When my wife Amy read my post last week on eating Vegan she looked at me and asked me why I didn't write the entire story. Sometimes when I write it flows so quickly that I miss a lot of details. Amy's family has a very long history of heart disease. Even though she exercises and eats very well, she is always trying to do what ever she can to ensure that her heart stays healthy. We talk a lot about genetics vs. environmental causes on our health.
Recently she went to her Doctor to have a full blood-work done. She wanted to know if her diet and exercise program were keeping her healthy. She was happy to see that her overall Cholesterol was at 160, but shocked when her Dr. wanted to put her on a low dose of Lipitor because her LDL was 80. Her Dr. wanted to see it at 70 or below. Amy flat out refused to accept the prescription. From what we have researched, taking Lipitor as a preventive measure shows no effectiveness and can actually cause a ton of physical problems. I am not going to go into a long post about our medical system, but I can say that it is a shame that we only look at medicine as a way to cover up the underlying reasons for health issues. Its way easier to take a pill than to discover the cause and modify our habits.
After watching "Forks over Knives" and reading a lot about how animal proteins affect our bodies, Amy decided to eliminate almost all of it (she still eats a little fish and can't live without some milk in her coffee) for a 8 week period and then have her blood work done again to see the results. She is going back next week, and can't wait to see if it helped.
During this period I decided to do a detox and go back on the no sugar, wheat, etc..Ultrametabolism diet. Since it eliminates all dairy and many animal products I joined her doing the Vegan thing. As I posted last week the results for me were very surprising. At this point, I have no plans to stop eating Vegan.
After last weeks post, many asked what I actually DO eat. One day last week I took a picture of everything I ate all day. Below is everything I ate from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed. If anybody reading is a nutritionist and has an opinion I'd love to hear it.
When I woke up I was hungry, so I grabbed a few almonds before taking the dogs out.
Breakfast - Brown rice, salsa and 1/2 an avocado. Also had a cup of green tea.
Mid morning snack - Corn thins with Almond butter.
Two almond covered date rolls for snack, as I was going to have a late lunch.
More snacks, corn thins with chipotle hummus
Late lunch - Big salad with pickled hot peppers and garlic.
Afternoon snack - corn thins and red lentil chipotle hummus.
Some sunflower seeds before dinner.
Red wine with dinner.
Dinner - Brown rice tortilla with spicy homade beans (black, aduki, seasonings), avocado, salsa
More Almonds before bed.
Next mornings Breakfast - Tofu with salsa, avocado and toasted brown rice tortilla.
This is just one days worth of food, but pretty representative of how I eat now. Of course there are a lot more things that we eat like lots of fruit, veggies, quinoa, etc. It takes a lot of time to eat like this as almost nothing comes out of a box. But, it is so worth it.
Awesome, btw you totally inspired me. I'm going to do the vegan thing for 30 days. But I'm going to allow myself stevia...just can't cut out all the sweets. So we'll see how it works out for me. Of course I'll let you know my results.
Congrats, man. I hope you and Amy both find the changes beneficial. Also, if you have any great recipes, do share them. I'm working on adding more meatless meals into rotation and finding that I'm most familiar with Mexican dishes, so I've done a lot with beans and tortillas. I'd love to branch out into Indian and Asian cooking too.
Nate....awesome is all I can say. Deb's a vegan and I'm close. I still like to have that occasional steak ;-)
One thing I'd like to comment on is your almonds and sunflower seeds are roasted, which is not good. Deb knows more about this, but heating nuts changes the oil and makes it bad for our bodies, much better to eat them raw.
My guru for all things nutritional is Ben Greenfield. Listen to his podcasts, you'll be blown away. Here's one example http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/05/what-to-do-when-youre-overtrained/ Scroll down to #4 for a mention of roasted nuts or search his blog for it.
I am a 30 mile per week runner and am strongly considering going vegan. I am a little intimidated with where to start. Is Whole Foods a good place to find vegan items? What places are safe to eat out? I am not a good cook to begin with, so I'm not sure if I can pull it off. What tools and resources did you use to get started?
I don't really think that eliminating caffine will effect your ability to eat Vegan. If you use cream or milk in your coffee, you obviously will want to eliminate that. I still drink several cups of black coffee a day. If you are planning on doing the detox part of the Ultrametabolism diet, then yes, you need to eliminate all caffine for the first 2 weeks. Best of luck! Nate
8 comments:
Awesome, btw you totally inspired me. I'm going to do the vegan thing for 30 days. But I'm going to allow myself stevia...just can't cut out all the sweets. So we'll see how it works out for me. Of course I'll let you know my results.
Alex, that's way cool. Please keep me posted on how it goes.
Congrats, man. I hope you and Amy both find the changes beneficial. Also, if you have any great recipes, do share them. I'm working on adding more meatless meals into rotation and finding that I'm most familiar with Mexican dishes, so I've done a lot with beans and tortillas. I'd love to branch out into Indian and Asian cooking too.
This is VERY cool... I enjoy reading your posts...
Nate....awesome is all I can say. Deb's a vegan and I'm close. I still like to have that occasional steak ;-)
One thing I'd like to comment on is your almonds and sunflower seeds are roasted, which is not good. Deb knows more about this, but heating nuts changes the oil and makes it bad for our bodies, much better to eat them raw.
My guru for all things nutritional is Ben Greenfield. Listen to his podcasts, you'll be blown away. Here's one example http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/05/what-to-do-when-youre-overtrained/
Scroll down to #4 for a mention of roasted nuts or search his blog for it.
Nate,
I am a 30 mile per week runner and am strongly considering going vegan. I am a little intimidated with where to start. Is Whole Foods a good place to find vegan items? What places are safe to eat out? I am not a good cook to begin with, so I'm not sure if I can pull it off. What tools and resources did you use to get started?
I am planning to start this diet 2mrw.. Do you really have to eliminate caffine?? Or can i have a cup of coffee??
Hi Paolo,
I don't really think that eliminating caffine will effect your ability to eat Vegan. If you use cream or milk in your coffee, you obviously will want to eliminate that. I still drink several cups of black coffee a day. If you are planning on doing the detox part of the Ultrametabolism diet, then yes, you need to eliminate all caffine for the first 2 weeks. Best of luck!
Nate
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