Health Concerns And A New Way To Eating

I like to think of my self as a healthy person. I’m 32 and I’ve exercised regularly over the last couple years (I haven’t missed a scheduled work out in almost two years). I ate good most of the time but there were plenty of times that I didn’t.

My girlfriend developed quite a few health problems a while back related to how we ate. At the time I was about 235 lbs. at 5’10”. I wasn’t exactly a pillar of health myself. We changed quite a few things we did such as portion control and more cardiovascular exercise (in the past I had focused on weight training primarily).

Things were going good. In about 10 months I lost 35 lbs. and felt much better. We were still eating a bunch of crap but it didn’t seem like we were doing so bad.

I hadn’t had a physical in 14 years. Part because I didn’t feel I needed one and part because I was afraid of what they might find. There are a slew of health problems that run through both sides of my family and I didn’t want the knowledge that I may have one.

The turn-your-head-and-cough part of the physical went great. I was a bit overweight, 200 lbs. when I should be 175 lbs. The doctor said everything looks good but he sent me for some blood work just to be sure. Two days later I received a voicemail that said to call back right away. I tried but they were closed already. I had a really nervous night wondering what was wrong. I was able to talk to a nurse the next day and she said that my cholesterol was a little high and that I should change my eating habits and increase my cardio a bit.

This doesn’t sound too bad to most but this is always the first step down the hall of bad health for my family. This was a bit of a moment of panic for me. We were only eating red meat about once a week by then but we decided to cut it down to special occasions only. I began to log all of my food down in a smartphone app called myfitnesspal.

I found the logging and measuring was a lot easy with the phone app on hands at all time. I bumped up my cardio and started eating new things. I was a long time picky eater so it wasn’t easy for me but if you give things two chances you’ll be surprised at how much you like different and new things.

I started eating better in July. I eat 500 calories under my maintenance caloric level, which should result in a one pound of weight loss per week. I’ve lost an additional 23 lbs. since I started tracking my weight for a total of 58 lbs. overall.

Last month my girlfriend decided that she no longer could tolerate eating meat. She loved animals and said it seemed wrong to kill and eat them. By this time I was figuring out how green our cut down on red meat really was (cows add to climate change by 17% of the whole problem). I wondered if I could give up all meat. I was very resistant. I pointed out that we had found true free-range, non-hormonal chicken right by our house (there is unfortunately a strange interpretation of what constitutes free-range). I also pointed out that my active lifestyle meant I would need more protein. She countered my argument by saying would could go pescatarian (still eat fish occasionally) and we could still have eggs and dairy. I still had a few objections that she trumped with the fact she does all the cooking and I’ll have to eat what she makes, or make food just for myself. And the winner is…not I.

But in a way we both won. It has been a month of being pescatarians. I am getting enough protein everyday and I don’t miss meat at all. Our environmental impact has gone down much more that we’ve cut out most types of meat. And we have tried so many amazing new dishes that she has found and cooked.

Vegetarianism is not a religion and if we are left with no option or if we are really somewhere special we can make an exception and then go right back to it.

It is not for everyone, but cutting back on the meat you eat and instead focusing more on locally raised, organic vegetables you’ll be doing your health wonders. And who knows, you may jump in the vegetarian boat with us.