Published: 01/01/2021

Happy 2021!!! Hopefully this year is better than the last. It will be for me; that’s what I resolve to do. In the past 7 years, my wife and I have done a series of planning sessions at the end of each year to plan for the next, and we fell short in 2020 in many ways - mostly in reading the Bible more, eating out less and traveling. This year we have a set of new goals to focus on: work on the house, focus internally on wellness, and enjoy living. 2020, you weren’t so bad. You brought me ever closer, in time and space, to my wife and family. Farewell, 2020, and praise the Lord we don’t have to write /2020 on checks or legal documents, instead a simple /21 will do!

Weight and plant diet update

I’ve been riding the weight wave, over the last 2-3 weeks. I’ve ridden back up to 310 LBS and crashed down to 303. From this journey, I’ve learned a few things:

  1. Fat + starch = weight gain. More on this on a minute…
  2. Drinking half my body weight in water actually helps with weight loss.
  3. Corn and green peas (also pea protein) cause substantial inflamation within my body resulting in weight gain
  4. Most people don’t care if you bring your own food to dinner, especially if you tell them you’re a vegan and rattle off all your food allergies
  5. Some people will not get over the fact that you, once a steak loving fiend, now eat only plants

Fat + starch = Weight Gain

It’s really true. Doctor Michael Klaper, in last year’s The Real Truth About Health conference, talked about how when you eat starch and fat together, your body will burn the starch as fuel and store the fat as, well, fat.

There’s way too much information out there on protein and not enough information on starch and fat. But other data does show the starch (or in other articles, “carbs”) burns first and then the extra fat is stored away.

Examples:

  1. A baked potato and butter / oil / vegan butter. The potato is burned and the butter or oil, or vegan butter is stored away.
  2. A baked potato and steak. The potato is burned and the steak is stored for later use.
  3. Quinoa and Chia seeds. The Quinoa is burned and the chia seeds are stored.

Take any starch and fat combo, and the result is the same! That’s part of the reason Forks Over Knives takes the approach of no oil cooking. That and oil is really, really bad for you.

Eating Out

Eating out is really hard if you like options galore, but if you content yourself with the company or the idea that no clean up is involved on your part, it can be quiet enjoyable.

A few places I’ve found:

  1. Wendy’s will do a steamed potato with all the junk on the side. Throw the butter and sour cream away and eat a plain potato. They used to have a garden salad, but alas no more.
  2. Zoe Ma Ma in Denver & Boulder. They have really yummy Chinese food with various vegan options if you sub egg noodles for rice noodles.
  3. Indian. This is what you want. Most things can be made vegan - just order off the vegetarian menu and ask for vegan - then don’t get the naan. Saucy Bombay in Denver off of Colfax makes really yummy Indian food and ALL their sauces are vegan!
  4. Chipotle. Get the bowl or salad (no dressing), rice, beans, veggies, sofritas, gauc and you’re good to go. You can get the corn chips, but those don’t make me feel happy.

Life Hack

Real quick. Pomegranates are amazing, but it is a major ordeal to get the seeds out. I bought two, and stuffed them in my fridge. Tonight I pulled them out, expecting mold, but surprise! They still looked good. Removing the seeds is a pain, but I went to Google and found a LIFE changing method to get the seeds out WITHOUT using water!

Basically you chop it half, then hit each side with a spoon a bunch of times until all the seeds fall out. Do this over a bowl and pick out the few white pieces that fell and toss them away. Yummy. I just ate an entire pomegranate without the bitter, awful, white flesh. It was so GOOD!