The Perfect Diet

The Perfect Diet

  

People often ask me how I became a "vegan".  My standard response is that I just really started listening body and woke up one day eating mostly plants.  Is this the perfect diet for everyone?  I don't know, but I know it works great for me and I think it would benefit all people to eat mostly plants if nothing else.  That being said, I have conducted a very unofficial, unscientific study into who the healthiest people on earth are/were and what they eat.  What I have found is very interesting and in many cases surprising.

Succotash Dish

 

Many contemporary researchers and scientists today believe that our ancestors who were hunter-gatherers had the healthiest lifestyle.  In a nutshell, hunter-gatherers were nomadic foragers of food, eating wholesome natural food (because that was all that was available).  What has come to light in recent years is the variety of food eaten by hunter-gatherers.  In fact, the diet varied so widely by geography that most researchers cannot answer the question, "What is the perfect diet for human beings to eat to live long, healthy lives?"  The correct answer it seems is that it depends.  When faced with my own health challenges I sought the "correct" answer from books, CDs, seminars, researchers, doctors, etc for years.  In other words, I looked everywhere OUTSIDE myself.  After becoming intensely frustrated following others' advice explicitly to no avail, I finally started listening to my body.  In very short order, I got my answer.  What is your body telling you?

Healing Path

Kim and I are taking a few days to relax, evaluate, and plan. Reflecting back on where our journey started, I sit back, close my eyes, and vividly recall the absolute hell brought into our newlywed apartment some 8 years ago.  What started as intense chest pains led me to the Fort Carson ER where I was immediately taken back only to discover strong acid reflux - a symptom that would plague me for years and force me to sleep in a recliner for most of my first year of marriage.  People can describe intense chest pain and acid reflux, headaches, irritable bowels, insomnia, gut inflammation, and mood swings but it just doesn't do justice to the lived experience. 

A year later, taking 6 pills a day and feeling like a lab rat undergoing experiment after experiment, no relief was in sight.  My lap nisson fundoplication surgery (basically wrapping my stomach around my esophagus) gave me hope, despite the required all-liquid diet for the month to follow.  (Thanksgiving dinner just wasn't the same out of a blender...)  Fast forward 6 years after having tried all of the diets out there from Paleo (cave man diet), the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), Food Rotation Diet (keeping a journal of everything you eat and not eating it again for 72 hours - that was tough), Low fat, Low Sugar, Low Carb, Blood Type Diet - all of them.  Only to discover my eventual path to healing almost by accident - one in which could have prevented all those pills and perhaps even surgery.  A simple whole foods plant-based diet.  If you had told me even just a year ago that I would become a vegan and be running a plant-based meal delivery business, well I'm not sure what I would have said, but probably can't repeat it here...Here is where we are and I am proud to say I am a healthy man today because I changed the way I eat and the way I think.  No more pills.  No more sleepless nights.  No more pain. 

You deserve to feel great all the time too.  Our bodies were made perfectly and to exist in harmony and health.  Your pain is simply telling you to make a change.  The start of fall marks a chance for a new beginning.  YOUR new beginning.  Your new life.  Start yours today. 

Healthy Heart

What Would You Do if You Knew a Fool Proof Way to Prevent a Heart Attack?

Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof

We're not doctors or dietitians, but we know what it's like to try to make a change.  Does knowledge change behavior?  Most of the time - no.  The single factor found to determine successful long-term change is MOTIVATION. If someone offered you $1 million to eat a whole foods, plant-based diet, would you? Or what if someone kidnapped your kids and told you they wouldn't be returned until you stopped those bad habits and engaged in a wholly healthy lifestyle? How long would it take you to get started?  

Believe me, we get it.  This stuff is not easy.  Our hope is that we can help you on whatever part of your journey you'reon.  

Power Plate

Does Your Plate Look Like This?

 

In 1991, the PCRM (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine) developed the New Four Food Groups.  This zero cholesterol, low-fat plan supplies all of an average adult's daily nutritional requirements, including substantial amounts of fiber.  See below for recommended daily serving sizes. 

The Four New Food Groups

Fruit 3 or more servings a day Serving size: 1 medium piece of fresh fruit, 1/2 cup cooked fruit, 4 oz juice Vegetables 4 or more servings a day Serving size:  1 cup raw vegetables, 1/2 cup cooked vegetables Whole Grains 5 or more servings a day Serving size:  1/2 cup rice or other grain, 1 oz dry cereal, 1 slice bread Legumes 2 or more servings a day Serving size:  1/2 cup cooked beans, 4 oz tofu/tempeh, 8 oz soymilk

Tour de Veg

American Cyclist David Zabriskie Competing in the Tour de France on a Vegan Diet  

 

"I think a lot of people see food in terms of whether it's going to make them fat or make them skinny," he says. "I'm seeing food in terms of how it's going to make me think and will it give me clarity."  (Full story)