Revived

The chaos (for now) has ended. I am now married and living with my husband. That still sounds weird. :) It's been an interesting transition living with a SAD-eater. Before, in my single days (heh), I avoided most temptations by not bringing them into the house. Now, they are everywhere. However, I feel the need to be a good example to the Husband and so I am usually good about avoiding them and I haven't been "falling off the wagon" as much. I'm still not perfect (who is?) but I committed to a plant-based diet for life.

I've found the biggest motivator so far has surprisingly been education. Not that I didn't understand the science before. I've read ETL. I've read The China Study. I've watched Forks Over Knives. But it's this continuous delving into these subjects through books, movies, and other media that has been helping me. One interview in particular with Dr. Esselstyn resonated with me. It's from a podcast called Powerful Living that I recently found online:

http://www.wellnessforum.com/Audio/DONWALKER_061709_DrCaldwellEsselstyn.mp3

If you haven't listened to this, it's excellent and motivating. Like Esselstyn says, "[No one] with a brain in their head would ever continue to eat this way which is going to guarantee them all these chronic killer diseases." I also liked that he addressed the "everything in moderation" question, asking why anyone would ever want to have a small amount of "grass-fattened stricknine" or "organic arsenic"? Hmm, yes, why would they??

I liked this interview so much I recently picked up a copy of Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and am looking forward to reading it. I've also picked up the King Corn and Fast Food Nation DVDs from the library. It is going to be an educational week. :)

What do you feel like doing?

I had an interesting conversation with a friend yesterday. She works with women as a coach and is currently working with a woman who has lost over 120 lbs. In the beginning, it was both overwhelming and difficult to get started. The woman was unmotivated and feeling hopeless. Even though she had been given a plan to help get her started in fitness and healthy eating, she wouldn't follow through with it.

Her: [sigh] I didn't get in the exercise you asked of me.

Coach: Why not?

Her: I don't know, I just didn't feel like doing it.

Coach: Didn't feel like it? Look, you need to take your feelings out of this and just do it. There are lots of things we do everyday that we don't "feel" like doing. It doesn't matter whether you feel like doing it or not. You have to do it.

She's right. We do plenty of things everyday that we don't feel like doing. Who wants to get up early in the morning? Who wants to go to work? Who wants to brush and floss their teeth?? But we do them anyway.

If you took out a sheet of paper and divided it in half, listing on one half the things you felt like doing and on the other, the things you didn't feel like doing, what would it look like? Sadly, I think most of us would have a list where the things you didn't feel like doing far outweighed the things you did. But we still keep doing that which we don't want to do. Why? Because it's life! Because of some future pay-off. Because my future self wants that healthy, lean body. Because she wants a paycheck. And because she wants gleaming teeth. :)

Motivating Reason #4

I got side-tracked when my posts disappeared and I want to finish off these motivating reasons... so here is motivating reason #4:

I'll practice what I believe and prove that ETL works.

I have been trying at ETL for about a year and a half now but haven't completely succeeded. I have had hiccups along the way. I am not the epitome of health. I am overweight and weigh more now than I have in any period of my life. I have high cholesterol. I catch colds frequently. I try not to be "preachy" and tell people why I'm eating this way but when those close to me question my motives I can't help but throw a few things out there... how eating animal protein could lead to cancer, that there is ample calcium in vegetables, that dairy is not a health-promoting food...

I am usually met with either denial or disbelief.

That's fine and I'm not trying to convince anyone, but what really gets me are the persistent observations about myself:

• If this is the optimal way to eat then why are you highest weight now?
• Why do you have high cholesterol?
• Why do you get sick so often?

Because I haven't been doing it 100%! Because I have issues with bingeing! But I can't say that. I am working on those issues.

One of the worst incidents was when someone very close to me -- a meat-eating, fast-food lovin' fan -- pointed out that his cholesterol is the same as mine and that his stomach is flatter. Ouch. Clearly, he was skeptical about ETL.

I am going to prove them all wrong. ETL works.

Motivating Reason #3

I'll run and bike faster.

I always think about this as I suffer up hills on the bike and always, ALWAYS during a painful run. Trying running with 2 5-lb dumbbells or a weighted vest. It's a huge difference. The more I ETL, the closer I'll get to my ideal weight, which I'm fairly certain is at least 10 lbs lighter (though probably closer to 15).

I can't wait to be able to keep up better with my training buds.

Motivating Reason #2

I want to improve my cholesterol.

My cholesterol numbers are not good. I could make the argument that it runs in my family (my mom has high cholesterol) but I don't ever remember having it as a teenager or young adult, and I know diet has a lot to do with it. I ate a somewhat clean heavy-veggie/little sweets diet as a girl/teenager/college student, but somehow after I started working, I developed a sweet tooth -- a strong one. I had been dating a guy at the time who looked fantastic (very athletic) but who also loved his chocolate and sucked me into Sugar Land. In retrospect, I think he had his own body image issues.

Years later and though I'm over him, I am not over the sugar addiction. I also learned how to cook and bake along the way. This has been hard for me since I'm known as "the chef" amongst my family and friends am currently abstaining from those pastimes. I won't even try to cook ETL gourmet items for myself at this point because I'm afraid I will overeat them. I just want things to be SIMPLE right now.

Oops, that was a bit of a ramble. The point is, I can improve my cholesterol eating this way.

Motivating Reason #1

I don't want to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, the list goes on...

I want good health! Let's just get the obvious out of the way first. These ailments are serious and they are scary. If there are things I can do to prevent them, why wouldn't I do them?