Yesterday Jeannie and I had a bit of a wake-up call with eating habits and health. One of her best friends went to the ER with chest pains on Friday and they scheduled a quintuple bypass operation for Monday (yesterday) - that means it was serious. She's recovering but with surgery that extensive, it's going to be painful, years long and expensive. I don't want that future for me. I simply can't imagine it.
I've spent the majority of my life eating badly - bacon wrapped high-fat steak, bacon cheeseburgers, anything with butter, fried foods, 9 cups of coffee per day, a gallon of Coke/Sprite per day, and all the oxidation that turns even healthy fats into arterial plaque. In 1996 I discovered a better way, and study into that has probably extended my life to this point; I doubt I'd have made it past 35. I eat much healthier than I used to, but in the past couple years I started back on sodas (I was off them entirely for two full years), Doritos, and even fast food.
My week at Sanoviv in 2014 was eye opening and life changing. We spent a week eating extremely-high-antioxidant vegan food, no caffeine, no sugar, no red meat, no dairy; and we learned how to be truly healthy as part of our Certified Nutritional Advisor course. After that week and watching some health related documentaries, even "not a veggie in sight" Jeannie is as vegan as possible. (We still struggle because there are absolutely zero restaurants in Brookhaven, MS that have items with no dairy or meat). She's researched vegan food for three years and even if we have to have it cold-shipped to us every two weeks, most of it is amazing.
I promised my daughter I'd live to 100, and it'll take decades for healthy foods to scrub off the arterial plaque I'm sure I've built up over the past four decades. So, I need to get serious now before the pains start. I need to eliminate: caffeine, added sugar, red meat (I'm keeping chicken and fish for now), and processed foods like Doritos. In some way, be it mental or chemical, I'm addicted to all of those, and I need to cure that addiction.
I'm still partnered with USANA Health Sciences, and I think what I've learned over these years has kept me going - but I need to do things properly, take my vitamins every day instead of when I remember, take my medicine every day instead of when I remember, exercise when it's no longer 115 freaking degrees outside. It will take me at least 20 years to become 20 again. I'll start now, month by month - eliminating one item per month. There is no miracle cure, no Healthy Button; it's a process and it takes daily effort.
This month: No more burgers or steaks. I'll make my own burgers from Beyond Meat - I've discovered it's extremely close to beef in texture.
Also this month, I will take my vitamins and daily medicine at least ten times in the next 23 days.
