Today starts a new bold and aggressive experiment. For a month am going to try to give up meat, dairy and highly processed foods.
This is not going to be a permanent change, but a 30 day experiment into nutrition and human will.
Having lost over 40 pounds between 2010 and 2011, I was doing well with diet and exercise, but everything went awry in July of last year. I would like to give a lot of excuses about the emotional burden of the death and near death of a family member, the stress of purchasing a home over six months period and the responsibilities of family, but they all are just excuses.
If anything those were all motivation to continue to diet and exercise. The truth was I found comfort from food and the more weight I put on the harder it became to exercise.
Another goal was set last month and exercise was once again introduced into the schedule, but there have been some problems with losing weight still. Healthy food is being ate, but so too is a fair amount of unhealthy food.
So what does a bad diet have to do with eliminating meat, dairy and highly processed foods? These seem to be all of my "comfort foods". As I have gotten older I found I enjoy more vegetables then I ever enjoyed before, but there is not much "comfort" in a bag of carrots. There is a whole lot of good feeling in cheese burger and fries.
I also watched a documentary "Forks Over Knives" that had some good information about what a whole food plant based diet and the health benefits that come with it. I read some criticism of the movie that it propaganda for a vegan diet, but my interpretation was it was encouraging a whole food plant based diet to replace the current high animal protein diet (The Western Diet). More importantly to me though, is the conscious removal highly processed foods, which I believe are a large cause for obesity.
My goal is to go 30 days without eating meat, dairy and highly processed foods. I plan to continue the exercise schedule and if all goes well increase it. If all goes as planned, I want to be able to set an example to my family (wife, children and father) that eating healthy has many good effects. I want my father to understand his self destructive eating habits are not helping him take full advantage of his "second chance".
So today begins the 30 day journey into a drastic change with my diet, but hopefully the beginning of a healthier husband, father and son.
Let the experiment begin (going to post some pictures of some of the food we create).