Living beneath my privilege

So it's my third Friday since starting this journey.  I started exactly 2 weeks ago today but it feels like longer.  It's hard to believe that just 15 days ago I was living beneath my privilege to this incredible feeling that I have right now.  As I look back I realize that the success of where I am at this moment had to start with the right mindset.  I did not start this journey for a temporary fix.  I started with a goal to reach a place I have never been before.  A place where food is not my friend but my nourishment.  I am my friend, not my food.  Taking care of that friendship is most important and having an emotional tie to food will cause me to ruin the most powerful relationship of all time.  It can make or break me.  It can cause me to slide right into the funnel of disease and take me from my family long before they and myself are ready.

But what is right?  How do we know that what we are doing is the only, true way to take care of our body?  I have heard many stories of people who were suffering from diseases that brought them to death's door.  They decided to go "crazy" and start eating a plant based diet - going organic and ridding themselves of processed foods and the result?  They are still around to tell the story.  But that's crazy.  No one can live like that.  They are hippy freaks.  Maybe so but they are in better health that the norm and still around to bounce their grandkid on their knee.  The grandkid could care less what we call them.

The last two days I have been amazed at how good I feel for two reasons.  One, I worked out like a fiend this week and it's been a while since I have worked out this hard every single day as well as twice on Thursday.  Typically when I go from exercising 1-2 days a week to exercising 6 days by Friday morning I'm beat.  I'm dragging myself out of bed and allowing myself the day off due to the 2 workouts the day before.  This morning?  I was up and ready to go.  I could feel the power of my plant based meals nourishing my body and giving it strength to do what I wanted it to do.  I had read about athletes who eat a plant based diet talk about this at length and now I get it.  Two, when I look at my journal of foods today they are all PACKED with nutrients more so than calories.  On any given day before this journey, if I had eaten only what I have eaten today I would be starving all day.  I can go with fewer calories IF the ones I eat are packed with nutrients.

I listened to one of the athletes tonight and I want to share it with you.  His name is Rich Roll and he writes a powerful book called "Finding Ultra" that I read a few months ago.  Incredible biography about Rich's recovery from alcoholism and poor health to a vegan ultra endurance athlete.  He invites a doctor on the podcast who specializes in Bariatrics working with people to help them lose weight but came to realize the was in just as bad a shape as they were and that the doctors around him knew less that he did about proper nutrition.  He started doing his own research on protein diets, carb diets, the Paleo diet and where we are going as a society and who is funding the research we are basing our lives on.  It's a GREAT podcast when you have a chance to listen to it. He hits so many points that my head was spinning after listening.  I know I will play it several times to make sure I catch them all.  If you are confused about where we should be going and have questions about the most popular diets on the market you need to listen to this.  Go to this link to listen or go to www.richroll.com click on Podcasts go to page 5 and it's #50 with Dr. Garth Davis. 

And if any of this inspires you, stop living beneath your privilege and join me in this journey!