Brief word of testimony on health

Taking a second to praise the Lord to you all about my health.

God allowed me to get a very healthy scare to shake me into action on what I ate and how much I weighed. I won't go into boring details on the how of it.

I'll share these three bullet points:

1. My wife and I have been on a vegan eating lifestyle for 45 days now. We juice fresh vegetables and fruits to drink with our main 3 meals per day (requires every other night about 45 minutes of work), have all but abandoned eating out (except for lunches on occasion where we eat veggies, salads). We both feel WAY better. I feel better than I have since I was in my 30s.

2. I've lost 30 pounds in six weeks. We get plenty to eat. We are putting the right stuff in, not going a bit hungry. On January 16, I weighed 232 pounds. This morning I weighed 201. I'm shooting for 180 as an ideal, but I if I don't lose another pound I'm two bowling balls lighter and that much healthier. I can easily live with my size now --- and my dress shirts fit again. :)

3. This is not a diet. This is a live-it. God has given me grace and determination like I never knew. I have had a true metanoia -- change of mind and direction -- about food. I no longer want what I have always loved to eat, and that folks is a miracle of its own. I now love and look forward to eating things I never would eat before. And, I'm so very thankful and glad.

Praise you, Jesus for not just a change of what I eat, but a change of heart about what I eat.

Thanks for sharing.

3 questions:

1) what are your primary protein sources and do you get recommended daily allowance of protein

2). Are you spending more, less or about the same on food

3) do you buy all organic stuff

1. Kale, spinach, legumes, beans and quinoa.

2. Less. We buy a lot of produce at Aldi, and some at other supermarkets. On occasion we go to Whole Foods but it is 50 miles away. It is more of an expedition than simply shopping. But, we stopped eating out, which we did 3-4 nights per week. I am coming out ahead.

3. Mixed. We do our best to stick with organic but is not always available. We live in a very small rural town.

If you paid SS tax, you paid for Medicare, in my view. But, you still pay a premium and a Part B copay. It is public insurance. Use it as needed. Coverage for seniors outside Medicare is pricey, and you have to time any exit from Medicare just right to remain covered. Re entry can be problematic relative to open enrollment.

I appreciate this excellent illustration of 'metanoia', dolfan! LOL

Give us an update when you hit your ideal weight of 180 - perhaps with some before-after pictures to go with it ;)

Thats great to read Dolfan (Tim). I've also changed my 'diet'. Don't think i'll ever be a full-out Vegan, more hybrid. Highly recommend a Nutri-Ninja. It just makes eating fruits and vegetables alot easier.

I do eat organic chicken and fish. No red meats. And adding Vegan foods to that. Seem to always find new items. Latest favorite is Cauliflower Rice. Its a great rice-substitute, same texture but without the carbs.

Oh, listen. We've been amazed at the "substitutes". The variety, the taste. Yes, it takes extra work. No doubt. My wife is cooking almost nightly, where before it was like only 2-3 nights per week (we ate a lot of fast food).

Good thing is veggies cook quickly. Lots of creative and tasty things like the cauliflower rice. We have eaten that several times. I like it with grilled squash and portabella mushrooms or bell peppers.

We use a Fusion Juicer (we bought it about 3 years ago at Walmart). Got our juice recipes from rebootwithjoe dot com. (Watch the movie, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" for more on juicing.) We also have a Ninja. Sometimes I'll make a smoothie out of my juice at breakfast.

I will say this about meat. We're not avoiding meat for any reason other than some nutritionists recommend that we get only 5 % of our nutrients from meat instead of the 90-95% we get from it on our typical American diet. The nutrient form in vegetables and fruit is just far healthier. I believe it and here's my own experience so far. I was stiff, in all kinds of discomfort and pain and just very inflexible physically. Now going 7 weeks into this, I movie without joint pain, I don't feel bloated and I can actually pick up my kid again (yes, she's 12, but she still wants me to get her from time to time) without feeling like I'm dying. I actually move without joint stiffness (well, ALMOST :) ). Also, since not eating meat, eating meat twice has given me a pounding headache the next day. One Friday or Saturday night a couple of weeks ago, I had a bite of BBQ. Next day -- major headache. Last Friday night, my wife and I split a chicken entrée on an otherwise vegetarian meal at Olive Garden. It was good. The headache on Saturday was definitely not. I don't know if there really are hormones and inflammatory agents in our processed meat or not, but if I were to base it on my two intakes of meat in the last 7 weeks, I'd say absolutely something is in there that doesn't belong.

What I don't want to do is be heard as being all "vegan"-y. I can only testify. I can't preach. :)

It was funny. I had a lady in my office last week who I hadn't seen in about 4 months. I represent her son. She said, "Are you the same lawyer that I saw before?". I laughed and said, "Yeah, but I'm not as much of him."

Good work on that organic and avoiding red meats. Praying your health and overall feeling remains high, too!!