to your birthday you may have found something that you like just as much or more and have that instead. Personally, I think my choice might be a Panini with grilled veggies and hummus with a side of avocado piled high with pico de gallo. Decadent! Hummus and avocado in the same meal! Oh the humanity….

Okay, I better get to bed since I have a hugely exciting day tomorrow – my Tuesday weigh in AND a cholesterol check! Woo-HOO!!

Carbs, the Scale, and Coffee

2012-04-04T20:02:00.000-05:00

April 4th, 2012

Hey! It's been awhile! I had to put off posting for awhile because diet and exercise are apparently only part of life - for me there's also the wife and four kids, A JOB that my boss appreciates me paying some attention to, a baby on the way that's going to need some medical attention/surgery, a used car purchase, television...probably some other stuff too that I can't think of right now.

Previously I mentioned that I would continue eating bushels of carbs and see if I lost weight, since the popular opinion seems to be that carbs are the enemy of weight loss. I'm happy to report that though I've been going through the carbs like Willie Nelson goes through dime bags and hair bands, I'm down 15 pounds (week 1: 4 lbs, week 2: 3 lbs, week 3: 5 lbs, week 4: 3 lbs) from when I started this little venture. Have I been working out like a maniac like they do on Biggest Loser? In a word, oh heck no (okay that was three words). I've averaged three gym visits per week, and some other incidental activity like helping at my kid's baseball practice, a walk or two, assisting in the management of a four year old, failing to get a good parking spot, etc. So in my case, weight loss has been more kitchen work than gym work. I really am trying to get to the gym more, but if I don't, then I'm glad that I'm achieving my weight loss goals while maintaining an activity level that can also accommodate the rest of life. On April 10th I'll have my blood drained again to see if my cholesterol levels have dropped along with my poundage.

I'm not keeping track of my meals anymore on the excel sheet. Why? Well, by now it's like documenting my breathing - it's my new normal. I'm paying attention to what I eat every day so that I don't overdue the fats and such, just not keeping the daily journal. I'm QUITE sure you don't miss it. I will say though, that my daily food intake is just real life scenarios, no diet deprivation or insane amounts of celery or anything. I get treats and everything! The other day my lovely bride brought home half of vegan orange/chocolate scone and it was fantastic! My taste buds have changed enough that the scone was as good as donuts used to be, for real!

Coffee, and the abundant availability thereof, has long been a big part of life here in Weir, TX. It's been especially abundant in one of the micro-systems here, namely me. Initially I figured my diet could change aplenty, but my coffee consumption would be gloriously unabated. Then one day at the gym I had a revelation so startling it must have been Jesus tapping my shoulder - I was working out hard, but NOT SWEATING. So...kinda figuring I've been chronically dehydrated since I first picked up a cup at age 14. Now if you know me, don't be alarmed at this, but...I'm down to2 to 3 cups of leaded a day, and some unleaded after dinner.

In lieu of a recipe, I'll share some about what and how I've been eating instead of meat and dairy; really, you can take a lot of your favorite meals and make some simple changes to make them plant based instead of animal based.

Pasta - make it a wheat pasta, go with an organic red sauce, skip the sausage or chicken, and add lots of grilled veggies or veggies sauteed in lemon juice and/or balsamic vinegar.
Salad with Ranch or other crap salad dressings - hummus or avocado, plus vinegar or hot sauce if you like a zip.
All manner of sandwiches - find more veggies to love, like pickles, olives, chives, red and yellow peppers, jalapenos, greens, avocado, and hummus. Turn it into a panini and it's even better!
Burgers - top them with some or all of the veggies listed above, then slide the burger out and toss it to Fido. Or, make it a black bean patty - taste fantastic without making orange grease run down your arm.
Tacos and burritos - really just skip the meat and cheese. If you have enough of the other stuff and good salsa, you'll find that you can adapt quite quickly.

Okay, that's all for now - thanks for reading!

Oh wait, one more thing - to those of you that have said, "oh but Marck we'll miss your BBQ!" I have two things to say; 1) at some point I'll BBQ again for company and special occasions, and 2) what would you miss more, my BBQ or ME. Less BBQ means me around longer!

Bueno!!

2012-03-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

March 26th, 2012

I feel smaller today. The mirror is telling me I look a little trimmer in the middle, and I think my face looks thinner. It’s possible that my ever expanding goatee is making my face look smaller; in fact my goatee is getting big enough that it may make even make my torso look smaller.

I’m sticking with my less coffee/more water plan today. Interestingly enough, I have not turned into a newt or fallen over in a feint having had only half a pot so far today, and it’s 5:00 P.M. already! Yep, there’s still half a pot left in the kitchen…oh, then again I did have a tall coffee at Starbucks this afternoon. That counts? Oh okay well yeah I suppose it does. When I was at Starbucks I checked the snack case for anything I could munch but the closest contenders I found were packages of mixed fruit. Every single one of them contained some kind of melon, which I find to be quite foul, thank you very much.

Last Friday I called my doctor’s office to say that I was switching up my eating habits instead of getting the prescription filled, and that I would like to come in for a blood test after 30 days, instead of after 90 days like the doctor recommended. I’ve read that dietary changes can significantly impact cholesterol levels in even just two weeks, so I figured a month would be good, just to either give myself some peace of mind, or if there is no change then to hurry up and get some meds. When I made my request, the gal at the doctor’s office said, ‘oh sure you can certainly try reducing your levels first without the meds’ and proceeded to tell about her boyfriend in a ‘similar’ situation. Apparently, boyfriend had a total cholesterol right about 1000. That absolutely made me choke on my bean sprouts, so when I recovered my composure I asked her to repeat that, and she said ‘oh I know that doesn’t sound like a real number for cholesterol, but in rare cases it can be.’ Of course I had to ask how on earth a person’s cholesterol level gets that high, figuring (hoping?) that it was genetics. Her answer? “Well he ate lunch at Taco Bueno every day, or had cheeseburgers, but now that he only eats at Taco Bueno once a week his cholesterol is all the way down to 300.” Then I asked her for her boyfriend’s address, drove to his house, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and screamed “JUST PUT THE GREASY SACK DOWN, TACO BOY!!!!” Or maybe I just thought that in my head, and instead murmured a polite, ‘mmm, uh huh I see…’

The doctor’s office called back today after checking with the doctor, and he had said ‘tell bean boy to just come back in 90 days, then we’ll strap him down and riddle him with pills!!! Why, we’ll shoot pills at him with a bazooka until he’s covered in painful welts!’ Or maybe they said the doctor still wanted to just see me in 90 days. Anyway, the lady did sound a bit condescending when they said ‘good job trying it on your own.’ Can you really blame them though? My guess is a lot of people just take the meds. I can’t find fault with that either; does everyone even know there are alternatives?

How’s your cholesterol anyway? If it’s high, what are you doing for it? Some feedback and discussion here would be great!

March 25, 2012
breakfast	medium bowl of cereal
snack	a few almonds
lunch	potatoes with veggies, salad with avocado
snack	a few more almonds, some carrots
dinner	pasta and marinara sauce, broccoli, salad, bread
activity	hmm, just a couple short blocks of walking, unless going up the stairs at home counts?

oh coffee my coffee

2012-03-26T20:50:00.000-05:00

March 25th, 2012

Easter is coming! You know what the means? Mostly it means Christ is risen, so we have the possibility of salvation and eternal life. Along with that, it also means HAM. I just can’t imagine a better way to celebrate the ultimate sacrifice of Christ then to consume a big chunk of meat that Jews won’t touch. Weird. Anyway, what to eat for Easter dinner now? There is the whole realm of vegan friendly meat substitutes to consider I suppose. If tofu bacon, or, fake bacon, is contracted as ‘Facon,’ then what do you call tofu or some other fakery of ham? ‘Fam?’ ‘Toe-Ham?’(eww) ‘Ham-Fu?’(funny). Really I think we should avoid any facsimile of ham. Some things are just too disparate to try and bring together; we’ll not likely to ever see any iAmish products, Kosher heroin, Parisian bluegrass music, kitty wading pools, etc. No, we need to let tofu be tofu and let ham be ham. My vote for Easter dinner is vegetable Panini sandwiches with roast potatoes and broccoli. I can totally see making it a tradition, the Easter Panini Feast. Imagine my kids growing up with that, and then someday getting married, having Easter dinner with the in-laws, and being utterly mystified by the lack of flattened sandwiches. They may try to compensate by putting some of their ham on a roll and squishing it under a table leg, or the piano, in which case would the sandwich be a Pianini?

Here’s the revelation I had today, that was for me, earth shattering – I could stand to drink less coffee and more water. I tried that today and lived to tell the tale! NO, I will not be giving up coffee all together.

March 24, 2012
breakfast	French toast (made with banana instead of egg), blackberries
snack	a few almonds
lunch	Panini with loads of veggies, potatoes with sautéed veggies, salad
snack	whole wheat crackers
dinner	Panini with loads of veggies, lentil chili
activity	stroll around the neighborhood

Part 1: Panic and Discontent. Part 2: A defense of ads.

2012-03-24T21:09:00.000-05:00

March 24th, 2012

Part 1: Today my family and I participated in the Make a Wish 5K run. Though I actually did the ‘fun run,’ which was not 5K. It was 1 mile. Also, I walked it. After this strenuous exercise we walked over to the snack area and found an array of Chic-Fil-A, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, bagels, cookies, chips, and fruit. I had a banana. Notably absent from my plate were the grilled items, and anything else really – just had the banana. I had the strangest jumble of thoughts and emotions when I looked at the burgers and dogs; on one hand I wanted it, but on the other….it sorta didn’t look like food. Then this evening, the kids went with gramma to get pizza and brought it back to the house. Again I felt the same; had a glimmer of wanting to eat it, but then it didn’t look like food. Does that make sense? The pizza honestly looked like some foreign substance. Honestly it was a very surreal experience.

Having had some time now to think about my no burger, hot dog, or pizza day, I’ve realized what was missing – panic and discontent. In the past, I often had these overwhelming feelings that I would just never get enough of those particular crappy foods. I would continue to eat, beyond the point of being full, as if I WOULD NEVER SEE ANOTHER SLICE. Did I realize this was problematic? Well, yes. Jesus and I would talk about it, and sometimes I would feel okay around pizza or whatever going uneaten by me, but often I would not. It appears that for some reason, in His timing, Jesus took the panic and weirdness away. There is no prescription that does that, that quickly, that thoroughly. All that discontent is just a ghost now, and I don’t plan to be the haunted man.

Part 2: Ads will now begin cropping up in my little ol’ blog here, via Google Ad Sense. Don’t be hatin’ y’all, my family is expecting baby number five and we already know she’s going to have major medical issues, so if I can make a couple dollars here I’m gonna.

And today’s menu and such was…

March 24, 2012
breakfast	medium bowl of cereal, strawberries, pineapple, blackberry
snack	banana, raisins
lunch	Panini with loads of veggies
snack	half a soft pretzel at the Stars game. It was shiny. Chances are good I ate some oil, or butter substitute. If I don't lose weight this week, I'm totally going to blame it on water retention due to the 4 pounds of coarse salt on that pretzel.
dinner	Panini with loads of veggies, potato, salad
activity	5K Make a Wish Run - though I actually did the fun run, which was not 5K. It was 1 mile. Also, I walked. Later I walked a few blocks each way from a parking lot to the AAC for the Stars game.

Little Miss Muffett

2012-03-23T22:11:00.000-05:00

March 23rd, 2012 (continued)

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Well, just call me Miss Muffet today, getting scared off by a big ol’ cholesterol spider. Here’s what happened – before the Big Diet Switch (“BDS”) of March 2012, I drank whey protein shakes after I went to the gym. After the BDS, I assumed that the whey protein shakes were fattening, since I made them with RAW WHOLE MILK (you may recall I mentioned that a new jug always had little yellow nuggets of fat floating in it), and switched to having half an almond butter sandwich, on Ezekiel 4:9 bread after the gym. After a few days of this, it occurred to me that I could make the whey protein shakes with almond milk to eliminate the dairy, and started wondering which had more fat, the whey protein or the almond butter. Turns out my little sandwich had 16 grams of fat, whereas my whey protein shake with almond milk had 3.5. That’s better, right? Also, I chuck a couple scoops of blueberries in that shake and blammo! Instant health! I think I read somewhere that blueberries are the miracle berry, staving off cancers, heart disease, etc. The Wikipedia entry on blueberries had some great pics of blueberries rescuing kittens from burning trees, and healing clubbed baby seals.

Alas, my whey protein bliss was blown asunder by a lass – Alert Reader Kassia noted the whey protein shake on my daily intake log, and commented ‘whey protein…that’s a milk product, right?’ And so it is. I had not read quite enough of the label on the whey protein container. It is in fact a dairy product, containing, of course, cholesterol. I think somehow I thought that since I bought the whey at Sprouts it was made from plants? Now I’m not sure what protein source to consume after the gym – suggestions? Snide remarks?

Here’s what I ingested today;

March 23, 2012
breakfast	big bowl of cereal, with strawberries and unsweetened almond milk
snack	very small non-dairy banana chocolate chip muffin
lunch	black bean burger with sautéed spinach and red pepper, two small seedless oranges, one Barbara's Whole Wheat Fig Bars
snack	blackberries
dinner	nachos, rice, beans
activity	sitting, walking room to room, breathing, chewing….

no no, it's not like that

2012-03-23T11:24:00.000-05:00

March 23rd, 2012

I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions;

1. Radically changing my diet was not my wife’s idea. It was me that got the test results, and, not being an idiot, I realized that my cholesterol needed to be lower. I started looking at labels and cutting back on my meat and cheese. After a few days, the wife and I decided to watch some Netflix one evening, and it was my choice to watch ‘Forks Over Knives.’ As the closing credits rolled, Jen looked at me and asked what I thought of it, and I told her I was going without meat and dairy, starting right then – didn’t even have one last hurrah with my customary pastrami, bacon, and Swiss before bed.

2. I have not gone Vegan. I know I’ve used the term Vegan at times to describe my new eating habits, so I apologize for any confusion. My focus is on eating a plant based diet, and eliminating animal sources of food, and also oil. What’s the difference? Excellent question! If my goal was to be Vegan (at least as far as I understand that ideal), then any time I had some incidental dairy in my food, such as some small amount of milk fat and/or egg in a restaurant hamburger bun, I would be committing a small amount of murder or animal extortion. Instead, if I have the occasional bit of animal product by mistake, because I am not willing to ruthlessly interrogate a waiter/waitress or counter help, I won’t freak out. Instead I’ll focus on controlling the controllable, such as the food in my own kitchen.

3. This is not forever. My hope is that at some point my cholesterol will be low enough that I can withstand the occasional animal treat. Pizza with real cheese looks fabulous, and I can’t fathom never smoking and eating a brisket again, it’s just too tasty. I know myself, so I know that I will have to be very on purpose about what ‘occasional’ looks like, and plan for it - otherwise, 'occasional' will be all days ending in a 'y.' Yes, my brisket is worth planning for, absolutely.

Okay, I’ll be back later with my normal blog content, but I wanted to clear those things up first. Have a fantastic day!

Sick Crazy Credentials

2012-03-22T21:57:00.000-05:00

March 22nd, 2012

Lest any of you think that I have not really been that poor of an eater, or been really sick and crazy enough that this dietary change of mine is significant, let me share these little vignettes;

Brisket/Bratwurst Dog – I have in the past taken great delight in wrapping a bratwurst with a big slice of brisket and then putting in on the bun. If I thought about it at all in terms of fat and calories, I would think, ‘well I’m already eating the bratwurst, so adding brisket is just adding more meat, so, no difference really.’ If someone else had tried that rationale on me I would have said, ‘no, fool, it is different – it’s TWICE AS MUCH fat and calories.’

Brisket Blanket Turkey – When you think of Thanksgiving dinner and all the glorious fat therein, the turkey isn’t always the first thing you think of, right? Dark meat and skin aside, turkey CAN be low fat, low cholesterol. Oh but wait! If you really work at it, you can also make the white meat really horrible for you! Here’s how – smoke a nice big brisket the day before you are going to cook your turkey, then put it in the fridge whole, after it cools. The next day, before cooking the turkey, slice the whole big layer of smoked and seasoned fat off the brisket and lay it over the breast of the turkey like a cold greasy blanket. As the turkey cooks, all that brisket fat will soak down through the turkey breast. Yep, I came up with that a few years ago. And no, I will not give you detailed instructions, you sick freak.

Roller Grill – Have you had the roller grill? It’s most commonly found in gas stations, that area in the attached zippy marts where the hot dogs and other foods shaped into logs turn slowly on the heated metal tubes. Ah, the roller grill…taquitos, hot dogs, sausage loaf, and my favorite – the mixed meat log, usually called the Big Bite or some such it’s ‘beef’ mixed with ‘cheese’ and something spicy. Often there is a dispenser for chili and cheese sauce! Yummo! And just to make it healthy, there are some fresh vegetables (jalapeno and onion) to add on, plus mustard, which you should know, has no fat. Yep, I’ve knocked back plenty of roller grill in my day. It’s best with a glazed donut chaser and a Dr Pepper.

On a happier note, we’ve found a fantastic lentil chili recipe, that make a bunch, so it can be eaten for many meals over the course of a few days. It goes like this;

Ingredients:
· 1 onion, chopped
· 1 tsp cumin
· 10 cups water
· 1 ½ pounds lentils
· 2 tsp salt
· 2 cups salsa (we use the Costco brand Kirkland Organic Medium, it rocks)
· 29 oz canned tomatoes, crushed (the tomatoes, not the can)
· 1 tsp chili powder

Brown the onion in a pan, add lentils and water. Simmer 1 ½ hours. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. That’s it! Chili is done! If you enjoy cooking at all, I’m sure you can see that this can be altered a hundred ways. On the other hand, it is REALLY fantastic, as is.

Pictured above is my bowl full for lunch, with some sautéed spinach, and red pepper flakes on top. Don’t the chili and salad together make a lovely looking combo? This way of eating is so not dull. As my 6 year old, Canon, would say, ‘It is too not!!’

Here's what I put through my head hole today;

March 22, 2012
breakfast	French toast (made with banana instead of egg), blackberries
snack	whey protein shake made with unsweetened almond milk, and frozen blueberries
lunch	lentil chili with spinach added, salad with tomato, 1/4 avocado, and tomato hot sauce, 2 Barbara's Whole Wheat Fig Bars
snack	small handful of dried banana chips
dinner	tacos and beans
activity	20 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes with the dumbbells

to carb or not to carb

2012-03-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

March 21st, 2012

Starting today, I’ll be posting a daily log of what I’m eating and what exercise I’m doing. That way, we can all see whether or not someone can lose weight by eating loads of carbs. Seems like a lot of folks are saying carbs should be skipped, but I’ve lost 7 pounds eating lots of carbs. Then again, maybe those 7 pounds were a fluke, right? So, by tracking what I eat, I’ll either 1) show that carbs are not the enemy of weight loss, or 2) have some data to review to reevaluate my diet if I don’t lose any more weight. Sound good? By the way, my daily log won’t include my count of cups of black coffee – let’s just go with ‘lots’ for every day. Some cups will be just black, others will include a little hazelnut or other syrup added, just a drop really. REALLY.

Pictured here is what I’ve started eating for breakfast. Yes, that is a MEGA bowl of cereal, and has about 23 grams of fiber. Conventional medical information says you should get about 30 grams a day, but the Engine 2 Diet says you should get 50 or more. You know what you have to do to cram that much fiber in your gullet? Yep, you gotta eat, homey!! High fiber foods make you feel more full than low fiber foods, per calorie ingested, so trust me – eating this way will NOT leave you feeling hungry or deprived.

Here is my cereal recipe;

· ½ cup of dry oats
· ¾ cup of Uncle Sam, Original
· ¼ cup Ezekiel 4:9, Original
· 1/3 cup Nature’s Path Smart Bran with Psyllium & Oat bran
· 5 strawberries, cut up small
· Unsweetened almond milk – enough to wet it down some (the cereal and fruit is way tasty, but dear Lord there is just no way to ingest all of that if it’s bone dry)

March 21, 2012
breakfast	big bowl of cereal, with strawberries and unsweetened almond milk
snack	half almond butter sandwich on Ezekiel 4:9 bread (after the gym)
lunch	brown rice with mushrooms and jalapenos, sautéed spinach and tofu, tomato hot sauce, half an apple, one non-dairy homemade cookie
snack	small handful of dried banana chips
dinner	lentil chili, spelt bread, salad with avocado, tomato hot sauce for dressing, non-dairy banana chocolate chip muffin for dessert
activity	30 minutes on the ol' elliptical machine

like an East German Swimmer

2012-03-20T19:13:00.001-05:00

March 20th, 2012

Tuesdays are my weigh in day – down another 3 today, to 220! I feel really good about that. The weight limit on our trampoline is 225 pounds, so I’m getting closer to being able to jump on it WITH one of the kids. That was kind of a sad and sobering moment for me this past Christmas when I set up the trampoline and saw that I was a few pounds over the maximum weight limit, and that my four kids together weighed less than me. My four year old, Jonah, weighs 35 pounds, so…let’s see…my math isn’t very good…okay when I get to 190 he and I can go on the trampoline together. Of course depending on how much weight he gains, I’ll have to go lower than 190. Not that I want to have to get way below 190 TOO quick, but really that little boy should be eating all the butter and cheese that I’m not having – he’s just so little!

Oh my, my sister just asked what we’re using now for coffee creamer, and I had this little revelation – up until we started this eating plan, I used raw whole milk on my cereal in the morning. Yes, raw whole milk….whenever we opened a new jug, there were little yellowy bits of fat floating in the top no matter how much we shook it. How did I not see that as a problem? I reasoned that it was an organic, natural fat, so my body would be able to digest it okay. Similarly, a standard lunch for me was a grilled cheese sandwich made with quality butter, and a salad with some good healthy organic ranch. I suppose it’s laudable that I wasn’t ingesting high fructose corn syrup in my dairy products, but that didn’t make me feel any better when I snapped one of the rungs off my kid’s bunk bed ladder just by putting one foot on it.

I have liked nearly all the new foods I’ve tried with this new way of eating. Nearly. Dried figs are a no go for me, it was like having the East German swimmer version of a raisin. An uber raisin.

man card

2012-03-20T19:07:00.004-05:00

March 19th, 2012

Lots of people talk about guys ‘losing their man card’ if they do certain things, like watch a chic flick, get a manicure or pedicure, have anything waxed, etc. Really I don’t ever worry about that kind of thing, being quite secure in my masculinity, thank you very much, so much so that I don’t mind telling anyone at all that I’m really fond of women’s purses and shoes. They really can be quite beautiful, don’t you think? Also, the man card thing is basically a pride issue, and I lost most of that along with being a father of four, carting diaper bags, shopping for pink stuff for the girl child and carting it around the store, etc.

Some guys would call eating nothing but plants grounds for losing their man card, but, even aside from my afore mentioned security in my masculinity, I don’t see it that way. The way I look at it, I’ve taken charge of my body and my diet instead of relying on some sissy pill. Some folks might just have to rely on a pill no matter what they eat, and the jury is still out on whether I will need to take pills for my cholesterol, but I’m the one firing the next shot in this battle.

new day, new cheese, new life

2012-03-19T19:27:00.000-05:00

March 18^th, 2012

Hooray! I’m home from FL and back with my family! This plant based diet gets more fun all the time – we went to Whole Foods today after church, and while Jen shopped, the kids and I got some lunch. The kids wanted pizza, and were angling for some pepperoni or sausage, but I ordered a plain cheese pizza for them; I just felt like it would be lame to let them eat organ meats while Jen and I abstain from ALL meat. While we were waiting for the pizza to be ready, I notice that in the section of pizza for sale by the slice, they had a ‘Vegan Pizza of the Day.’ It had a bunch of veggies on top, and something that certainly looked like cheese. The guy behind the counter said it was non-dairy cheese made from tofu, and informed me that it was really bland and rubbery. Despite the non-sales pitch, I ordered a slice. When we sat down to eat it was easy to notice that the kids’ cheese pizza was very limp and drooping over their hands, while my vegan pizza had a perfectly stiff crust. It had more of a crunch than I am used to, and the ‘cheese’ did not have the same taste and texture as mozzarella, but it was very satisfying! The kids’ cheese pizza looked good to me still, but I didn’t so much as nibble a little of the saucy cheese out of the bottom of the box. Normally, I would have been jealous if the kids were having pizza and I wasn’t, but I experienced none of that emotion today – victory!

Many fun things were in the grocery sacks when we got home – cereals with 10 grams of fiber per serving (I do need more fiber, it’s been really bothering me that I evidently have not been eating enough of it), a sack of nutritional yeast (oh yeah, it’s a party in a bag), a big ol’ Portobello mushroom (because my wife loves me like that), two textures of tofu, and many other lovely things. It is FANTASTIC to have food that is so tasty and so fun, but without all the gunk! I mean, that monster mushroom makes me giddy like I would have been at the prospect of bacon wrapped meatballs.

If you’re wondering what any of this strange stuff like tofu, nutritional yeast, non-dairy cheese, etc tastes like, I’m here to tell you; it tastes like freedom.

bannnnnannnnna

2012-03-19T19:26:00.000-05:00

March 17^th, 2012

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m not wearing any green at the moment, but I have had some green veggies already today, and it’s only 9:00am.

Pastries and French toast are really tempting – must find alternatives.

I thought bananas had lots of fat, but I just looked it up and no, they don’t. They do have lots of vitamins and such. Also, I've long felt that the word banana could use more N’s.