But But But... Tough Love

Nota Bene: if you don't like reading long blogs, cut to the last paragraph. That's the long and the short of it.

Okay, lets start by getting the provisos out of the way.  First, I am addressing people like me.  People who are morbidly obese with multiple serious health problems that are connected to that obesity and have decided to address the problem with a whole food/plant based diet.  Many of us watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and also incorporate juicing into our quest for healthy bodies.
Second, I am NOT addressing people who truly, literally do not have control over their own environment.  It's not all that common and you need to really look at whether or not that is true and not just a cop-out.  But if you really are not in control of your home environment then stop reading or understand that I'm not really speaking to you.  Work environment is much more commonly out of our control but not nearly as critical either.

Another group I really can't address in this post is a large one.  In my interactions with people seeking better health and/or weight loss, I see many, many more come and go than those who stay. Most people just aren't ready.  They just haven't hit their own, personal, rock bottom yet.  When it becomes uncomfortable they make a beeline for the mac and cheese muttering, "I can do it with portion control and working out like Jillian Michaels.  I don't need no stinkin' vegetables."  Cuz, that has worked out so well for them in the past:/   Heaven knows there is plenty of propaganda out there to feed their desire to choose an "easier" path or to even just continue on the one that is killing them.  Everyone likes to hear good news about their bad choices so when the media spouts off crap about how we really have to eat dead animals or how chocolate is a health food, it's easy to grab onto that. Anyway, that's another soapbox entirely.

Right now, I want to address people like me.  You're obese and unhealthy and truly committed to changing that.  You have come to believe that a WFPB lifestyle is the best medicine out there.  You are making changes and seeing progress.... and this is where SO  many insert a "but."

But... it's the holidays.
But... my family is visiting.
But... my girlfriend doesn't want to give up chips and ranch dip so it's there in the cabinet taunting me.
But... I still need to fix cookies for my kids or I'm a bad mom.
But... my husband deserves fried chicken because he works so hard.
But... I have to go out to dinner with clients a lot.
But... nobody wants to see a veggie tray at the party.

When people who are just as sick and fat as I am/was say things like this, I want to ask them just how important this is to them.  For me, it was literally life or death.  If you've read my early blogs you know I don't exaggerate.  So many people describe situations just as dire, nearly as dire or even more dire than mine was and then turn around and say, "Oh I have to fry chicken and bake cookies."

I believe we need to look at two things when we find ourselves letting these "buts" interfere with our best intentions.  First, how important is this to ME and second, how important am I to the people around me.  How much can I reasonably expect from those nearest and dearest to me.  Here is where I start to sound harsh but bear with me.  I know that I am lucky.  Blessed actually.  I didn't know how my family would handle it but, to be honest, my family is a matriarchy.  My hubby is a truck driver and I'm a bossy, independent type chick so it works for us. In other words, I worried I would meet opposition but I.  Didn't. Care.  Once I knew that I had finally found the answer, I knew that I would follow through with it whether they liked it or not.  I have kids from 17-32 and I wanted to influence them but I can't control them so I figured I would do what I had to do for me, require of them what I needed and leave their own bodies to them.  I have been absolutely astounded how readily my family has not only embraced and supported my needs but followed my example.  I have not exactly been a shining example to them in the physical/health department so they had every reason to shrug this off as "Mom's latest attempt" but they recognized something in the way I talked about it and in the evidence I presented and they have been on board 100% from day 1.  I have NOT, however, been all that surprised that they had no problem with all the junk food and processed foods going bye-bye.  If I told them I had developed a deadly allergy to cotton that was leaching away my health and energy, they would be right in there helping me find all the hidden cotton in our house.  Because they love me!  I would have expected nothing less.  If you can't depend on your family to support you in your own fight for your very life, then what is wrong with that picture?!

So what if your family isn't on board?  Get tough! It's your health people!  In many cases it is how long you will be around for them and it is definitely how you will feel and function during that time.  Sit them down and watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and, even better, Forks Over Knives.  Tell them that you want to look better, feel better and be around to annoy them in your old age!  Say flat out, if you love and value ME, you will support me.

I don't want this to be too long for anyone to get through so I'll cut this part short.  If you have grownups who don't have the issues you have, look at two things.  Do they actually need or benefit from the foods that were making you fat and sick?  Does it really make you a bad mom/wife to refuse to prepare foods that contribute to diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease?  So Susie isn't overweight? Yet?  Most of us were thin at some point.  The groundwork was laid while we appeared to be healthy.  If they are healthy and fit, let's keep them that way!  And if the hubby really has to have something like fried chicken or chips and dip, they are adults, they can go through the drive through.  Same goes for adult children.  They have to decide for themselves.  But they should have enough concern and respect for you to support your effort to create a clean, healthy environment.

Here is my bottom line.  Yes, I realize it sounds pretty harsh.  If your family will not support your need to eliminate junk food and food that trashes your health from your home, then you have some deeper problems than weight.

And my other bottom line (hey, who says there is only one bottom line?) is that no matter how thin or fit your family appears to you, if you have discovered that certain foods are deadly, why would you continue to feed them to your family?  If you've come to understand that a high consumption of sugar, animal protien, saturated fats... whatever, creates terrible health problems over time, then tell me again why you are a bad mom if you don't give it to your kids?  You don't have to make the change completely overnight but I can't understand why you wouldn't start transitioning them to healthier and healthier foods.  That is what my daughter is doing with her boys.  I'll let ya'll know how that goes;o)  But, trust me, you aren't a "bad mom" if you refuse to feed a diet laden with sugar and salt and animal fat to your growing children.  Frankly, if the children are dictating what goes on the dinner table then we have a case of the inmates running the asylum.

Now about all those other "buts," if you have to eat out with clients, is it really going to make them lose respect for you in your professional capacity to eat a salad instead of a steak?  To leave the butter and cheese and bacon off of your baked potato?  If others at the party don't want a veggie tray... okay!  More freggies for you!!  And more of the junk they are scarfing for them.  If your family is visiting, visit some vegan chef websites and find some really impressive recipes to show them just how tasty your diet can be.  Sure, go ahead and fix PopPops favorite casserole but offer a couple of really yummy things they've never tried before with it!  It gives you some healthy options and shows them that you aren't starving yourself on rabbit food;o)

I really want to add one last note to those who have somewhat dysfunctional families.  You know who you are.  You read this and think, "Yeah, try telling my husband that.  He would start bringing home Kentucky Fried Chicken and eating it right in front of me while taunting me the entire time."   "Try telling my mom that this is healthy.  She is just as overweight as me but she would start bringing my favorite fattening treats over every weekend and telling my kids that I don't love her because I won't eat her thoughtful gifts."  Yes, some families are dysfunctional.  If these things are a problem, you probably know you have other issues besides food to deal with.  You, my friends have to advocate for yourself.  You have to love you.  You have to realize that a healthy you can work on your families dysfunction better if you are in a healthy body.  Especially since WFPB diets also make you think better and feel emotionally and mentally stronger.

Okay so THIS is actually my bottom line. (Yes, really! Why do you doubt me? LOL) Do what you need to do to get healthier. You count. YOU matter. Advocate for yourself, even with your own family, employers, clients. Unless you have some pretty extraordinary circumstances, clean up your environment. Your family won't die from lack of deep fat fried food. Require those who love you to show it. Become fierce about your own well-being. I know many people (myself included) who have spent November and December losing an extra 10 or 20 lbs while the average american gains 8 or 10. For the first time in many years, January 1st will be a time to celebrate all I've accomplished and plan for all I will accomplish in 2014. My only regret is that I didn't start way sooner in the year! I don't for one second regret skipping the pumpkin pie or sugar cookies.  And I don't regret refusing to contribute to the poor health choices of others either.

There Are No Magic Bullets, But There Are Miracles

Every time I find myself describing my journey to someone new, I realize just how much I sound like an infomercial or like I'm just caught up in the pink fluffy honeymoon cloud of a "new diet" but I've never in my life stuck to a diet for this long much less been in the "honeymoon" phase of it for several months and going strong.  This has most definitely settled into lifestyle mode.  

 So that begs the question, how can a simple change of diet create the incredible changes I've experienced.  Well, lets look at a few things.  First, getting the disgusting mess the local grocer passes off as meat and animal products that I was eating - hormones, puss in the milk etc - out of my body.  Just removing those has to help. If I had changed to homegrown, grass fed, lean cuts and healthy prep and still ate the meat, I would be better off but still not as good as just getting the animal protein out of my diet. (If you aren't following me here, read the China Study and/or watch Forks Over Knives.)  I'm 90% animal protein free.  I still eat a serving of fish 2 or 3 times a month, have a bit of organic chicken or turkey in the crockpot soup once or twice a month and I have an organic, cage-free, hormone free, preferably locally grown boiled egg a couple times a week.  I don't know if I will eventually eliminate those or not.  Even the China Study noted that the cancer growth and other bad effects weren't triggered with a low intake of animal protein.  So I'm good with this for now.  

 Next, let's note that my diet went from very near zero fresh fruit and veggies to a good 75% freggies.  That alone had to be a huge shock (of the good variety) to my system.  At this point, every system and cell in my body has to be singing for joy.  It's like, "Halleleujah! She's finally giving us something to work with!"  
Now let's add the fact that I juice and blend a lot of freggies and add really nutrient dense, natural additives like ground flax etc.  Now you are taking the great nutrients that your average healthy eater would consume in a day and putting all those nutrients into one serving.  You are literally just FLOODING your system with nutrients it's been deprived of for decades.  

 Our bodies are amazing self-healing machines but we take a machine that has the ability to repair itself and even regenerate on its own but we deny it the building blocks it require to do that.  And then we wonder why we fall apart.  So what do we do?  Instead of handing it those high-quality, sound and solid building blocks that God gave us in abundance, we give it man made imitations made of cardboard and chemicals.  And then we wonder why we fall apart!

 One last thing to consider that really just makes our body sing is that even when I was eating a salad or drinking juice before, it was made and packaged and stored and shipped and stored again before I ate it.  If I had ever gotten ground flax in something, it had probably lost most of it's nutritional value before it got to me.  Now, I grind my flax seeds, throw that into the soup or smoothie and consume it.  No nutrional loss there.  Again, tons more nutrients hitting my body than it is used to.  And next year is really going to take it up a notch as I will be able to just go to my own garden and pick the veggies as fresh as fresh gets:)

 So if I sound like a crazy infomercial sometimes; if it sounds crazy to say that I went from depressed, barely able to walk across a room, in constant pain and a mental fog every day of my life and then literally became pain free, regained my energy, improved health conditions dramatically, started losing weight at a steady pace and regained a much higher degree of mental clarity all within days of starting a juice fast and now I'm still feeling fantastic just as much after 4 months of a clean, plant-based diet, you can understand that I'm not promoting the latest fad or a magic bullet or even a "diet."  I'm just saying to eat the way God meant you to.  Eat the abundance of things he gave us to thrive on.  If that includes meat for you then at least make that a smaller ratio of your calories and make it fresh, untainted by a disgusting industry and prepare it in a healthy way.  
 It's not a miracle... and yet it is the biggest miracle of all.  How miraculous that those plants include all those crazy nutrients that really can heal, regrow, vitalize and maximize the potential of every cell in your body.  The things your doctor throws his hands in the air over and just writes another script for?  Your creator gave you the cure.  When the few doctors who have actually studied the topic of healing through nutrition say, "Sure, a plant based diet would help my patients but they won't follow it so I just give them a pill instead."  You can shout, "I'll do it!  I'll heal myself with nutrition!"  Maybe more doctors will seek out that information and share it with their other patients if they have patients coming in with dramatic improvements and telling them, "I don't need those pills, doc.  I stopped taking those months ago."  I am praying that by the time my grandkids are grown, they will defy all those predictions about the newest generation of children dying younger than their parents did. 

BRRRRR and Some Embarrassing Truths About My Life

So here in Oklahoma, winter is making up for how mild it was the last couple of years by icing on us and leaving us in the single digits.  I'm freezing and pissy.  I HATE ICE!!!  I don't mind snow, I kinda like it.  And when it's cold outside, it can make you appreciate your warm house and your fuzzy slippers (or in my case, hand-knit wool socks) even more, right?  Yeah right!!  We are doing good to keep it over 40 degrees in this place. My house is old.  Really old and falling apart.  They found problems with the gas pipes so they won't allow the gas on.  Some nonsense about the danger of explosions or fumes... whatever.  (Yes, for those who might not understand me yet, I'm being sarcastic.)  So we have no hot water and only space heaters.  We are supposed to be moved out by the end of the month but it may realistically be January something.  We rent, by the way.  The windows and doors are so poorly installed that you can literally pass things through to someone outside around the edges.  Seriously, we've done it.  The sliding glass doors have about a 3 inch gap on one side because they don't fit the opening!  We've filled that with foam but it still lets in air. There are holes that you can throw a cat through, as the old saying goes.  Although nobody better be throwing my kitties anywhere;o)  I know the holes are that big because possums keep sneaking into my house.  Yes, literally.
Totally off subject but I have to tell this story now, since I mentioned the possums.  They live under our house.  I'm cool with that.  Well, this one is so comfortable living with us that he likes to stroll through in the night.  We would usually just yell at him or the dog would bark or a cat would hiss and he would take off back out the hole.  (It's not a hole I can get to - the landlord made the holes last year trying to fix the gas problem.)  Possum wasn't aggressive, in fact he was quite shy and nervous so we just ignored the problem.  I grew up in the country; critters don't bother me.  My cousins had a pet raccoon for years. Well a couple weeks ago, Cameron woke up and the possum was strolling across his body on his bed as he slept!!!  He screamed like a little girl and the dog came running and started barking and the chase was on.  Well, possum realized he had screwed up big time (even though he was considerably bigger than the dog) so he did what possums do.... he played possum.  He had made it to my room by this  time.  So Gadget dragged what he presumed to be his "kill" behind my love seat.  Possum still playing dead.  Cameron moved the love seat, put a bucket over it, took it outside and THREW it across the yard.  Still playing dead!  He came in the house and we watched out the window.  About two minutes later, he gets up and casually strolls back under our house.  Yup, it's like that around here.
I've mentioned that I had given up on life until last August when I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  Well, I'm admitting to all of this so you can understand just how low I had sunk.  We were living in a house that should have been condemned.  We can only plug use one appliance at a time in the kitchen other than the frig.  Throwing a breaker is a very regular occurrence.  Basically if you turn on the toaster without unplugging the juicer, bam.  This neighborhood isn't great either.  Oh and my beloved old truck (I LOVE old trucks - especially Fords; I would rather push an old truck than drive a new car) has been neglected and left in need of repairs for over a year.  I had to have someone to help me in and out if I went anywhere anyway and I couldn't do my own shopping anymore as I couldn't walk unassisted and was too proud to use an electric cart.  So what did it matter if I had my own transportation.  My poor family could do nothing to pull me out of this downward spiral.  It was actually quite telling that I was even willing to live in town.  I have always hated living in town.  I need to be in the country surrounded by nature and critters and air.  I feel trapped and claustrophobic in town and it sets off my PTSD something fierce.
So this really does relate to all my healthy life changes.   I hated myself so much that I didn't care how I lived.  I don't now.  Juicing and WFPB eating has not only given me back health, energy, weight-loss and independence (which is so important to me I can't even express it here - I am independent to a fault by nature) it has also given me back my self-respect and my desire to live the life I choose.  We are getting out of this rat trap.  We are looking for land to buy out in the country.  We are going to buy a large RV to stay in while we pay off the land because once you have 50% equity in your land, there are a couple of companies that will either put a double wide on it or  build a prefab home on it for no down payment.  Your land serves as your collateral.  The RV will also allow me to do another thing that I've always yearned to do and never been able to - travel.  And buddy, let me tell you... we are going somewhere warmer for the winter.  We should have the RV by the end of January at the latest - probably a 32' 5th wheel, haven't decided for sure.  Getting the truck fixed by the end of the month as well - that's my Christmas present.  I have friends in South Texas I'd like to see as well as a sister in Arizona and brothers and tons of cousins in California.  I am most definitely going somewhere warmer for at least a good chunck of this miserable, cold, icy winter that Oklahoma apparently has planned.  I love Oklahoma but I HATE ICE!!  (See how I brought that back around.  I really did have a point!)
Oh and lest you think I'm too off topic on this post, let me just say that as long as I have to literally bundle up in several layers including hat and scarf and mittens inside my house, I will probably not be losing as much weight because I'm not drinking cold juice and eating cold salad today.  If I can see my breath in my bedroom, I'm having hot lentil soup and warm broth and baked potato with salsa and oatmeal and anything else that is served nice and hot!  Don't get me wrong, still plant-based and clean but not much raw.  And I have really come to believe in the power of raw.  I'm not getting involved in all the drama going on in the raw community these days but I do believe that eating as much raw, fresh foods as you can manage will always benefit you.  Except when it's 8 degrees fahrenheit outside and you only have a space heater.
Oh and as to my weight, I have lost a bit more.  I'm down to 293 which means I've lost 47 lbs since August 23.  I'm really curious to see how much the weight loss slows with these changes or if it will surprise me and keep going at 2-3 lbs a week.  Stay tuned!