The Back Story. Chapter 10

Curiously, when I was in Chapel Hill, the day before I got sick, Lisa and I were in Whole Foods and I picked up the last copy of a book they were selling, The China Study, by Colin and Thomas Campell. It was a book on nutrition and I bought it because the following is written on the back of the book.

“The Science is clear. The results are unmistakable. Change your diet and dramatically reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.”

Wow, pretty tall order isn’t it. So I bought the book, had my gallstone attack and went home. It was only 4 or 5 days later, when I got around to unpacking my suitcase that I found the book. Still curious, and hyper aware of my health, I started reading the book and was blown away by what it showed.

Now, several things you need to know about me as a vegetarian and everyone who knows me will say this is the truth. I have never made it anyone else’s problem or deal. If you invite me to dinner, you don’t need to fix anything special. I will always bring something for me to eat; I’m just honored to be invited to your home. I am not a proselytizer. This is a hugely personal decision and while it works for me, I have always been respectful of other people’s aversion to putting the meat down. And lastly, I’m not a political vegetarian. No secret agenda here, at all.  I like to fish. I appreciate that people like to hunt. I have no moral issue with eating meat though I increasingly abhor the conditions under which animals are kept. (That’s a whole other issue and maybe at some point I’ll discuss it) So, I am, as my mother describes it, “a good vegetarian”.

This book though, which makes a rock solid case for how the western diet, and its reliance on meat and meat products, is killing us is about to change all that, I think. What’s more, in the month leading up to my surgery, and because I was scared that even touching something rich might cause another B’B’ onslaught, I took the advice of the book and gave up ALL meat products.  No more eggs, cheese, butter or mayonnaise.  I read labels like crazy and you'd be amazed at how many things that look like vegetables actually have beef stock or worse, lard in them.  I was diligent and disciplined.

The results were, even by my standards, unbelievable. I already felt great. I had lost weight, and even though I was kind of in a holding pattern, I new that I was on the right track. I was only eating egg whites and limited amounts of cheese (like a tablespoon of blue cheese crumbles on a salad) on a regular basis, so I really didn’t think it would have a pronounced effect on my weight or how I felt.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. If I was feeling good before, taking those little bits of animal products out of my diet took me from what was maybe a 4 on a scale of 1 – 10 to about a 15. Seriously, I was and am absolutely stunned that I had that much head room left on the feel good scale, but I did. And while it had taken me seven months to lose 15 pounds, I lost 10 more in a month.

Clearly, my body does NOT like meat or meat products and when I make it go away, I feel better, look better, lose weight, and check this out…..completely resolved my diabetes. Let me say that again. COMPLETELY RESOLVED MY DIABETES. For the first time since I was diagnosed, my numbers were well within the range of normal both fasting and after a meal. Huge. Huge. Huge.

This is a commitment I have decided to make.  Its harder than being a lacto ova vegetarian both at home and particularly in restaurants.  If it had just been about weight loss, I probably would decide, meh what's a little cheese everynow and then, but the fact that I can control my diabetes without being on a life long drug protocol is a BFD....you know what I'm saying don't act like you don't.  I'm going to be talking a lot about this book in the future so save yourself the lecture, go buy it and read it now.  THE CHINA STUDY.  You will be shocked at what you learn and you may still decide to keep eating meat, I'll still love you, but at least you'll understand what you're doing to yourself and your kids, if you have them.

So that gets everyone all caught up on the back story of where I've been to get where I am.  In re-reading this blog in its entirity, it doesn't read at all like a happy story yet oddly, I consider myself a pretty happy person both by nature and with my life in general.  Its clear though, that my weight and my health loom as large black clouds on my personal horizon and I'm truly hoping that as life goes on, that I can change that into sunny skies and smooth sailing.

It’s a strange thing to say that the best thing that ever happened to me, from a health perspective, was pancreatitis and having my gall bladder removed but it was. I wish now that I had been blogging about this all along but I can’t rewrite that history. All I can do is take this blog forward and share my experiences. I hope someone will read it. I hope it will have an effect on someone’s life in a positive way. I hope I get a book deal and become the Oprah of Vegetarianism but I imagine that’s a ways off. For now, I’m just happy to be writing. To be eating well. To be healthier.