Greg is out taking his walk. He goes for a two mile walk every morning now. He’s stuck to the diet flawlessly, and it shows. He’s lost weight that I can see (although he says it’s only about 4 pounds), and his blood pressure has gone down, from 150/100 to 130/80. I am stunned, and so impressed with him, and amazed at his ability to do this.
So how am I doing? Not so great. I’ve tried, but I haven’t stuck to it, and instead of giving up I’ve decided to just take what’s happening and try to learn from it. It’s not as simple as “I don’t like vegetables”, although that’s certainly a big problem. Yesterday he said, “Want to have some of my stir-fry?”, and I said, “Sure,” without really understanding what I was agreeing to. A few minutes later he handed me a bowl containing mushrooms, bamboo, celery, and broccoli.
“Yeah, uh, no.”
“You aren’t even going to try it?”
“No.”
“Just take a bite!”
I take another look into his bowl. “Yeah….still no.”
This is what vegans eat. And I’m not eating it. He can eat it. He says it’s not his favorite thing in the world, but he doesn’t mind eating it. Whereas for me to eat that, it feels like I’d need to be on Fear Factor with Joe Rogan cheering me on, a basket of hundred dollar bills sitting nearby to even consider putting a spoonful of that celery and broccoli concoction into my mouth.
So if I were to go vegan, what would I eat? The answer is apparently bread, and bread products. This is what I’m learning about myself. I’m a grains addict. I hear the voice of Hank Hill from King of the Hill; “I sell propane, and propane accessories.”
I eat bread, and bread accessories.
I’ve eaten plates of vegetables before, enough to fill me up, and yet fifteen minutes later I’m rummaging around for toast, because I don’t feel full, or, just…..right, until I’ve had some bread too. I put croutons in my salad and my soup. I eat crackers on road trips, I eat muffins for treats, I bake cookies when I’ve had a hard week, I make my own whole wheat bread in the Vita-Mix, and I bake my own white sandwich bread by hand. I don’t touch the crap in grocery stores; that white rubbery gunk isn’t bread, it’s padding for packages.
The Eat to Live Plan says to have a serving of grains a day. A serving.
So basically, I spent the first three days of this week starving, until the end of the day, when I’d collapse into a ravenous, exhausted heap, and eat whatever I could find. Then I got a head cold, and now I’ve abandoned the plan for a couple of days why I drink juice (you’re not supposed to have juice on the plan) and toast made out of my homemade oatmeal bread (it’s fortifying, I tell ya).
I need to find out why I’m such a bread addict. Maybe I can try going a day without it, just to see what would happen, just to see if my head would explode from the shock. Maybe if I can do that, I can start to see my way toward eating more veggies.