Mike: WEEK 9 UPDATE

Current Stats

Weight: 155.5

BMI: 23.7 (HEALTHY)

Waist: 31-32

Guilty pleasure foods: pizza and beer

Least favorite foods: mushrooms - definitely still nasty pieces of fungus

Total weight loss: 35.5 lbs

Starting Stats
Weight: 191 
BMI: 29 (OVERWEIGHT - 30 is OBESE and guarantees life threatening diseases)
Waist: 34+ 
Healthy body weight: 140-150lbs 
Known health issues: acid reflux, chronic sinusitis 
Guilty pleasure foods: Pepperoni Pizza, Doritos, Coffee 
Least favorite foods: broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms

I can't believe that I have been doing this hippy eating thing for 9 weeks. I don't think I would have ever guessed that in my late 20's I would be scouring the internet to find fennel pollen, nutritional yeast, and vegan recipes.  

I thought it would be much harder than this.  Especially after the first week of all the head-achey sass.  ETL is routine now.  I cook a big soup on sunday while I'm doing my laundry - pretty domestic.  Maybe make up some dressings for the week.  All I do for a meal during the week is heat up a bowl of soup and assemble a big ass salad. So Quick. Oh - I also don't hibernate after my meals anymore.  

I mailed out a copy of Eat to Live to my parents.  I got news today that my mom finished reading the first chapter.  The bigger news though, she is interested in finishing the book and giving it a try.  I am very excited.  

This will be difficult for someone that only ingests water by putting ice cubes in her Pepsi (she told me that yesterday). I think that if she really commits to trying this new lifestyle, she will be shocked at the end of the 6 weeks the kind of transformation she will go through. Not sure where my dad stands on all of this.  I'm guessing he is initially skeptical.  But, I think he would really enjoy the cooking part - making the soups and such.  I think it would take him a lot though to get over his addiction to salt and sugar.

My parent's pantry is usually stocked with white bread, cereals, potato chips, salted peanuts, and a variety of canned soups.  The refrigerator has soda, lunch meats, cheeses, a head of iceberg lettuce (with a jar of blue cheese dressing), and a leftover subway sandwich.  There might be a bag of broccoli in the freezer?  I refused eating broccoli growing up.  

By the way, my mom is a baker/fryer and makes donuts.  We love donuts in our house.  Used to be every sunday, a beautiful baker's dozen would greet us good morning on the kitchen table.  My favorites were the custard filled long johns and the cyclops.  Now, I'd have to say apple fritters and peanut pershings.

Now, I am not bashing my parents because I had no idea how to eat healthy.  I thought that if you bought wheat bread, you were one of those healthy people.  More than anything I am thankful that I was shown this book, Eat to Live.  I feel lucky to have an early start to live a long and healthy life by becoming nutritarian.  I feel like such an ass calling myself a "nutritarian."

Basically it boils down to this - I don't want my parents dying in the next couple years from unexpected heart attacks or developing cancer.  They are still young, and I should be able to go for runs and bike rides with them for a while.    

P.S. I had a piece of Dairy Queen ice cream cake at a BBQ this weekend, and I loved it!

P.P.S. I also had three incredibly healthy meals jam packed with nutrition that day.