Follow the Journey!
These hot days in Texas with the temperatures over 100 degrees really zap you. So a nice cool treat really hits the spot. Tonight I made this yummy chocolate frozen treat.
Ingredients
Blend until smooth
Exercise is a key component to overlap good health. Dr Greger recommends 90 minutes per day. But that is not possible for everyone. Incorporating a couple one to two mile away alks into your daily routine can make a huge difference.
I go to the rec center twice a week. I shoot baskets for 30-45 minutes, lift weights and then get 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical.
The other days of the week I try to walk two or three times a day. My goal currently is 12,000 steps per day as tracked by my Fitbit which basically shows a general amount of movement.
Set some goals. Team up with someone. Post your daily activity on social media. You might encourage someone else. And others may encourage you to stick with it.
Since January 2017 I’ve lost over 70 pounds while transitioning to a Whole 
Food Plant Based lifestyle. While the weight loss is great and I feel better and have more energy, I have said it’s only the outward sign of what is happening inside. Today I can elaborate on that. I had my annual physical last week along with lab work.
In one years time I made a number of changes. The largest of which was transitioning to a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle. This transition started in September 2017 with the elimination of sugar and addition of snacking on fruits and vegetables. I’ve been entirely plant based for the past six months.
I should also note that even up until February 2018 (after transitioning to a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle) I had been using multi-vitamins and supplements including heart health supplements. So it is even more amazing when looking at these numbers to realize that my already good numbers from 2017 were improved with the WFPB lifestyle without the supplements. It makes me wonder what my 2017 baseline might have been if I had not been taking those supplements for all those years.
The table below shows the results!
| Vitals | July 2017 | July 2018 | Delta |
| Weight | 230 | 176 | 54 |
| Blood Pressure | 134/96 | 119/73 | |
| Lipid Panel | |||
| Cholesterol, Total | 161 | 125 | 36 |
| Triglycerides | 100 | 77 | 23 |
| HDL Cholesterol | 53 | 48 | 5 |
| LDL Cholesterol | 88 | 62 | 26 |
I’ve heard it said that a total Cholesterol under 140 makes you “heart attack proof”. If that is the case, then I’ve achieved that in less than six months on a Whole Food Plant Based diet!
So when you sit down to eat think about the long range effects. Do you want lower blood pressure, better Lipid Panel numbers, to be heart attack proof? Well then, in that case, eating that WFPB makes sense!
Here is a simply frozen dessert. Frozen pineapple, cherries and peach put it in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Very refreshing!
The other night I was sitting in my recliner when I heard the food processor running and running and running. Five minutes later this bowl arrived delivered by my wife.
It’s a simple frozen dessert made with five cups of frozen pineapple and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Delicious.
The extra was put in a bento box and put back in the frrezer. The next night I put the frozen mix back in the food processor and added a half cup of frozen blueberries. Blend another five minutes and serve. Anice treat.
It’s amazing how the pineapple whips up and creates a smooth consistency. Adding blueberries enhanced the flavor. We plan to experiment with adding other fruit. We probably will avoid things like strawberries where the seeds might ruin the smooth consistency.
As I transitioned to a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle eliminating oil was the last and probably hardest step. I’ve found that going 100% oil free is almost impossible unless you prepare all your own food.
But when you are cooking for yourself oil can easily be replaced with water or brooth and when baking things like unswetened apple sauce or banana are great substitute. This article provides some details.
I like chips with salsa and guacamole. I have yet to find a bag of chips in the store that doesn’t contain oil. So the solution is that we’ve started making our own chips using street taco tortillas. We buy these mission tortillas at the grocery store.
Mande has perfected cooking them in the oven. And then we enjoy with homemade salsa or guacamole. These pictures were used to make tostados. Cutting them in half before baking makes great chips.
So until we try mixing up our own tortillas this is a good option for oil free chips.
I was working from home in the midst of four hours of back to back to back conference calls. Suddenly Mande shows up at the door to my office with this delicious treat. I posted a picture on Facebook and immediately the requests for the recipie came in.
The recipie is a modification of one that is in The Forks Over Knives summer 2018 magazine. The recipe with Mande’s changes are below:
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
3/4 cup applesauce
3oz unsweetned chocolate bar
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour (I used my standard Gluten Free one)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. line pan with parchment paper on bottom.
2. in a food processor combine beans, applesauce, and chocolate bar. Process until smooth. Add the coconut sugar, vanilla, and cocoa powder and continue to process until smooth
3. Add remaining dry ingredients to food processor and process until smooth. Scrape the sides occasionally if needed. Mine needed it.
4. Spread out batter in pan and bake for 20 min. I think mine went for 23 min.
I’ve been asked what I eat on a daily basis. I answer this directly on this blog
both specifically and generally (with recipes, reviews, etc). I have found Dr. Greger’s “daily dozen” and “green, yellow, red light” approaches to be very helpful.
Dr. Greger divides foods into three categories:
Dr. Greger suggests focusing on eating a diet rich in “green light” foods, minimizing “yellow light” foods and avoiding “red light” foods.
His presentation of this is refreshing and helpful. Rather than a leaglistic “don’t eat this” or “you must eat that” he presents an approach that is doable. For example if the only way you’ll eat salad is with “oil and vinegar” then go ahead. But keep in mind oil (all oil) is red light and should be avoided. Dr. Greger’s rationale is the benefit of the salad is better with the oil than not having the salad at all. This allows you to make modifications to your diet over time and make the meal better.
I’ve now come to enjoy my salad without dressing and using balsamic vinegar and herbs instead.
In his explanation of the traffic light approach Dr. Greger also explains how to determine if a food is “healthy” by asking “compared to what?”
If you have the book “How Not to Die” then I’d recommend you read chapter x in part two for more information. Even if you don’t have the book you can get the information directly from Dr. Greger through his website nutritionfacts.org.
I’ve been asked what I eat on a daily basis. While I’ll delve more into that specifically throughout this site, I can summarize by saying “I try to follow Dr. Greger’s daily dozen“.
In part two of his book “How Not to Die” Dr Greger suggests a daily diet structured around a “daily dozen” items, servings and servings per day. If you don’t have the book, you can watch a video which explains what he recommends.
There is a free easy to use app for iOS and Android which you can use to track your daily progress towards following the daily dozen. The app is very helpful to understand if on average I’m eating a good blend of these dozen items. Like my experience with my FitBit it’s not about hitting every check box every day. Rather it’s about building a lifestyle of healthy habits. The app can certainly help with that.
It’s so important to stay Hydrated that Dr Greger includes drinking water in his “daily dozen”. I typically have a water bottle with me wherever I go. Yes, sometimes I might leave it in the car rather than carrying it into a store. But bringing it along assures I am able to stay hydrated.
We prefer the stainless steel double walled reusable bottles. These are good for the environment because there is no waste if plastic going into a landfill. The double walled design keeps the water cold longer. This is espe important in the hot Texas summers where you wouldn’t want to drink water that is hot in a plastic bottle.
You can buy these double walled reusable water bottles at many places. We have 40oz bottles that we like that we got “two for $20” at Costco. Of course you could also go for a Yeti, or go to Walmart and get aomeojust as good for a fraction of the price.
We also invested in a water filter for our kitchen. The one we for mounts under the sink and has a faucet to dispense the water. It cost roughly $149 on Amazon.
