Happy

We are officially in the final week of 2023. I am so ready for 2023 to be over. For that matter, I am ready for 2024 to be over too, but I'm looking forward to having a great 2024 in the meanwhile.

I am in Colorado for the holiday week. My sister lives here and has been really good about accommodating my vegan eating. But it's discouraging and disappointing to watch my family eat animal foods, damaging their health and poisoning their souls. I don't appear to be leading by example, despite my impressive weight loss and excellent health. Sad.

Anyway, I plan to continue my healthy lifestyle in 2024, with intention and purpose. That comprises daily aerobic exercise (I miss the Peloton this week) and a mostly whole food and entirely plant based diet. I'm going to try to be more compliant with whole food eating and weekly meal planning/prepping. The name of the game is incremental improvement.

I did a Swedish sauna today and I think it toxified me more than it detoxified me, because the wood fired stove powering it was leaking smoke into the sauna chamber. I sweated pretty good, but my lungs felt yucky after I got done, like spending a couple hours in a smoky bar room.

The End.

REVIEW - How Not to Diet by Dr Michael Greger

I am reading "How Not to Diet" by Dr. Michael Greger right now and it is simply AWESOME. Everyone should read it. But especially people who want to lose weight in a healthy way without drugs or supplements or even exhausting and expensive diet programs.

This book is objectively an excellent rendering of the evidence based research behind nutrition and weight loss, compiled and synthesized by the good Dr. Greger. This book is so much better than the intellectual disaster area that is Nina Teicholz's book, "The Big Fat Surprise," that I tried to read prior to Greger's book, but failed because it was so awful and poorly written (as everyone who has been emotionally traumatized by that garbage piece of attack journalism attests). Teicholz is a journalist, not a scientist or doctor, and a known apologist for the meat and dairy industries, so her study evidence is cherry picked accordingly, and the entirety of her screed focuses on attacking the methodology of the peer reviewed scientific studies that show plant based whole foods to be superior for health and weight loss, without any counterfactuals. Plus, her book focuses on old research that is completely out of date now.

The only negative I have to share about Greger's excellent book is that it is LONG, with the audiobook coming in at around 23 HOURS when played at normal speed. I would typically play the audiobook back at 1.25x speed, but Dr. Greger (who narrates his own book) has a speech pattern that is challenging to follow at faster speeds. However, Greger leaves no stone unturned and it is impressive how comprehensivly he has reviewed the literature, putting Teicholz to well deserved shame.

Dr. Greger's nutritional puns can get a bit overwhelming at times, but it's a small price to pay for the intellectual enrichment gained from the book.

If you care about your health and weight loss, read it. Even if you don't, read it.

Have a great day.

The End.