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Gimmicking Our Health

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On Monday, I went to the library in search of The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. I heard about the book in the movie Forks Over Knives (a movie I recommend, by the way) and have been curious about it ever since. At it turns out, our library doesn’t have the book; however, they do have Dr. Campbell’s follow-up book Whole in which he explains his whole food plant based lifestyle in more depth. I checked that one out and am currently reading it. I’m impressed and intrigued so far.

But that’s not my point.

My point is that I had to dig through shelves and shelves of diet books to find this one. There are a bajillion diet books out there, each with its own gimmick or hook. Eat no carbs. Eat all carbs. Eat no fat. Pay no attention to fat. Eat like a caveman. Eat only popcorn. Eat raw foods. Whatever. There are any number of “experts” shelling out all kinds of advice to help us all to lose weight and look great. Terrific. We’ll all look great in our caskets since tragically few of these programs give two hoots about our overall health. Their aim is to make people lose weight. Period. Well, a hacksaw can help us lose weight – technically – but it won’t do a thing to make us healthier. And, who are these “experts” anyway?

I hadn’t heard of most of them, which is not terribly surprising. But looking over the books, the things that struck me most were that from the pictures, they all seem to have 64 teeth, and it didn’t seem that a single one of them that had been obese at any point in their lives. These were people who have never had a weight problem telling me how to lose weight. Now, I’m generally a little cranky and suspicious; so, when a woman who looks like a lollipop tells me how easily I can shed 30 pounds, I tend to react a little negatively. If someone is going to give me advice on how to travel down this road, on how to make this difficult journey, I’d like for them to have actually made the journey. Someone who has blazed the trail has valuable advice for me. Someone who has only read about it may make some good points, but, frankly, they’ve got nothing to say that I care to hear. After all, they have only theoretical knowledge. They’ve never had their boots on the ground.

Even though Dr. Campbell has never had a weight problem either, I ignore that since, for him, weight loss is, at best, a secondary goal of his lifestyle. The primary goal being, of course, good health. He’s a bona fide scientist and has arrived at this whole food plant based (WFPB) lifestyle as a result of 50 years of research and experimentation. His results upset the status quo and cost him a great deal over the course of his career. In addition, he and his extended family all observe this WFPB lifestyle and are just stupidly healthy. That says a lot to me.

This WFPB lifestyle may turn out to be just another gimmick. I’ll continue to investigate and let you know.

 

Food, Uncategorized

5 May Get You 10 (or 15 May Get You 5)

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On Friday, I was so tired that I forgot to include the list of changes to that point:

  • My ears and sinuses cleared. I don’t know if allergens cleared from my environment or from my diet, but my head is a lot clearer. I didn’t even realize that my ears were stuffy until they weren’t!
  • My hands and feet are not swollen when I wake. My feet still hurt after being on them the whole time at work; however, when I wake, they are pain-free as are my hands.
  • My knees hurt less. After my shift on Thursday, I right knee was complaining…loudly. However, it did not wake me from my sleep (which is has done under similar circumstances in the past) even though I took no pain relievers.
  • My lips are super chapped. I mean like not since I took Acutane have they been this chapped.
  • My mouth was relentlessly dry and had a wretched taste. Wretch. ed.
  • I sleep more soundly. I don’t know if that’s the fatigue or the lack of chemical stimulants. Whatever it is, I don’t care. I’m sleeping great!
  • I’ve lost five pounds.

At first, I thought I’d do a 30-day reboot. When I learned a little more, I discovered that 30 days was just way too long; so, I thought I’d do 15 days. Turns out, that was a bit too long, as well.

My stomach is, let’s use the word: persnickety. Too much liquid of any kind makes it feel nauseated. To get the number of calories I needed per day, I needed to drink more juice than my stomach was happy to handle. As a result, I was ingesting less than 600 calories per day. That’s not nearly enough.

Swooning-75827349014I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we must listen to our bodies. On Saturday afternoon, after five days of juice fasting, my blood pressure became really low – around 92/64. That was low enough to make my vision black out when I stood. Now, don’t freak out. Relax your nerves. This has happened to me before. In fact, when I was young, I took medication for it – postural hypotension. My blood simply runs a little thicker than most and results in low BP sometimes. (That’s what Dr. Frank said, anyway.)  Whatever. The end result was that I nearly pitched head over keister down my hallway on Saturday. So, Saturday night, I listened to my body and ate.

And, man, did I go hog wild! I had steamed kale, a romaine salad with walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette, a sweet potato and an orange! I salted the kale; but, the salt and the vinaigrette were the only additives I used.

I felt better.

So, I’m going to continue juicing; but, on a more moderate scale. I typically eat six times a day. I will juice for at least two of those and will continue to eat my fruits and veggies for the other meals. I also plan to add some legumes and tree nuts for added protein.

I know that this juice reboot has worked for a lot of people and I would even say that it worked for me, in spite of my cutting short the 100% juicing portion. My primary reasons for juicing were to: 1. decrease the pain in my hands and feet, 2. decrease the pain in my knees, and 3. lose 10 pounds. Well, the first two goals were achieved in five days and I’m halfway to the third one. I’m calling this a success!

Juice on! (in moderation, for me)