Heart Attack

I had a heart attack Wednesday morning, March 30th, hospitalized the same day, had CT Scan, Echo-cardiogram, and angiogram the next, and then released. I am alive.

With a blog about health, fitness, good eating, and “The Cure,” one would probably think discussion of this writer’s heart attack is counter intuitive. I had a stress related incident brought on by years of worry over the health of my husband and not enough cardio exercise. It is my diet that allowed me to leave the hospital in less than forty-eight hours after admission.

 

No burgers = No plaque

 

The doctor, a good physician, believed that my arteries would be clogged with plaque as heart attacks occur as a result of coronary heart disease (CHD). The odds were good that bad stuff filled my veins and after a confirmation from the scheduled angiogram a stint could be placed inside the artery to squish the gooey stuff to the walls allowing blood to flow again.

 

He assumed that I ate a Standard American Diet (SAD).

 

Having been a vegetarian off and on most of my adult life, I thought the stats would be on the side of stress event verses the CHD. The doctor listened to us—my husband and I—and did additional tests to look for any other possibilities.

 

The admitting nurse asked a series of personal questions—religion preference, diet, next of kin, and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) agreements. When I told her I ate a Raw Vegan diet, she needed more information. She had not heard the term. I explained. She assigned a dietitian to speak to me.

 

It was like checking the box for vegetarian on my airline ticket. The standard rubber-chicken meal got tossed and someone was forced to wash an apple, and throw it into a box just for me. Same here.

 

The hospital dietitian understood vegan, vegetarian, and raw terms. It was the execution of such a diet challenged the capabilities of the hospital’s food system. She knew that my meals needed to be made fresh each day. We compromised on several fronts and came up with the final menu.

 

• Breakfast: Hot Oatmeal, soy milk, grapes, melon, Hot herb tea.
• Lunch: Salad with lettuce, cucumber, mushroom, tomato, canned kidney & garbanzo bean, and Balsamic dressing, Mixed fresh fruit bowl, Apple Juice.
• Dinner: Salad with lettuce, cucumber, mushroom, tomato, canned kidney & garbanzo bean, and Raspberry dressing, Mixed fresh fruit bowl, Orange Juice.
• Late Night Snack: Apple sauce, graham crackers

 

Understand this is the menu for every day—a true motivation for healing and going home. If I had stayed any longer than two days, I would have been forced to have food smuggled in to my room.

We Talked About Food

I met with a young woman at Church on Sunday. She sat with her six-year-old and her twin babies of just three months. Slowly, she gave up the story of her also young husband that has contracted a near-fatal heart condition causing him to quit work and go on disability. His illness is so severe that he cannot pick up his newborn sons.

The wife now has three children and a extremely sick husband to care for full-time. Her concern? What to fix for supper. The husband is limited to red meat twice per month, fish and chicken once a week, no packaged or processed foods, with the elimination of fats, eggs, and sugars. We talked about food.

Our angel-of-a-Parish Assistant organized volunteers to bring vegetarian meals to their home. She looked for someone to help do a few chores.

I promised to bring recipes. I dug out my copies of Dr. Timothy Brantly’s book The Cure and Ann Wigmore’s The Hippocrates Diet to give to the young family. Wigmore’s book covers the basics of eating healthy, the curative powers of juicing, and provides some recipes, The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen also made it into the box. Though not wholly vegetarian, the cookbook offers excellent food choices and a wide variety of flavors. The couple stated they liked all types of food.

I decided to give them a starter pack of things I found valuable in my diet. From the health food store I included—powdered wheatgrass juice, mung beans for sprouting, and organic veggies. From Trader Joes—Daily Bread brand sprouted wheat-bread, organic peanut butter, soy butter, almond milk, raw milk cheese, Pure Maple Syrup, Agave Syrup, and Brewers’ Yeast. She said she had sea-salt at home otherwise I would have included it.

The items get dropped off tomorrow. Please pray for the family.

Oh and I lost a pound this week.

Fasting Wednesday

It’s the first of September and I’m starting my fasting Wednesdays. The fast is not as easy as I remembered it. The mind plays cruel tricks sometimes. I did okay until eleven o’clock, when I tried to convince myself that a banana smoothie somehow fit a fasting Wednesday. Keeping occupied has helped move my thoughts away from food.

I now know how my skinny co-workers had so many new clothes. They spent money on themselves and not on food. Image if you didn’t eat once a week what that could do for your budget. What if your husband or housemate didn’t eat one day either? Could you afford a new blouse this month? Kids and pets don’t fast so drop that fantasy.

The cost of food for this diet has been for items I never had in the house – powdered wheatgrass, brewer’s yeast, seeds for sprouting, and containers for sprouting. The almond milk, kale, and coconut just replace other less nutritious items in the weekly shopping. What I normal spend on food for myself has dropped by at least half. In the long term, decreasing costs will probably continue.

For example, I ran out of lettuce a few days back. Rather than drive to the store, I used some sprouted sunflower seeds as a base and made my salad. The next day I used the sprouted lentils with a different mix of vegetables. I sprouted mung beans overnight for a wonderful new luncheon faire. I love the change in flavors and textures. The sprouted seeds cost pennies where the organic lettuce cost dollars.

Oh, I made my own pickles. Yes. Using a mandolin slicer, I trimmed up some cucumber, stuffed them into a clean used pickle jar – appropriate – added garlic cloves, pickling spices, and organic vinegar. Left it in the refrigerator for three days. Now I have raw organic pickles. Yum!

How did I get on food? So eight more hours till bedtime then sleep then breakfast. I think I’ll have that banana smoothie.

Down the Rabbit Hole

When I started this diet I had no idea what new worlds I would find. Did you know that fruitarians exist? They eat only fruit. This is new information to me but part of an amazing labyrinth of raw-vegetarians juicing wheatgrass, dehydrating sprouted seeds to make raw breads, composting, and organically growing – refugees from the communes I read about in the Sixties that became successful all-natural entrepreneurs. Since this quest started, I have found organic wheatgrass farms in New Zealand and a Californian raw “baker” that ships overnight just about any healthy food craving you may have. “Curiouser and curiouser!”

The really bizarre stuff is found in the last half of each book. Just check the chapters on cleansing. You will find page after page detailing the joys of a clean and healthy bowel. How do you obtain such a thing? Glad you asked. The answer is by fasting, enemas, and high colonics. The detailed pages usually include sketches of someone on a slant board inserting a bulb into the underside of well you know. After flushing out the offending items from your system, you are to insert wheatgrass juice to hold for twenty minutes or so then expel. Apparently, this is the key to curing disease.

Now if one book mentioned it in passing… Ha! Sorry. If one book mentioned these procedures, I could have ignored it but all the books including The Cure talks about clearing the intestines. I visualized Steve Martin and Sarah Jessica Parker leaving the colonic spa in LA Story, Parker jumping up and down, reenergized and Martin walking funny, violated.

I am trying to be enthusiastic about juicing and have successfully sprouted lentils and sunflower seeds. But try as I might the idea of someone else or me, for that matter, inserting a green-water-filled bulb in my fanny is repulsive at best. Don’t let this scare you away from some really good health tips and information. The Hippocrates Diet states that specific cleanses are needed for those who are ill. Perhaps if I had colon cancer, colitis, or ulcers, maybe my desire – scratch that – my need could overcome the repulsion. I’m only seeking a lighter weight body through good nutrition...

 "and it really was a diet, after all."

No Plateau – Five Pounds Lighter

Yes indeedie. I lost five pounds this week. This is the forty-first day of the diet including the first week I just added water to my daily routine. With a total loss of twenty-seven pounds, I am averaging – are you ready – 0.65 or three-fifths of a pound per day. That is better than my average weekly loss with Tops, Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, South Beach, or any other program I have done and I have done many.

This past week I included a lemon-water fast followed by a two-day watermelon cleanse. According to “The Cure,” by Dr. Tim Brantley, you must break your fast with one week for each day fasting. I fasted three days so I cannot fast for three weeks. I remember a woman I worked with at Spartan Shops, San Jose State University – Marilyn Railsback. Every Wednesday, Marilyn sat at lunch sipping on tepid lemon-water, talking with the group, ignoring the mounds of food and desserts we stuffed into our mouths. We all thought she was a little off. Now I know she had much more respect for her body than I ever had. A weekly fast now seems the logical move for my system.

Annette passed along four more books relating to this diet. I finished “The Hippocrates Diet” by Ann Wigmore. Similar to “The Cure,” she discusses the elimination of certain diseases from the body through proper diet. In fact, last three books, including Dr. Tim’s, talked so much about how cancer, heart disease, and diabetes all stem from processed food, I felt guilty for feeding poor Poindexter canned dog food. Many of my friends pets died of cancer, making me ask if that could have been avoided by feeding carnivores raw meat like nature intended.

If we could turn back time, I would join Marilyn in her weekly fast and change my diet and my then-boyfriend’s too. We could have stopped the onset of Paul's diabetes or at the very least lessened its devastation. If we could…

Lost 20 pounds in 27 days

     Four pounds down this week. I have been on many diets, my friend, and this is just unbelievable. My energy is up, emotions fairly stable, and old body is shrinking. Yesterday, I took a long walk with my friend Lois and Poindexter, my dog. We pulled the garage sale signs that I posted on Friday plus old signs leftover by those who apparently cannot clean-up after themselves. Poindexter encountered a large wild turkey and a couple cats. I received an excellent aerobic workout keeping a forty pound puppy from flying after the critters. When we finished the sign eradication, I felt up to a second trip around the area. Poor Dex dragged his chunky paws for the last couple of blocks. It was nice to wear out a ten-month old pup.
    Today, I am going to count calories for those asking what my caloric intake is because I haven’t a clue. I am sticking with the modified diet outlined in Dr. Brantley’s “The Cure.” I eat salads, soft boiled eggs, fruit, occasional raw fish or seared meat, and a teaspoon of peanut butter for protein cravings. Nothing beats cold watermelon for hunger-pang emergencies. Steamed dark green veggies and sliced banana every other day is needed to keep up potassium and iron levels. Plus I am still drinking eight-ounces of tepid water every half hour.
    The juicing required for the complete detoxification diet or “level A” is not something I have enjoyed so far. To cleanse requires lots of juice. I do like the combination of carrot and orange juice but have not found any combination of green juices that I like so far. I love V-8 but that is on the no-no list of processed foods.  
Does anyone have juicing ideas for me to try?

Diet Week Two Done – 2 ½ lbs loss

Two and one-half pounds gone! I started this blog at 260 pounds. That is seventy pounds over my healthy weight goal. To be a kidney donor for my husband, I need to weigh-in at 225 or less. Today my weight is 244, a loss of sixteen pounds, since June 29th and currently, within nineteen pounds of my donor goal. I am absolutely amazed.
First, I feel wonderful. No aches or pains. No stress headaches. Second, I can see the inches dropping. My stomach and midsection are shrinking. My clothes are fitting and I have oodles of energy. On the flip side, I am still hungry but now just every two hours.
This week Oprah, Martha Stewart, and the Sacramento Bee, all ran features on raw diets and cleansing. I must be very main stream. As you may have notice from my description of my food intake the other day, I have not attained total raw in my diet. Nor have I given up coffee. Even though, I drink half-caff coffee is the last thing I can give up.
Also I have not done a cleansing of my system yet. Cleansing is a way through eating and drinking specific raw fruits and vegetables to detoxify your body. Mostly it involves green sludge looking drinks for breakfast. The book, “The Cure” and the Mayo Clinic both say to start with the cleansing. I have tried a couple of the green sludgies so far and well… let’s say I am not eager to cleanse. I am saving this excitement for when I hit my weight plateau.
In the meantime, I am slowly replacing animal protein with vegetable protein, increasing my physical activity, and eating six small portions of food all day long. I have completed two of my eighteen week plan to lose weight. I am doing great. Please let me know how you are doing in the comments.
Other books recommended by my friend, Vicki: Dr. Neal Barnard's book on Reversing Diabetes and “Eat to Live” by Dr. Joel Furhman.

Skinny Ankles and Wearing Smaller Size

I couldn’t wait until my Tuesday morning weigh-in to give some news about this amazing diet adventure. My ankles have shrunk two inches and I put on a formerly too-small, raw-silk slack outfit I purchased three years ago. These are major events in a dieter’s life.
There is more. I have not had a headache in two weeks. I did take some Advil after using a chainsaw on a couple of branches on the shade tree out back. I expected a few aches and pains.
The most amazing thing so far is the lack of sugar-withdrawal shakes and nervousness. Do you have that when you diet? That drop in blood sugar that can happen about two hours after you have a donut, dessert, or candy item? Then there is the long period of shaking as the chocolate and sugar leave your system. Other than an occasional starving feeling in my stomach, which can be abated with a glass of water, I have none of those sugar drops at all. I am eating sweets in the form of watermelon, grapes, apples, honey, agave syrup, strawberries, blackberries, and the sweetest of all ripe peaches. Yum. I have not touched baked goods or processed food.
The only temptation that has happened in the sweets category occurred as my husband and I were about to leave the theatre, having just seen “Inception.” The movie ran two hours. I missed lunch spending my time with the chainsaw on the aforementioned tree. Paul handed me his box of Skittles to hold while he pushed his wheelchair.
I came unglued. “You don’t hand a junkie dope or give an alcoholic a bottle of whiskey.”
Paul apologized and so did I after he took the candy back.
Today’s breakfast: two soft boiled eggs with sea salt and soy butter. Coffee with soy milk.
Snack: one slice sprouted flax bread lightly toasted with soy butter and honey.
Lunch: Salmon, pea pods, carrots, mushrooms, and Mrs. Dash, steamed until warm and crunchy. Sprinkled with whole milk hard cheese shavings.
Snack: eight grapes
Dinner: Sliced Jicama to dip in homemade guacamole and salsa. Salad, lettuce, tomato, cucumber.
Snack: ½ cup whole milk yogurt, handful of strawberries, drizzle of honey.

Start with Water

Thank you for your well wishes and comments about my blog. Many of you have asked how to start the diet. First, let me say I am NOT a doctor, nutritionist, dietitian, or other medical professional. Second, I think you should start by reading “The Cure” by Dr. Timothy Brantley or visit his website is http://www.brantleycure.com/. This will give you information on the value of water, evils of pasteurization, dangers of table salt, and a myriad of food options.
For one week, I started with water. I did not change anything except what I drank. By substituting tepid filtered water for diet sodas and increasing my water intake from one or two glasses a day to one cup every half hour, I dropped weight and felt better immediately.
My friend, shy Mrs. RT, suggested the following:

“Hi Pam, Congratulations on starting a new eating plan! Six pounds in six days sounds fast, though. Are you sure you are eating enough and that you're getting all the nutrients you need? Maybe you should run this by your doctor so he can keep a watch on your health.
I'm right there with you trying to lose weight. This is my second or third week. My strategy isn't as complicated. I'm trying to stick to a fixed number of calories per day (for me, right now, 1500), making sure most of them are healthy. I'm taking the focus off the diet and just telling myself that I have to eat somewhere around that many calories. In time, my bodyweight should come down to normal (I hope.). I don't know how long this will take and I don't really care. Slow and steady. That is what I'm hoping for. So far, so good, but we all know how that goes. I must say it feels good not worrying about a 'diet'. Having been on diets so often, I can pretty much tell you the calories in anything. That makes this very easy for me. I'm rooting for you. Stay in good health, though.
Have a doctor or dietitian check your diet out.”

So start with the book or website, water, and check-up with your doctor.

Diet Week One Done July 13th - 6 lbs lost

I absolutely hate my new diet. I have lost six pounds in six days and two inches off my mid-section. You would think I would be thrilled. Not so much. At one time, I thought a modified vegetarian diet had challenges but nothing compares to the rare tribulation of eating a raw diet.
Today, I had a banana, a slice of sprouted wheat and flax bread toasted with soy butter, salad with lettuce, tomato, and squash, homemade olive oil and unfiltered apple vinegar dressing, grapes, watermelon, peach, cherries, slice of whole milk cheese, steamed leaks with pea pods, celery, seasoned with unrefined sea salt and a gallon of water. I am hungry. Hungry doesn’t quite describe it. I WANT FOOD!
I stayed home today so I could graze whenever I wanted. Yesterday, I left the safety of home and ended up at Jack-in-the-Box sucking down a strawberry smoothie because Jamba Juice was two blocks too far for me to go for sustenance. I am hungry.

Eve walked in the Garden of Eden past the Tree of Knowledge and that devilish snake. She stopped. “What is that heavenly scent?” she asked the serpent.

“Oh that,” he hissed. “Just my breath.”

“Really? It smells good.”

“I just had some brownies.”

“Brownies? What are brownies.”

“Oh just something you can whip up in the kitchen with the proper recipe.”

“Kitchen? Recipe?” Eve looked confused but intrigued.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t bring it up. This information you can find only from the Tree of Knowledge. I won’t mention it again.”

Eve’s face reddened. “I hope you won’t,” she said and stomped off into the Garden.

The next day Eve walked the exact same trail she had walked the previous morning.

“Good day, Eve,” said the serpent.

“Oh,” Eve stopped and drew in her breath. “Hello. I didn’t see you there.

What,” she paused, “What is that scent?”

“That? French onion soup with bread and Swiss cheese melted over the top.”

Eve did not what most those words meant – not melted, soup, bread, cheese, Swiss or French. She really didn’t care so much for the words but the smell wafting her direction. She bent down. Her nose sniffed close to the serpent’s tongue. Her mouth watered for no discernable reason. She felt well excited like the first time she had touched something cold.

“Tomorrow? Will you be here tomorrow?” she asked.

“No, sorry, I must be on the other side of the Garden tomorrow. A reptile meeting.”

Eve looked around as if she could see some way to hold the creature. She could not think of one single thing to do.

Then the serpent said, “I will be gone tomorrow but the Tree of Knowledge will be here all day. Eat the fruit and you will know what I know.” Having said all that was needed to be said the serpent left Eve alone.

As I said, I am hungry. I know that I feel better than I felt for months. My clothes are fitting. I have learned that eating meat with starches causes indigestion and gas, water can shed pounds, and it is possible to give up sugars without craving them. Knowing all that I miss food. I am sticking with the program for my husband’s health and mine. Wish me luck!

God Bless You!