That is the question.
I’ve been making some health related changes in the past few months, and many times it has occurred to me that I should be blogging about all this. I finally got some information Friday that pushed me to start posting. So, in a way, I’m starting at the end. Well…I’m not done, so it’s not the end. I guess I’m starting somewhere in the middle. I’ll go back to the beginning at some point and share what started all this, but for now, I gotta tell you what just happened.
I’ve been making some changes to my diet, medication, and exercise habits for a few months, and a week ago Friday, it escalated quickly. Nick and I watched the movie, What the Health on Netflix. I don’t even know what prompted us to watch it. I suppose it came up as a new release, or in the top 10 or whatever, and we are trying to make healthier choices, so we clicked on it.
The movie is focused on the benefits of a “plant-based diet.” I’m not sure why they didn’t just call it “vegan.” I guess people are turned off by that word. And you know, the joke, “How do you know someone is a vegan?…Oh, don’t worry, they’ll tell you!” But that’s what it means, and that’s what the film is advocating.
Advocating fairly well I guess, because by the time the credits rolled, Nick turned to me and said, “Let’s do it.” My fast food loving, burger and fries buying, Missouri born and raised boyfriend suggested we go vegan. For two weeks anyway.
See, the movie showed the stories of three different people who had made dramatic transformations after just two weeks of plant-based eating. These people all started out overweight, taking an astounding number of medications, and experiencing a lot of pain. At least one was diabetic. One woman could barely get around her apartment by using a walker.
All of these people went on a plant-based diet for just two weeks, and they were virtually unrecognizable when they checked back in on them. The walker woman was out walking, unassisted, and looked like a completely different person. The man who was diabetic said he’d been able to cut back on his medication and was on track to eliminate it completely. It was incredible.
Incredible enough to convince Nick, the man who used to bring me McDonald’s breakfast every Saturday morning, the man who introduced me to the deliciousness that is Culver’s ButterBurgers, to suggest to me that we go vegan. Well, for two weeks anyway. I’ve been having a lot of pain, and I figured, eh, can’t hurt, might help. I’m kind of willing to try anything at this point, because massage, chiropractic, and physical therapy haven’t fixed it. I can do anything for two weeks. And if we didn’t feel any different, if nothing changed, we’d go back to eating what we wanted.
So, on Friday, January 29, we began. We were ill-equipped. Nick ate steam bag vegetables for breakfast and lunch. I went to the store after work and picked up about $100 worth of vegan-friendly groceries. It took me forever, because I read the label of every single thing to make sure it didn’t have any animal products in it. Mostly dairy. I mean, it’s clear if something has meat usually, but that pesky dairy is in everything.
Now, I have some experience dabbling in the vegan world thanks to my mother. There’s a little bit of hippie in my blood, and once Mom moved back to Missouri, she convinced me to try eating vegan, at least somewhat. I never was militant about it, but truthfully, I’ve never been a huge meat-eater anyway. I just don’t like it that much, and I love animals very much, so if I thought too much about where the bacon or hamburger, or even chicken breast came from, it turned me against it. I tended to eat meat that looked the least amount possible like the actual source. Hot dogs. Hamburger. Frozen bags of chicken breasts.
I love cheese though. Macaroni and cheese. Cheesy nachos. Cheese and crackers. Cream cheese, cheddar cheese, marble jack cheese. Mmmm… The thought of not being able to eat cheese anymore made me sad. But I shopped, and I chose new things, and I went home and fixed a vegan dinner.
I made a big pan of tofu pad Thai that night using rice noodles and a ton of veggies. It was delicious. We could do this. I made a pot of chili the next day using some fake hamburger-like substance, plus lots of beans, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. My main strategy has been, whatever I make, I make A LOT of it. So we can eat several meals without having to think about it. Because that end of the work day, too tired to think about cooking situation was the impetus for many a trip to Taco Bell or Culver’s before. Nick’s favorite food is chili, and he liked this meatless chili. We were on a roll.
Then this Friday I went to get my annual biometric screening at work. Let’s be real, everyone only does this because they pay us $75, but this year I was actually curious to know the results. Curious, but not terribly hopeful. I even had a talk with Nick Thursday night in which I instructed him to be prepared to talk me off the ledge the next day.
I don’t even own a scale anymore, because it just goes badly for me. I’ll get on a health kick and do really well with my eating and working out, only to step on the scale, see no change, and give up. I was afraid this screening was going to be that, and I wanted Nick to remind me that I’ve been making good changes, and I feel better, which was the point.
I went in for the screening Friday after 8 1/2 days of being vegan. The woman asked me to remove my shoes and step on the scale. Ugh. I didn’t like that number. Then she asked if I’d ever had a finger-stick before. Yes, of course. “Do you like it?” What the heck kind of question is that?! No, I don’t like it. I’m not a psycho. But it’s tolerable. I’m fine.
While the blood-reading gizmo did its work, she instructed me to lay my left arm on the table and relax. Like, she reminded me several times, “Just relax.” Lady. I’m relaxed. You’re just gonna take my blood pressure. I’m fine with this. She strapped on the cuff, and kept talking to me soothingly like I was a stray animal or a frightened child.
At any rate, when the machine stopped, she looked at me in shock and declared, “Oh! I love you!” Ummm…okay? My blood pressure was amazing. Now, this isn’t really a shock. My blood pressure has always been fine. I get that from Mom too. I got 99 health problems, but blood pressure ain’t one.
Then she wrote all my info on the hateful little pamphlet they give you that records all of your sins, and she proceeded to go over each number with me. I was ridiculously happy. My cholesterol was normal. My cholesterol has been borderline high, if not flat out just high, ever since I first had it checked 15 years ago or so. I make changes, take fish oil, eat more oatmeal, get more exercise, and it will go down a little, but it’s always been an issue. Not anymore. It’s normal. Not even like borderline normal. Like full-on, NORMAL. I was so shocked.
I got back to my office and texted Nick, “My cholesterol is NORMAL!” I wasn’t happy with the other info really, but that cholesterol thing was incredible. I was so energized, I organized my whole office before I went home.
And then once I got home, I decided to look at my previous numbers. Okay, my last screening was June of 2020. For real, whatever state my body was in during June 2020, it only got worse from there. I was exercising pretty regularly when COVID hit, even if my diet wasn’t the best. But after March, no more yoga classes. And I walked on the track at the gym before yoga so…I quit walking too. (Which makes no sense, because I have a treadmill, and like, you can literally walk anywhere. But, still.) Working from home, I was no longer going up and down stairs, walking to someone’s office, no longer wearing button pants. So I knew those June numbers didn’t reflect the true atrocity that was my health before I started this journey in November.
This is probably a good time to say that I’m not a doctor, and I don’t guarantee that your results will be the same as mine, and you should check with your health care provider before making major changes to your diet, yada yada yada.
Back to those numbers… As I went down the line, I got more and more excited and more and more amazed. Okay, I’m not saying that being vegan for 9 days made this change. But it didn’t hurt for sure, and honestly, nothing else I’d ever tried had made much difference.
My total cholesterol in 2020: 230
My total cholesterol now: 171
That’s not a typo. 59 cholesterols!! (I don’t know what unit is used to measure cholesterol, but I’m super excited to have 59 fewer of them clogging up my veins!)
Triglycerides 2020: 230
Triglycerides now: 181
LDL (That’s the bad one. I remember my college health teacher reminding us that LDL= lousy, HDL = happy.) 2020: 135
LDL now: 95
You guys?! What on earth is happening here?! Plus, turns out I am actually down three pounds from that last screening. (And, remember, it got worse after June. Way worse.) I’m kinda wishing I’d stepped on a scale in November to have a real “before” number, but it is what it is.
It’s enough to convince me to keep this up. Now I’m not saying never. I’m not saying I won’t eat turkey next Thanksgiving. I’m not saying I won’t eat my cousin’s macaroni and cheese next time I get a chance. I will say, Nick brought home donuts he got free from work, and I ate two for breakfast Saturday and literally felt sick to my stomach. I’m not eating any more. There’s a box of donuts in my kitchen, and I’m not eating them. I don’t even want to.
So yeah. I guess I’m vegan now. And I kinda want to tell everybody.