How did this happen?

Have you ever opened your eyes one morning and wondered how something happened? Something that’s in your face every day, something you’ve maybe denied has been happening for years, or something you’ve become some used to that now seems to be a real problem? That’s happened to me,.. at 274.1 lbs and a BMI of 37. I am obese! Do I fit into most social scenes? Yes. Do people run from me yelling , “Fat-Bastard! RUN!”? No,.. so it wasn’t a problem,.. or is it??

Over the years I’ve tried multiple times to lose weight. It works for a while, some weight comes off, but then it comes back. What I was doing is the standard yo-yo diet and exercise plan that millions of others do. I struggle just like any other middle aged male in the US today. I tried for a while to cut the sugar, and that didn’t seem to work. Then I tried to cut carbs altogether, and I smelled like cat piss every day. I’ve yet to find a lady that wants to cozy-up to a man that stinks like cat piss. So that can’t be the real answer, every fit guy in the world doesn’t stink like cat piss. So Keto is out! I tried the Isagenix plan for a while but couldn’t stick to it because I don’t like cold food all the time, and a shake for breakfast and lunch was a killer. So I failed at that too. Time and time again I failed to lose weight. The best I managed was 247 lbs while at the height of a mountain bike racing training plan. I was riding more than 100 miles every week and it consumed my evenings and most weekends. While fun, it left little time to do much else.

What to do now? Now that I’ve realized as I approach 50 this could shorten my life. I’d really like to not need any medication while accomplishing my main life goals, including sailing around the world. I started looking for answers to questions over and above, how do I lose weight. Questions like; how can I ensure my blood pressure stays in check? and how can I be sort of sure I can dive while I’m on my second life adventure? Being overall healthy turns out to be the main goal, so finding a solution to that problem was the real answer for which I began my search. My BP tends to run high, it’s genetic, I get it from my mother. That’s a problem when you’re heavy, it makes it worse. Your heart has to pump harder, which will wear it out faster and could cause your veins to have trouble over time. I’m no Dr. so the health threats of hypertension need to be found elsewhere, but let’s say I don’t want to deal with them as I age.

Cutting to the chase,.. I decided after some time to take the plunge down the whole-foods-plant-based diet. Not vegan because I don’t care about the animals per-say,. in that I say animals taste great! But rather I found the work of Dr. Gregor and others in the field and I think their research on longevity is solid. Why? Because they study cultures where people live to be around 100, on average and many times live past 100. More importantly, these people living that long are healthy and fit to that age rather than infirmed and unhealthly. In most cases these cultures eat very little meat, no dairy, and are light on the eggs. Think Okinawa and rural China, but that’s not the only place where people eat mostly plant based. I have to say I’ll never be a militant Vegan. I’ll never look down on people because they eat meat or fish, because it’s tasty and I like it too! What really spoke to me was the research around aging and disease. People that don’t eat processed food, of any kind, tend to have much lower weight, diseases of all types and age related mental disease. They don’t usually have strokes or hypertension and some people that live whole-food-plant-based diet actually reverse cardio vascular disease. This seems to speak to my purpose the best versus Keto or the all meat diet or something else.

I found Penn Jillette’s book Presto based on a recommendation of a guy on You Tube and bought it, not knowing it was about whole-food-plant-based (WFPB) diet but rather Penn lost 100 lbs and wanted to share his experience. The book talks about “cray-Ray”, his friend Ray Cronise that laid out the plan to get Penn off the salt, fat, and sugar. I did a lot of studying on Ray Cronise and found lots of videos with him on You Tube where he lays out his story, his illness and experience and how he’s overcoming those with a WFPB diet and fasting, which is what Penn decided to do as he lost weight with it.

The plan comes together. I decided to do IF, intermittent fasting, and do it every day. So, based on “cray-Ray” and lots of other data I decided to essentially skip a morning meal every day, and start the potato famine, or potato mono-diet on Jan 1, 2020. This isn’t a NYR (new years resolution) because it really has nothing to do with new year. This is a lifelong change. What I found through Presto is that once I reach my target rate I can have a night every so often, not more than once a month or so, where I eat like a regular American,. e.i., eat garbage if I want to or the situation and occasion seems right. Day to day, stay on the plan and eat WFPB.

What does WFPB mean? Here’s where the rubber meets the road in opposition to the Vegan way. WFPB means no processed food at all. No Pasta, no bread, no white rice, nothing made from a cow, pig, chicken or fish. So, that also means no oil of any kind. What does it include? All vegetables, all fruits, all legumes, all nuts and seeds.

Breaking the habits. I, like Penn, have the salt, fat, and sugar habit. Everything I eat is laced badly with one or more of those things. I decided to follow Penn and do the potato famine,..