Friday, October 21, 2011

October 20

I ate only a single meal on the 19th, due to playing an evening concert.  I noticed that I felt fine, and thought I would try a single meal on the 20th.  It was leftovers over rice - nothing worth a photo or recipe, but was tasty and satisfying.  As I  write this, on the morning of the 21st, I have a new weight low of 182.6.  That is about 2 pounds lower than my previous low, and shows the folly of worrying about the scale on a daily basis.  When you focus on what you are doing, the scale will reflect the quality of diet.

I saw Dr. McDougall's video, The Fat Vegan, recently.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIY-A_UspTs
It got me thinking about why I am doing this blog, which is to promote healthy eating and help people realize their goals.

Sooner or later, everybody in this country and on the planet even is going to convert to a whole plant food diet.  I would rather that this be sooner, and that is going to require everybody who supports healthy eating get healthy themselves.  A fat and unhealthy supporter of Dr. McDougall and Jeff etc. is not an effective advocate for the program.  You can't tell friends to believe you and not their own lying eyes.

We have to start with ourselves.  It is just too easy to focus on other people's issues and fail to address our own.  That is one of the purposes of my challenge to myself here.  Although I have made a lot of progress, that it not good enough.  The better I can do, the more effective spokesman I can be for the program.  The better Farley and I look and feel, the more credibility we have.

The reason credibility is so important is because this world is so full of spin and false claims, especially where obesity and diet are concerned.  It is said in the bible that a good tree does not bear bad fruit, and that is so true.  The world needs to see that following a healthy eating plan always bears good fruit.  I have personally witnessed obese people telling me and others how I should eat.  I paid no attention, and neither did anybody else.

Knowing the right message is not enough.  We have to show that this program works.  If we are going to change the way the nation and the world eats, it has to start with us doing it properly.  The change is unlikely to come from doctors, who have little training in nutrition and less incentive to promote such a simple and effective therapy as proper nutrition.  It is unlikely to come from government, which is so heavily dependent upon special interests that depend themselves on the status quo.  It is going to have to come from people like Farley, me, and you.

Farley just returned from a convention.  Several people there wanted to know about her nutrition plan.  As I write this, she is sending links to one of these nice ladies.  Surely, one of the main reasons that people asked is because Farley looks so healthy.  It is obvious that what she is doing works.

I hope to get something from my friends Penny and Steve, with whom I kayak.  Penny was being recommend heart surgery.  She is now doing great on Dr. Esselstyn's program without the surgery, and she is very grateful that she heard about that program from me.  I doubt if she would have investigated Dr. Esselstyn without my obvious success on the program.  So charity begins at home, and so does good nutrition.  Let's do our best to have everybody who knows about healthy eating look and feel healthy themselves.  That is how the message will get out.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent point, Bob!

    Indeed - one reason you can believe the Esselstyn's, the McDougalls, Campbell's and Novick is their appearance and energy.

    Thanks!
    Marty

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  2. Great site, Bob & Farley. Thank you.

    FYI: The VSH video links you have posted and those on the VSH site are partially obsolete. It appears that VSH has moved most/all videos to YouTube, but has not updated all of the links. One easy way to find their stuff is by going to http://www.youtube.com/user/vshvideo and selecting the "Uploads" button and then using the search box.

    I found the excellent Elaine French "Weight Loss without Hunger" video that you recommended that way.

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  3. Hi, Bob,
    I felt it!! True hunger, I mean, on Saturday, after eating my regular breakfast of soaked rolled grains and berries (at 6:00 am) and heading off to my weekend job. I never know exactly when my lunch break will be since it depends on when someone has time to relieve me at the register. I felt the tummy-rumble of toxic hunger at around 9:00 am, and then started to feel true hunger at around noon. Like the description says: mostly in my mouth and neck as my salivary glands kicked in and I thought about how good lunch was going to taste. Interesting!

    I always have breakfast, because I wake up hungry. Over the past several weeks (most of October) during the week, I have been eating a little lunch at around 9:00 am and another little meal at around 3:00 pm. Mostly I'm doing this because it frees me to spend my 45 minute lunch period out walking. I usually either skip the evening meal, or eat very lightly.

    Some thoughts on either skipping dinner or eating very lightly in the evening. Going to bed a little bit hungry seems to be a very good thing for me. I sleep more soundly and wake up feeling energized and alert. No more morning brain fog or feeling like I'd just like to go back to sleep instead of getting up. I also have occassional GERD at night, which manifests in some coughing during the day. In the past week of going to bed a bit hungry, this coughing has decreased until it is nearly gone.

    I continue to model my meals after your photos and find them very satisfying. I'm losing weight again, too, which thrills me quite a bit! I'm hoping to be back in the 160's by the start of November, and hoping to meet my goal weight by June of next year, if not sooner. I only need to lose about 5 pounds a month to meet that target, so I feel this is reasonable.

    Thanks again for keeping up this blog. Will you continue into November? I'm hoping that you will.
    Thanks again,
    Cyn

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