I have been trying for over a year to be healthier, after learning that my cholesterol was around 260 at the end of 2012 and my doctor threatened me with statins. Like my mother, I steadfastly refuse to take statins!
I'm past middle age, I'm chubby, and I'm asthmatic, but I've completed 11 full marathons -- the most recent in October 2013 -- so I figure I'm not completely lost. But I don't want to be chubby any more!
So, in June 2013, I decided to start Dr. Joel Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" program, with the encouragement of my brother, who is older than I and had already lost 25 pounds on the program. It's a very challenging way of life -- fully vegan, anti-salt and not too fond of sugar either. I also chose just about the worst possible time to start the program -- the same week my kitchen was demolished for renovation. I had no stove, no oven (other than a tabletop microwave), no sink, no dishwasher. Oy. What was I thinking??
But I managed. There are lots of soup recipes in the Eat to Live book, and I had a burner on our grill on the deck to cook. I had a Vitamix, and plenty of smoothie recipes.
The first six weeks of Eat to Live are very strict -- one pound each of raw and cooked veggies, at least one cup of beans, and at least four fruits a day, every day. No sweets. No bread. No alcohol (not a huge problem for me, but I do love the Moore Brothers' wines!).
But in six weeks I'd lost ten pounds. My skin looked better. I slept better.
Then I started easing off. Not on the veganism -- I'm still 95% vegan with the rare exception for dairy products when I'm traveling and can't find vegan but can find vegetarian -- but on the healthy choices outside of all the veggies. I returned to the sweets, which are my biggest weakness. I learned that Girl Scout Thin Mints are vegan (if you don't count the fact that commercial sugar is made with ground up animal bones, which I didn't learn until after I had eaten a full sleeve of them in 30 minutes). Most dark chocolate is vegan. And I ate plenty of them. I even at the desserts at our favorite vegan restaurant.
You can be an unhealthy vegan, believe it or not.
So, I gained the ten pounds back. I did drop my cholesterol by 125 points, though, and my doctor was very pleased with me. But that was only seven months after I'd started Eat to Live, and I'd been eating a lot of sweets since.
I've hired a nutritionist. She's getting me off of sugar -- at least off of refined, cane sugar. She introduced me to coconut sugar, which has a much lower glycemic index and actually has nutrients, unlike cane sugar. She assured me that organic stevia is healthy -- only if it's nothing but the stevia extract, with no added crap like "Truvia" has.
I've done the research, and I now know that sugar is, truly, poison. It raises your cholesterol. It causes heart disease. It creates inflammation in your whole body, including your blood vessels. There is absolutely nothing positive about processed cane sugar, and yet it is in ALL processed foods. I've always known the corn lobby of agribusiness had created all kinds of nutrition and health problems in Americans, but so has the sugar lobby (of course, HFCS is the corn lobby's baby).
My nutritionist has also taught me that foods that raise the alkalinity of the body will fight all sorts of disease -- and that sugar is one of the worst foods for raising the acidity of the body. She taught me about foods that increase the alkalinity -- avocados, kale, lemons, and more -- and I'm once again fine-tuning my vegan diet. Thank goodness avocados raise alkalinity, as I truly, truly love avocados.
I no longer eat bread made from flour, having substituted bread made with whole wheat berries (like the vast majority of Americans, despite the latest "gluten-free" diet fad, I am not sensitive to gluten). I eat a LOT of kale. I treat myself with Go Raw's coconut crisps, in "lime in the coconut" and chocolate flavors -- whole, raw, organic treats.
And whaddya know -- I'm down nearly five pounds in two weeks. It took me SIX weeks to lose a measly ten pounds when I was faithfully following everything in the Eat to Live program, and ONE week to lose half that when being more conscious about raising my body's alkalinity and truly getting sugar OUT.
I'm still faced with cravings when I see yummy treats like brownies. Thanksgiving will challenge me, as I make the best pecan pie this side of the Rockies (mostly because I use walnuts instead). But I'm getting there, and I thank my nutritionist and Dr. Fuhrman for leading me down a healthier path.
It's the sugar, stupid. Just the sugar. Get rid of it and you will get rid of your ill health, your extra weight, your cholesterol, your feeling lousy.