Taking control of our health is a matter of life and death—and it always has been. This is not new. But even though I know that, looking back over the years I’ve been practicing this lifestyle, I can see a lot of stretches where I’ve been half-assing it.
Half-assing it, for me includes habits like:
Eating ultra-processed foods that contain oil on weekends, such as chick’n patties or nuggets—even those on the healthier end of the spectrum.
Eating vegan cheese on homemade pizza—or on our favorite vegan takeout pizza, which is just dripping with it—twice a week because either of those makes two meals.
Daily sweets. Even my homemade, WFPB cookies, brownies, and cakes have added sugars and usually a nut or nut-butter fat-source.
Being too sedentary when writing novels, while simultaneously increasing my writing output.
Diet soda now and then.
Eating too few green leafy and cruciferous vegetables.
Eating too much of whatever it is I’m eating
Not drinking enough water
I have plaque and a bit of calcification in my coronary arteries. You probably do, too. Most seventeen- and eighteen-year-old soldiers killed in Viet Nam were found in autopsies to have the same. This is defined as early stage coronary artery disease or heart disease, and one of its top causes is the Standard American Diet.
I’m aware of mine because of a chest CT for an unrelated issue that turned out to be nothing, and a follow-up calcium score test that was not perfect.
The ways to half-ass it, sabotaging our own health
Because of that arterial plaque, I really shouldn’t be adding any fat at all to my diet. Frankly, nobody with arterial plaque or even excess weight should. (So that’s pretty much all of us.)
Critics are quick to say, “But everybody needs some fat!”
Fortunately, all plants contain some fat. The perfect amount, in fact. So there’s absolutely no reason to add any more.
Oil, liquified fat, is the biggest culprit of all. Oil is everywhere. Every recipe, no matter how healthful it claims to be, includes some sort of oil. Almost no professional chef knows how to sauté without oil and get things golden brown. It’s maddening, and entirely unnecessary.
The vegetables and seeds from which it’s extracted have all the same nutrients the oil contains and a lot more of them. They even have the oil! But when you eat the seed or the vegetable, you get all the components of the plant working together. With the oil alone, you get only the fat, no fiber to help it move through your body, and few nutrients to make it worth the trip. .
Secondly, extra calories we eat but do not burn are stored by the body as fat, no matter their source. If you eat 3000 calories of carrots and only burn off 2000 calories, the extra 1000 calories would be stored as fat. That’s a dumb analogy because it would be physically impossible to eat 3000 calories of carrots.
The third big bad is Sugar. Sugar is inflammatory, raises our A1-C, and makes us crave more sugar. This applies whether if the sugar source is raw sugar, agave nectar, or maple syrup. Doesn’t matter. It’s still added sugar.
Fruits, veggies, and grains have natural sugars included in their perfect packages. No additional sugar is needed.
The fourth sabotage we tend to ignore is a sedentary lifestyle. We must move if we want to thrive. Physical activity is truly a use it or lose it scenario.
So those are some of the ways I have tended to half-ass the whole food plant-based lifestyle. I’ve seen vast improvements in my health, for sure, but as you can see from the above list, most of the time I could do much better, cleaner, and more effectively.
I’m sure you have your ways too, (I call them my cheats) and I think you know what they are.
So to fine tune this lifestyle, to really do it 100% and not just tell ourselves we are, here are some essential steps to take our health to the next level. I am following these steps during the month of October.
Eliminate every single drop of oil. Do not ultra-processed-foods containing it, do not cook with it, and do not eat foods containing it when you go out. Do not buy processed foods that include oil. Not one drop, and that includes spray oil, butter, margarine, shortening. Read every label. If there’s oil, put it back. I’ve even found packages of raisins that contain oil to keep them from clumping. Ugh!
To reduce existing plaque in the coronary arteries, eat six servings of green leafy and/or cruciferous vegetables per day.
A serving = 1/2 cup cooked or 1 cup raw.
The vegetables include all leafy greens (spinach, kale, Swiss chard, beet greens turnip greens, arugula and other leafy greens. Everything but lettuces, basically.) Plus all cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, etc.)
*Dr. Esselstyn suggests steaming a pot full of greens first thing in the morning, sprinkling them with a little balsamic to activate their benefits, and then just grabbing a half-cup at a time throughout the day.
*You can get a couple of cups in a salad.
*I get 5 to 6 servings each morning in my Savory Breakfast Bowl based entirely on Ann Esselstyn’s Warrior Oats with a few additions.
*I put greens in every soup, stew, chili, and salad I make.
*No sandwich is served her without a big handful of greens as a bed.
*I also love roasting cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots seasoned with garlic, black pepper, and a drizzle of balsamic.Reduce or eliminate added sugars. Have fruit for dessert instead of a sweet or baked good. You can get your sugar fix with grapes, apple slices, a banana, a dish of mixed berries.
Severely curtail or eliminate consumption of avocados, nuts, and seeds. This is one of the extra steps folks with heart disease need to take, and one that was causing me trouble, because nearly all my cookie/brownie recipes use peanut butter or walnuts. For me it’s easier to just shift to fruit, though I’m on the lookout for recipes that don’t use either and I’ll be sharing those.
Exercise daily. I have really got a handle on this now with my treadmill underneath my stand-up desk. I write every day. When I write at that desk, I also walk every day. I walk for at least an hour a day, and many days I get in an hour and a half or even two hours. I can walk quite briskly while keyboarding. And I like to kick it up to a gentle run for the last little while to work my heart a bit more. I also have small weights on the desk, and when I pause to think I pick them up to work my arms and shoulders. At bathroom breaks I do pushups or squats. I work extra motion into every part of my day.
Shoot for 30 to 40 varieties of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains per week. (I believe you get to count herbs and spices in those. Get into the habit of counting at each meal.) Just my morning breakfast has 14. I’ve long gone by the rule of thumb of 20 varieties per day, but 30-40 per week seems like an upgrade to ensure it’s not the same 20 every day. Add new selections often! Rotate favorites.
INCREASE your complex carbohydrates and healthy starches. These include whole grain, oil-free breads, pastas, rolls, brown rice, pearl barley, quinoa, and root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets. Peas and corn are also quite starchy and filling. These are the foods that will fill you up and keep you satisfied. Our brains run on sugars, and complex carbs break down into healthy, brain-feeding sugars—NOT on refined empty calorie sugars. Those cause brain fog.
When choosing plant-milks, go for the soy. Almond, coconut, oat are all higher in fats, sugars, and calories but lower in nutritional benefits, which makes this a no-brainer. We’re looking for high nutrition/low fat & calories.
Soy products benefit women before, during, and after menopause by easing hot flashes, night sweats, and other symptoms. They also reduce the risk of breast cancer and reduce the recurrence of it in breast cancer survivors.To cut sodium effortlessly, replace your salt with a “light salt,” a sodium-potassium blend that reduces sodium by half.
Seriously, and I mean it, practice daily meditation. 15 minutes will work wonders.
Some tips to make these find tuning upgrades easier
Most days, have the same breakfast and leftover dinner for lunch. Then you really only have to plan dinners. Instead of choosing and planning 21 meals-per-week, now you’re only having to figure out seven.
I do this by eating the Warrior Oats for every breakfast during the week, ensuring I get my 5-6 servings of nitric-oxide-producing, plaque-blasting miracle greens. On Saturdays I make blueberry pancakes that are 100% WFPB with fruit topping and very light on the syrup. On Sundays hubs makes me a tofu scramble. No thinking or pre-planning needed, these meals are on autopilot.Plan ahead. Know what you’ll be making for tomorrow’s dinner, before the end of today! This is an excellent way to stay on top of your WFPB lifestyle. Think about each meal before you have to.
For example, I already know that tonight I’ll be roasting all the broccoli and cauliflower left in the fridge from last weekend’s grocery trip, and whipping up that lovely Cheesy Sauce to drizzle on them. I also have leftover rice to use up. While I’m fixing all that, I’ll take two extra minutes to throw some tofu into a marinade to soak overnight for Friday night’s dinner, giant dinner salads with marinated tofu, sweet potatoes, multiple greens, peppers, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, raisins, and anything else I can throw in there.Cook in big batches, so you get a couple of days’ worth of meals from each one you prepare, and always make enough for the next day’s lunch. Batch cooking works best with goulash and other pasta dishes, soups, stews, and chili dishes.
Say yes to more things and get outside every day, no matter what. Spend more time doing what you love with the people you love, and you’ll be golden.
That’s it, those are my tips for fine tuning the plan to 100%!
You know it feels to me like I’ve been peeling away layers as I go along here. Every time I learn something new, I get inspired to apply it. And with each new layer, my health improves a little bit more and a little bit more.
I think, by being 100% I’ll be able to sail through a few years without healthcare coverage at minimum risk of all out disaster. And right now, that’s kind of the best any of us can do.
FREE Halloween Read!
A 10-chapter ghostly paranormal thriller in 10 days on Maggie’s Coffee House Blog
