A Fortnight of Fitness: Days 3 and 4

Due to a number of other endeavors, I did not record an entry on Day 3 of this fitness challenge to follow a plant-based, whole food diet for a fortnight, along with my wife Deborah. So, I am combining both entries today, which is Day 4 of the challenge, officially.

My mood is elevated. This may be due to the fact that my Day 4 body weight (216 pounds) is down three pounds from my Day 3 body weight (219 pounds) and, additionally, that my culinary attempts proved more flavorful on Day 3. I made pinto beans, mildly spiced, and brown rice for dinner, using dried raw pinto beans instead of canned. I also baked potatoes for Deborah and me and they tasted fine without any seasoning. Once the potato cools, some subtle flavors come out in the starch and skin that you don't notice when you load the potato full of butter and salt.

This challenge does not require any caloric restriction, so we can eat as much food as we want, as long as it is plant-based whole food. However, I have noticed that I don't crave food and don't over eat on this diet. This could be due in part to the increased effort involved in the preparation and consumption of this type of food (what I refer to as "chewy" or "grainy" food), but that can't be the only explanation. Indeed, I prepared enough pinto beans and rice for several servings, but felt no compulsion to eat more than one. I have an initial hypothesis, which will need to be borne out, that the nutritional profile of this kind of food is satisfying all of my body's metabolic needs, thereby activating the satiation sensors of my digestive tract and brain.

My blood pressure was 126/72, down significantly from yesterday. I was somewhat stressed yesterday, due to the aforementioned endeavors I was pursuing, so that may explain some of the change. Today is a Saturday and I have nothing significant on my TO DO LIST, other than to get to the gym for a moderate workout and perhaps work on some music, in anticipation of a possible rock-n-roll set with my band GUPPY EFFECT on Sunday night.

This morning, I had my usual breakfast of oatmeal and unsweetened almond milk, adding banana (half), grapes (20), and raw cashews (10). Deborah also made smoothies in the food processor, using frozen fruit, cinnamon, unsweetened almond milk, and oats. They were not bad, albeit a little bit "grainy."

KEYWORDS: weight loss, whole food diet, healthy diet, weight loss, blood pressure

A Fortnight of Fitness: Day 1

Last night, Deborah and I watched the documentary "Forks Over Knives," which is pretty much the film version of the book, "The China Study," touting the strong scientific evidence that a whole food, plant-based diet is optimal for health and can prevent or reverse chronic diseases, like heart disease and diabetes.

It came out in 2011, but surprisingly I wasn't made aware of it until recently. It's a very watchable film. It doesn't get boring or bogged down in political ideologies too much. It pretty much just follows the history of some of the strongest scientific research to date on the health benefits of plants, and its proponents (one of whom is the author of "The China Study"). Most of this evidence doesn't make it into the popular press because the food industry is a major gatekeeper on corporate mainstream media and the advertising that underwrites it, and frankly veggies don't sell. The food industry makes its profits on value-added processed foods, as well as meat and dairy, all of which are strongly linked to the prevalence of chronic diseases (especially dairy).

Now that the holidays and my birthday are behind me, I am going to attempt a fitness challenge for a fortnight, where I adhere to a strictly plant-based, whole food diet and measure the results quantitatively (weight and blood pressure) and qualitatively (energy levels, mood, focus, etc.). I will continue to do everything else as I normally would, like going to the gym three to four times per week for a moderate aerobic workout.

I weighed in this morning at 222 pounds, my baseline for this challenge, and about seven pounds over my pre-holiday/birthday weight. Last night's birthday pizza did not help and may have artificially inflated my baseline, which is usually about 215 pounds. My target weight is 199 pounds, and I have not been at this weight since before I can remember...but probably before college.

My baseline blood pressure today was 126/83, using a Walgreens brand consumer blood pressure gauge my wife has that seems to be somewhat accurate. That's slightly high for me. I'll also attribute that to the pizza.