Joined
·
1,714 Posts
Weird journey I've been on the last couple of months. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd do something like this and enjoy it so much.
Started by watching Bill Maher in late July when he interviewed T Colin Campbell re the upcoming release of Forks over Knives on DVD. Never thought a 5 min interview would change my life so much, though I probably was open to it given my age (45) and family heart disease on both sides of my family. My mom's brother had a near fatal heart attack when he was 43 and then another one when he was 45. A significant portion of his heart died in the second attack and he has been a shell of himself ever since. My dad's brother (only 7 years older than me) started having significant heart problems when he was 49 and my gramps though 94 had bypass surgery when he was 65 and again when he was 85. Both my parents have been on cholesterol drugs for 15 years. Needless to say I was beginning to get fatalistic about my chances. My cholesterol has also been in the 240-250 range for the last 15+ years.
Being intrigued I searched him out and found out about the China Study, bought and read it. Then onto Dr. Esselstyn, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Then onto another half dozen or so books on the subject. Anyway about half way through the China Study I became convinced a whole food plant based diet was the key and immediately did a 180 on how I approached food and decided to take my fate into my own hands. The Mrs. read the book and was convinced too so she is along for the ride.
First half of August it was a little more difficult because our youngest son was still living at home and while supportive he wasn't ready to change his diet so drastically. When he went off to college (we have 2 older kids in college too) on August 17th we threw out or gave away all of our animal based food still remaining in the house along with any "junk" food though there has never been much of that.
Shortly thereafter we bought a nice elliptical machine to make some cardio workouts more convenient at home and use it at least 5 days a week for 20-30 min/session. We also have been walking for 45min to 1Hr every day.
Fast forward to now. I haven't felt this energetic and good in years. I've dropped 35 pounds and am still losing 1-2 pounds per week, in another 3-4 months I'll be where I want to be. The Mrs. who wasn't as overweight as I has dropped 14 pounds with another 10 to go. She feels great and energetic too.
The only real difficulties I've faced is when we take our kids out to dinner, we visit them fairly often, as they all live within 180 miles from us but they all had to go to different colleges/universities. It's taken a bit of research to find veggie friendly places to eat. Also going to be a little difficult when we visit family/friends but I'm sure we'll find a way to work that out.
Anyway glad to have found this board.
Started by watching Bill Maher in late July when he interviewed T Colin Campbell re the upcoming release of Forks over Knives on DVD. Never thought a 5 min interview would change my life so much, though I probably was open to it given my age (45) and family heart disease on both sides of my family. My mom's brother had a near fatal heart attack when he was 43 and then another one when he was 45. A significant portion of his heart died in the second attack and he has been a shell of himself ever since. My dad's brother (only 7 years older than me) started having significant heart problems when he was 49 and my gramps though 94 had bypass surgery when he was 65 and again when he was 85. Both my parents have been on cholesterol drugs for 15 years. Needless to say I was beginning to get fatalistic about my chances. My cholesterol has also been in the 240-250 range for the last 15+ years.
Being intrigued I searched him out and found out about the China Study, bought and read it. Then onto Dr. Esselstyn, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Then onto another half dozen or so books on the subject. Anyway about half way through the China Study I became convinced a whole food plant based diet was the key and immediately did a 180 on how I approached food and decided to take my fate into my own hands. The Mrs. read the book and was convinced too so she is along for the ride.
First half of August it was a little more difficult because our youngest son was still living at home and while supportive he wasn't ready to change his diet so drastically. When he went off to college (we have 2 older kids in college too) on August 17th we threw out or gave away all of our animal based food still remaining in the house along with any "junk" food though there has never been much of that.
Shortly thereafter we bought a nice elliptical machine to make some cardio workouts more convenient at home and use it at least 5 days a week for 20-30 min/session. We also have been walking for 45min to 1Hr every day.
Fast forward to now. I haven't felt this energetic and good in years. I've dropped 35 pounds and am still losing 1-2 pounds per week, in another 3-4 months I'll be where I want to be. The Mrs. who wasn't as overweight as I has dropped 14 pounds with another 10 to go. She feels great and energetic too.
The only real difficulties I've faced is when we take our kids out to dinner, we visit them fairly often, as they all live within 180 miles from us but they all had to go to different colleges/universities. It's taken a bit of research to find veggie friendly places to eat. Also going to be a little difficult when we visit family/friends but I'm sure we'll find a way to work that out.
Anyway glad to have found this board.
