Milestone Number One, and a Comment on Vegan Junk Food

40 Pounds Lost !  This is not difficult, I eat all day every day, and I am never hungry. Just one word of warning,  avoid Vegan "Junk food" , and there is plenty of it out there. Two weeks ago, I ate too many over processed, soy based foods and I actually gained three pounds. There are two vegan fast food places in Chelsea, NYC where I work, and their menus are a train wreck of oily, high fat, over salted treats. Once a week is fine as treat or if you are in a rush. But any more than that, you might as well just go get a large pizza. UPDATE: This happened again last week, I had to eat out 3 times and I gained a pound. This week I only ate out once and I lost 2. So if you are gaining it may be because you are eating too much bread and processed vegan junk food.

Spread the Word, Don't Force the Word

This wonderful journey, this slow motion miracle, started one day when I was handed a copy of Dr Esselstyn's  Book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure, which can be purchased from Amazon by clicking on the link to the right. Yesterday I returned the favor by handing that very same copy to a colleague who works with me at a local golf course. He is 75 with various health issues and says sadly that he doesn't play golf anymore. I told him that if he can do this he will be back on the course within 6 months. There is significant downtime at this job, and by closing he had already read half the  book and confidently expressed his gratitude. 
This how we can help others, by spreading the word, not by big gulp bans and laws passed by loathsome nanny state mayors and marxist city councils. The moment the government becomes concerned with our health is the time to run away or revolt. What we eat is an individual choice.

Yet Another Reason...

...I'm sitting here stuffing my face with chard instead of pizza.  This study links baldness to heart disease. I started going bald and having other early indicators of heart disease in my 20s. This information may support Dr. Esselstyn's assertion that heart disease starts much younger than we think.

Quinoa is your friend

Being a red blooded American manly man and transferring to a plant based diet can be tough at first. The hardest part is getting your arms around eating big green salads instead of big hunks of cheese. Which, much to my surprise, I never even think about anymore. One thing that can make your salads more filling is Quinoa.

Make your salads hearty is my best advice. I use beets, spinach, kale, and quinoa to make really filling salads every day. Some of my other favorites are artichoke hearts, and hearts of palm, make sure if you get them canned they have NO OIL. Roland makes them both in water. You will not starve, I eat like I always have, like a pig. 

Be the Pig.

Just don't eat the pig!

Another Seriously Manly Feast

Cajun Cornbread Casserole. I made this incredible dish last night via Lindsay at Everyday Happy Herbivore. 

I am focusing on finding great man's food and this absolutely fits the bill. It is very easy to prepare and is very filling and spicy.
Don't be put off by any preconceived notions of plant based foods, I came in with plenty and they have all been changed by great cooks like Lindsay and her creativity.

The Number One Question

Where do you get your protein? Here is what Dr. Esselstyn says:


Protein - Where do I get my protein / What protein drink is best? 
Extra protein powder and shakes are truly unnecessary and have the potential for harm if they contain animal protein. The protein available through plant-based nutrition is adequate to nourish professional champion athletes such as the iron man, professional football, mixed martial arts, track and field, etc. 


If this man gets enough protein from a plant based diet...

Then I should be just fine. Athletes like Arian Foster are a huge motivational factor for guys like me who are not ideologically motivated to get started on a plant based diet regimen. I have 100 times more energy that I had while ingesting animal protein and you will too.

How Do You Feel?

Great! I have been on Dr. Esselstyn's plant based regimen for 2.5 weeks as of today and I feel incredible. I am able to categorize these improvements into 4 areas.

Cravings
This is probably the most shocking to me. I love cheese in a "why don't you marry it?" kind of way. I never thought I could go a single meal without it. But not only do I not miss it, it doesn't even cross my mind. I don't think about cheating at all. If I am extra hungry I'll have some grape nuts or some figs and I am fine. The sweetness in fruit tastes 1000 times sweeter when you no longer have animal proteins and oils mucking up your taste buds  and the dairy stuffing up your nose.

Digestion
Everything is smooth and easy. No more noises, grumbles or anything! It turns out gas is not normal at all. Who knew? 

Mental Clarity
I wake up in 5 minutes. Now, I did quit caffeine 5 months ago. But it was still taking me about a half hour to wake up. Now, I pop out of bed and I am fully functioning in moments. I have the time and energy to do things like start a blog no one ever reads.

Emotional State
This is a personal note. I had struggled mightily with depression and emotional issues my whole life, and had recently won some major victories in that battle. The love of Christ being the best cure. I also gave up caffeine which helped a lot. This, though, is a amazing. I am fine. Relaxed and calm with no anxiety or upset. I actually do feel fantastic. I cannot begin to speculate on how animal proteins cause or contribute to emotional stress but if the question is "How do you feel?", the answer is , "Great!"

Here are Richard Wright and Pink Floyd asking "How do you feel"?
Kind of Ironic that my favorite Pink Floyd album has a cow on the front...

On The Road Again...

Here are the Good ol Grateful Dead doing "On The Road Again" in 1984

Eating out on the road on a plant based diet is easy. Eating out on the road on a plant based diet with no oil is a challenge to say the least. I have had to eat out three times and am batting .000. Sometimes the best you can do is come as close as possible.  For my first meal out I had a magnificent quinoa burger, but it had been prepared with oil and upset my stomach. Also the "whole grain" bun was just regular bread with some oats glued to the top. This was also the case at the "vegan" restaurant I went to for my second meal out. Prefab veggie burger on a "whole wheat pita" again, just brown regular bread. When I asked that it be prepared with no oil, the waitress looked at me like I was nuts. She said they would use PAM instead of oil. I then told her PAM was oil, and she said it is not oil, it is PAM. ayayeee. Again, upset stomach. Yesterday, at the health food store I had to grab a pre-made sandwich and It was veggies and tofu with oil listed as an ingredient in the vegan mayo they used. I had it anyway with no stomach upset. You will find that it is best to eat as much at home as possible, and bring a bag of figs or a snack. I am already thinking about golf snacks as the season approaches. I think if I can whip up some black bean affair in an Ezekiel wrap and a bag of figs I should be fine. I do get hungry on the course because I walk and being hungry with 8 holes to go is never a good plan.

Getting Started on a Plant Based Regimen

The first thing you will have to do after buying and reading Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure, is go shopping. There are many staples and basics you may not have in your current carnivorous kitchen. I needed to buy lots of spices, grains, and legumes, dry lentils, dry and canned beans of all sorts, spelt flour for making gravy, quinoa for sprinkling on salads, plums, raisins, and figs, Ezekiel bread, Wasa crackers and nutritional yeast. The nutritional yeast is an easily acquired taste and it has a cheesy flavor that is very nice. I enjoy sprinkling it on a sweet potato. Read the recipes in Dr. Esselstyn's book, as well as on Fat Free Vegan and you will get a good idea of what you need. I also keep on hand Bragg's liquid aminos and Bragg's apple cider vinegar. I use the liquid aminos almost every day for making my own oil and tahini free hummus.

You will now need some storage. I had to get some counter storage jars for my new legume and whole grain friends as well as refrigerator storage containers as you will be making things in larger quantities.

The next step is to set your meals for week 1. There will be an adjustment period, so make sure you have all your meals planned. Here was my week one meal plan:

Breakfast

Rolled oats with chopped apples, raisins, cinnamon, and flax seed meal (recommended by Dr. Esselstyn for Omega-3s). This is very good and very filling.

Snack

Prunes or figs

Lunch

Sweet potato with nutritional yeast.
A large salad with lettuce, radicchio, arugula, grape tomatoes, beets, red quinoa and balsamic vinegar.

Snack

Homemade Hummus on  Wasa crackers
In a blender: 
1 15 oz can of chick peas
Juice of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
1 tbs of Bragg's liquid aminos
Cumin to taste
I like a roasted red pepper or some Italian parsley as well.
This is great hummus and you wont miss the tahini or oil one bit.

Dinner

The amazing Fat Free Vegan Smokey Apple Baked Beans
I also have a big bowl of brussel sprouts steamed with liquid aminos. You will be stuffed!
I also had Dr Esselstyn's black bean burgers on Ezekiel toast with shiitake mushroom gravy, both of which can be found in the book.

Snack

Grape Nuts or rolled oats or a couple of prunes

Final step, feel great, because you will!

Forks Over Knives

Movie review time! I just finished watching Forks Over Knives for the first time and it really is very good and only mentions mythological anthropomorphic global warming once, which is less than I expected, so that's a win right there. In the opening sequence it also veers very close to advocating nanny state-ism but then mercifully pulls away. We have to remember that we can only suggest that people eat better food . In the words of C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Forks Over Knives makes its points very clearly and convincingly. It allows us to follow the clinical path of three individuals, one female diabetic, one male who has a host of issues, and the film maker himself. All three show a complete reversal of symptoms. The film also shows how Dr. Campbell, from a scientific perspective, and Dr. Esselstyn, from a clinical perspective, follow the same path to the same realization. That our western meat and cheese based diet is a killer. There is no misguided hippie activism here. The film makes its points and makes them very well. All that being said, Forks Over Knives is a very important film.

Olive Oil Wars

The olive oil wars are in full swing, a good piece is here, by Dr. McDougall , rebutting the latest study attempting to prove that less of a very bad thing makes it a good thing.  It is the very first topic any of your friends or relatives will bring up to you when you say you are on Dr. Esselstyn's regimen. The second is "where do you get your protein?"- we can discuss that later.

Olive oil, and all oil, damages your endothelium, which leads to heart disease. Why would you want any of it?

The other point my friends have brought up, besides it being "good for you" is that it lubricates your joints. Seriously? Unless this is your driver license picture:

You don't need olive oil to lubricate your joints. After just 2 weeks following a plant based oil free diet I had a veggie burger out and they must have used oil in the prep, it was a delicious quinoa burger, but the tiny amount of oil caused quite a bit of distress. I am finding that if you want to find out which foods are not your friend, eliminate them for a few days and then see how you react.

This Recipe is a Man's Vegan Feast

I made this recipe for Smoky Apple Baked Beans from Susan at FatFree Vegan Kitchen. It is just incredible, a true man's feast. I did not have smoked paprika, so I used Hungarian hot paprika in its place and it gave it a nice kick. One thing I have found when starting out on a plant based diet regimen with no oil, is that you need to learn a new way of cooking. I am an expert at throwing a steak in a cast iron skillet, or caramelizing my onions in a sea of olive oil, but those skills are no longer handy. By seeking out great blogs like Susan's you can quickly learn new styles of cooking that will be extremely satisfying. I also had to rearrange my kitchen to accommodate all my new vegetable and whole grain friends, which I will detail soon...

The Atkins Deceit

I am an Atkins refugee. I have spent the last two years eating bacon, and steak, and steak, and bacon, and cheese. No carbs, zero, nada, nil, and after an initial loss of 30 pounds, I gained a massive amount of weight back, 50 pounds to be exact. This weight gain occurred after changing to only eating only lean protein consisting of tuna and chicken. Again, no carbs, zero, yet my weight still climbed. Now, as I feast on veggies, fruits, and whole grains, I feel fantastic and my weight is dropping. Little did I know that I was also causing damaging my endiothelium by eating animal protein.  A more detailed explanation is here.

Here is Dr. Esselstyn himself, explaining how, by eating animal protein, you are damaging your endothelium.

By staying on Atkins, not only are you increasing your risk of heart disease tenfold, you may actually end up as I have. Still Fat.

An Extra Cheese Life

My whole life has been an "extra cheese" life. Now that I have eaten all the meat and cheese in the world and gotten away with it, I have been blessed with being handed a copy of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's  Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. No Meat, No Chicken, No Fish, No Cheese, No Oil, No Nuts, No cheese. seriously. No frickin' cheese.Why? I am 277.5 lbs. to start. Oh, and I'm only 5'8". Not a good combo. I lost 6.5 lbs week one and feel like a new person. I hope to share with you the recipes and regimen that lead me to success. If my golf handicap goes down as a result , this could be one seriously popular blog! I'm a 19 now...stay tuned.