One year ago today, Monica called me upstairs and said “Your
girlfriend is on TV!” Of course, she was
talking about Michelle Pfeiffer. Turns
out the former Pink Lady was talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN, and they were
talking about health. Ok, I’ll
bite. The Cardinals aren’t on TV so I’ll
sit down and watch it. They talked about
how well she looked and whether she had ever had plastic surgery, and then they
talked about what she ate.
She professed she was a vegan, and that an interview Dr.
Gupta had done the year before with former president Bill Clinton was the
inspiration behind her change in diet. That
previous interview was part of a special report Dr. Gupta aired called The LastHeart Attack. After President Clinton
suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery after he was out off ice, he
turned to the advice of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. So, I had Michelle Pfeiffer, former President
Clinton, and Dr. Gupta all telling me that this Dr. Esselstyn was the greatest
person on earth; that he had the secret to eternal life. The Good Doctor wrote a book that simply
states “Stop eating foods from animals because they are high in cholesterol,
and cholesterol causes heart attacks”
Eat a plant based diet instead . . . veggies, fruits, beans, whole
grains, etc. Get your cholesterol under
150 total mg/dl he says, and you’ll never have a heart attack. Period.
Well heck, I was bored so I said I would stop eating beef
for a few weeks and see what happened. I
like fruits and veggies so how hard could it be? Next thing you know, I had eliminated all
beef, chicken, fish from my diet as well as anything dairy . . . no butter, no
cheese, no milk, etc. Eat nothing with a
face or that had a mother. I ordered Dr.
Esselstyn’s book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and read it from cover to
cover. I researched his website,
heartattackproof.com, and I became a disciple.
Within 6 weeks, my cholesterol was down from 200 to 147 mg/dl, and I had
lost 30 pounds. The weight loss has
stalled, but my Vegan Vigilance has not.
Today is my one year Veganniversary and I think I’m here to
stay. My family has been very
supportive, and I have tried and found new foods that I had never thought about
eating before. I had never tasted hummus
before. Or guacamole. Or a black bean burger, or whole grain pasta,
or edamame, tofu, Thai Food, curry, Coconut milk, Almond milk, ice cream made
with coconut milk, etc., etc. And I
love peppers, all colors, all shapes and sizes.
I can mix myself up a pot of stir fried peppers and onions and whole
grain rice, and red and black beans, and eat it for a week. Courtesy of my wife and my daughters, I’ve
had vegan cupcakes, vegan cookies, vegan cranberry salad, vegan apple crisp,
and vegan peanut butter cake . . . all made with no dairy products. Now, they still have plenty of calories
(LOL), but they are delicious and contain no butter whatsoever.
Yes, I miss steak and bacon and Snickers bars. But my plan is to live to 110 years old. What the heck; I lived on the bad foods for
the first 55 years; now I’ll live on plants for the next 55. I’m liking it so far. I’ll let you know how it turns out in about
54 more years.