“Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin.” Remember this one?  What was the moral to the story?  That it’s always best to take your time, use the right tools and do the job right.

I’ve heard all my life, “After 40, your body just starts to fall apart.”  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  The day before my 40th birthday, I broke my first tooth – on a piece of bacon.  Okay, so I thought people were speaking metaphorically – I didn’t realize there was a kitchen timer!  And apparently. mine didn’t make it back across the international date line from that trip to Japan!  Mine when off a full day early.

To some degree, that prediction is correct, our bodies do start falling apart at some point; however, mine was falling apart too early because I wasn’t giving it the nutrition it needed.  So, guess what isn’t the right tool to build this house? Cheesecake.  Yep, when the Big Bad Wolf of Age came knocking, my house blew in. I was one of those people David Vitalis was talking about in Hungry for Change, “People are overfed, but they are also starving to death.”

Who’s with me on this one: I didn’t think about my actual nutrient intake.  I ate frequently and was full; so, I must have been getting the nutrition I needed, right? Turns out, not so much.  My poor nutrition wasn’t responsible for my tooth breaking; but, it was responsible for other deterioration issues.  What I had forgotten is that my body is a building.  That building needs maintenance which is performs on its own.  Our tissue replaces itself at varying rates.  Here are a few examples of healthy tissue regeneration rates: epidermis – 35 days, fat cells – 10 years, bones – 10 years, liver – 5 months, deep lung tissue – 1 year, red blood cells – 4 months.

Of course, even with the substandard building blocks I was giving it, my body was reproducing cells, replacing old ones or damaged ones.  I’m not confident that the new cells were as good as the originals, though, and I wonder what downline issues I’m going to face.  My current diet contains much better building materials and I’m hopeful that perhaps some of the minor damage has been undone.  However, I don’t know if the substandard cells can replace themselves with better quality cells.  Time will tell.

Although my current diet is FAR better than it was three years ago, it’s not as good as it was two years ago during my reduction phase.  Why? Because I’m not eating enough vegetables.  In the US, we are nearly manic about getting enough protein in our diets.  If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest you watch the documentary Forks Over Knives.  In it, Dr. Alona Pulde & Dr. Matthew Lederman said, “We’ve never treated a single patient with protein deficiency; yet the majority of patients we see are suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses directly resulting from trying to get enough protein.”

As I’ve told you before, I am all kinds of carnivorous and don’t really see myself ever being 100% vegetarian – and I’m not sure I have to be.  But, what I do have to do is make certain that my diet is more balanced which means, ironically, that it has to be heavy on the veggies.

So, grab a fork and let’s sit inside our brick houses, thumbing our noses at Big Bad Wolves.