Looking Forward

What's made from whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains without oil? Me!
I have made three very important choices in my life that resulted in extremely positive outcomes for me.

The first, and the decision that had the most impact on my adult life, was to become involved with and marry my wife of forty years, Anita Gayle. I really can’t imagine what my life’s journey would have been without her by my side through thick and thin. She remains my soul mate and life partner.

The second, was to practice the Korean martial art Tae Kwon Do with my three daughters for almost 20 years. Besides giving me a positive life-strengthening connection to Anna, Beth, and Samantha, it provided a physical and mental discipline that evolved into a practical method to navigate life’s twists and turns at work, in personal relationships, and with family responsibilities.

The third and most recent, was an accidental discovery by my wife and me of a plant-based way of eating. The health results of adopting this extreme form of vegan-ism over the last 17 months have been nothing short of extraordinary.

In August, 2011, Anita and I were at our home one evening when a TV report called The Last Heart Attack aired hosted by CNN’s Dr. Sanje Gupta, MD that reported a new vegan-type diet that was being touted by former President Bill Clinton as saving him another heart bypass surgery and possibly death by cardiac arrest.  Anita was upstairs in our living room with the TV and I was at my basement desk on my computer.

During the hour long show, Dr Gupta revealed the background of the diet: the research of DR. T. COLIN CAMPBELL, Ph.D. of Cornell University, and DR. CALDWELL ESSELSTYN of the Cleveland Clinic over the past decade and more pointing to their scientific research and findings indicating that a diet consisting entirely of whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains along with consuming no oils, meat, fish, eggs, or milk products possibly halt or reversed heart disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and certain forms of cancer, while slowing the aging process.

I remember hearing most of the show and being struck buy the simplicity of this way of eating - no counting calories, no complicated menus, no extra money to spend on frozen prepared meal plans. Just good, healthy, whole food.  It seemed like an easy and smart way to solve my weight gain and increasing health issues. Plus, it was based on years of scientific research, not some health food company selling pills. I went upstairs and mentioned to Anita that maybe we should try to change our way of eating. She agreed since she had just come to the same conclusion about her own health after watching CNN’s show.

At the time, I was 70 pounds over-weight, on two different blood pressure meds, a statin drug for cholesterol, and not sleeping very well.  Even though I had been exercising constistantly and “dieting” to drop weight for years, my weight kept increasing and I was starting to look more and more like an old fat white guy. I also felt weak because of the side-effects of the drugs I was taking regularly every day.

Anita had been diagnosed about 18 months previously with Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and was on the standard regime of a BP med, statin drug, and two drugs to control her diabetes, which included a finger stick twice a day to test her blood sugar level.

Since all three of our daughters were through college and employed, we decided to “experiment” on ourselves to see if this new whole-plant-foods-minus-oil way of eating would help us. 

After doing some additional research on the subject and Anita's reading of Dr. Campbell's ground-breaking book, The China Study, we quit eating meat, eggs, milk products, and oil “cold turkey” and are both VERY satisfied with the return to health we have both experienced during the past year and a half. Staying on this diet is much easier than we thought it would be, is cost effective, and delicious. 

After only a few months on the diet, both Anita and I were able to drop all of our medications because we didn’t need them anymore. So far, I have lost 40 pounds, Anita is no longer diabetic, and we both feel (and look) younger.  

Since we were already on a regimen of daily exercise, our unofficial home-made experiment told us that the dramatic changes in our bodies were primarily a result of our new whole-plant-foods-minus-oil way of eating.

Anita, who worked for over 15 years as an educator with the State University Extension Systems in Washington State and Utah, immediately started a blog called Anita’s Healthy Life as a repository of knowledge about our new way of eating. She also researches recipes and posts them on her site for others to try, and continually looks for new ways to improve the information on her blog.

My own goal in starting this blog is to document my experience with this new eating adventure which has provided me with better health, weight loss, and more intelligent eating choices. While being admittedly anecdotal in nature, I hope my posts will provide a positive incentive to those who wish to try this whole-plant-foods-minus-oil way of eating.