To Blog or Not to Blog….

5-29-12

…That is the question on my mind as of late.  My daughter Heidi is a great blogger, photos and all.  She has been able to set aside time each week to recap or highlight events or feelings from her week.  I admire this habit as I admire her other steady habits of personal prayer, scripture study and journal writing.  I have been contemplating whether this style of expression would suit me long term, as I have a tendency to get excited about things, get started, and then not follow through long term.  I enjoy typing well-enough & am proficient at it, and I love photos when it’s someone else organizing them – so would I commit to this goal enough to actually learn some DIGITAL photo organizational and manipulation skills that will likely be required?????

That is the question!

So….today I come to the computer with another thing in mind.  Recently, Jim and I attended a lecture featuring Caldwell Esselstyn discussing the research findings pertaining to the prevention and reversal of several life-threatening chronic diseases common in American lives and his wife, Ann, discussing how to begin implementing a better way to eat & live.  Turns out that my feelings about the excessive use of meats in the Mormon diet is indeed backed up by these findings: clearly, those who consume animal products as an integral part of their diet are setting up their bodies to develop these diseases while those organisms which consume 5% or less of animal-derived foods can avoid or reverse these diseases. Sounds like the Word of Wisdom counsel is now reinforced with hard evidence. Wow! This message has been emerging in my mind over the preceding months, but has been most especially powerful during the last week and a half.

It is interesting to me the fact that in retrospect, I can see that I have been prepared to receive this message with more of an open mind beginning in the last 8-12 months.  It probably started largely with the example of Bishop Cannon, who I learned had lost weight and was improving his health markers through what he was calling the “wow” diet: the Word of Wisdom, as he aptly summarized it. In talking with Cyndi, I learned about the book, “Eat to Live,“ by Joel Fuhrman in addition to “The China Study.”  Both of these books served to steer first Steve and later Cyndi to the conclusion that they would change their diets in an effort to come into better harmony with these principles of health outlined in the studies outlined in the books, and of course, in our own Word of Wisdom, although seldom adhered to on the whole by the masses of Mormons I know. The result was a huge weight loss for Steve which became noticeable to all who know him.  I wonder how many would look into the real stuffing behind it all, only to discover a nugget well-enough overlooked or mocked in the past: veganism.

Now I might add here that I wasn’t convinced I would change my own diet quite so radically because of what this diet had done for Steve.  After all, I didn’t have any “scary numbers” on my own triglycerides, cholesterol, blah blah blah at my last health check, and, I am not overweight by the standard charts used to determine such a thing. However, this new slant on why veganism might not be considered an extreme lifestyle choice for more mainstreamer-types like myself really got my attention and had me intrigued enough to continue to investigate.

During this same time period (spring 2011), my close friend, Deedee Morgan, had been in therapy to unlock the mysteries surrounding certain health issues in her body and to improve her health in general.  She had also learned of these writings and others and had come to experiment with her diet.  She began making “green smoothies,” something some of the Carol Tuttle gals were trying, and talking with me about Green Smoothie Girl and the changes she had made in her family’s diet to safe-guard their health and control asthma/other conditions in her children.  K’Lynne Wagner, another GSG follower and adopter of whole foods eating, began having monthly GSG meetings at her home in September.  I have been attending most of these meetings since that time and have been contemplating the possibility of adopting a whole foods lifestyle for myself and hopefully for my family, wondering how they would respond to such things.  I have certainly experimented with plenty of healthy food alternatives throughout my adulthood and at times vigorously sought after dietary changes that would make a difference in the way I feel and function.  I have had some mild improvements here or there, but nothing dramatic and ultimately, the expense and relative unpopularity of these things within my family culture (I say that because I struggle to keep something up which I am destined to pursue alone & so far have not been joined in my approaches) have left me ultimately returning largely to the same old track.   I do have some healthy habits – just not a major paradigm shift.  At varying levels we are all drinking smoothies with greens and often eating oats for breakfast. The smoothies I make for myself contain more greens and fewer fruits/sweetener than theirs do and almost never appeal to them, however, so I suppose I had them mostly pegged for being “non-converters.”

Meanwhile all around us here in Medford there are more people choosing to break the mold and go the distance with this kind of diet change. The Pastranos are known vegetarians and Joe has had a fair amount of influence on Jim’s shift in acceptance. For the interested women, there have been three luncheons (I have only recently learned about in these in the last few months but maybe there have been more?) where all are invited to bring a vegetarian food preparation to share with the group, along with recipes to share together  in everyone’s learning process.  The first one I attended I was surprised at how many familiar faces there are in this group from my ward and those close by - maybe they were surprised to see me!  At any rate, it shows me I’m not the only one with these things on my mind and working within a group mindset is always a boost to anything I could pursue.

I missed the email getting the word out about Dr. Esselstyn’s presentation coming up, but Joe Pastrano, a fellow cyclist, a vegan, and good friend of Jim’s, invited us to attend dinner and the lecture with them and the Palmers on Thursday, the day before the event.  When I called to secure tickets I was told they had been sold out a few weeks earlier and that no more tickets would be available.  We stuck with the pre-event dinner plans to meet with them at an Asian restaurant across the alley from the theater and when show time was near, they all left us to find their seats.  Shortly after taking over Chanell’s abandoned plate of veggie tempura, she reappeared at the table with a free ticket in hand that one of us could use to see it after all.  We debated over which one of us should go, and decided that since we just found water damage in our bathroom that needed demolishing that evening and neither of us wanted to go it alone, we would simply turn in the single ticket for someone else to enjoy.

Fate had other plans for us…  When we entered the theater and offered up our ticket, the ushers quickly offered us a second ticket in the theater and when I asked if there was any chance we could sit together, one of them left us and momentarily returned with a matched pair so we could be seated together. Showtime was in about 1 minute, so it was a quick decision to stay that may just be a real lane changer, if not a lifestyle 180 for us.  The lecture was full of extensive studies pointing to the prevention and reversal of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, certain cancers, and more.  The latter section was reserved for his wife, Ann, to make her three points (of the eight total) of the Esselstyn way of eating and get us kick started into the hows of implementation. We watched her strip away the leafy part of the kale from the tough stems, twist and break the end of the romaine lettuce, extol the virtues of “no oil” in all the foods, and describe the delectable breakfast of oats + whatever you can think of for breakfast every day.  Her contribution was truly beneficial and motivational and left us thinking, “Hey, I might be able to do some of this…”

Well, after having Dr. Esselstyn’s presentation at the Craterian settle in on us, Jim and I felt we cannot ignore the preponderance of evidence stacked in favor of a vegan lifestyle.  We felt we must share the message with our children. On Sunday we found and watched “Forks over Knives” as a family and I think the message came through pretty strong - fairly well received by the children and reinforced for mom & dad. When I expressed the thought that I felt I had been prepared by the spirit to accept the message, Heidi mentioned she also recognized similar preparation for herself.  Melissa also accepts the message, and I believe Sam is mulling it over pretty strongly himself.  He already gave up sugar a few weeks ago when he recognized Jim’s need for greater motivation to make the commitment to cut it out as a means to lose weight and eat healthier.  Sam proposed a deal where they would have to pay a $1 each time one chose a “sugary” food and so far, it is going well for both of them.  Our kids all seem desirous to begin adopting a healthier diet and avoiding the pitfalls common to our time. 

So bringing this blog right up the minute, I went full out this afternoon/evening by attempting to prepare my first all vegetarian, no oil, non-dairy meal which I found while searching for a salad dressing recipe in the last week and promised to be popular with the palates.  I made Mushroom, Kale, and Spinach Enchilada Casserole with Salsa Verde and Roasted Poblano Cream.  I started just before 5 p.m. and was ready to serve it all after 8 p.m. – this is what was supposed to be 1 hr 30 mins from prep to table according the recipe specs.  Although the time investment was way too long, the result was satisfying.  The Poblano Cream sauce was wonderful, as promised by reviewers online, and I think the dish has potential if I can shave some serious time off the preparation phase.  Stripping the kale, sorting the cilantro, brushing 1 lb. of mushrooms, and all the other washing, chopping, whizzing, and sautéing really took a bite out of the evening long before we bit into the final products!  Ali and Rod Georgianna were here to sample it with us and liked it.  Of course they also shared Rod’s chocolate mousse cake for dessert – not exactly a compliant choice, but what’dya say to such a friendly offering?  (Bon appétit in my book, since achieving strict Esselstyn-style eating is neither my beginning nor my end goal at this point.) My vision now is to approximate as closely as seems reasonable a whole-foods, vegan diet at home, and outside the home whenever it seems possible & reasonable without causing a fuss or drawing undue attention. 

I hope that in process of changing significantly for the better my eating habits and those of my family members, we can avoid the sad experiences associated with those who develop many of the chronic health conditions common to those who eat the typical American diet.  I know one friend with breast cancer who can see the direct correlation between her high-in-animal-product pre-cancer diet and the onset of the disease and subsequently emptied out her grass fed beef to our freezer’s benefit in response to adapting this lifestyle change for herself in an attempt to begin undoing the damages.  I believe this to be the right way to go, and that I have been prepared by the Spirit to receive and accept the message and to help my family accept it also.  I am grateful to have come upon this knowledge and pray for strength to achieve this higher way of living and eating.