The First 100 Days, Part One: Food

The time of transition is underway. Ironically the 100 days will end on my birthday, May 11, so there will be another reason to celebrate this year.

Before we get into where I am going, it might help to touch on where I came from. There are several reasons our hearts attack us, you can read about them online at your leisure as this is not medical blog. Breaking it down to the skin, it’s family history and lifestyle. One you can control, the other you can not.

My family history with regards to heart disease is enough to depress a staff meeting at Disney World. Heart disease took my paternal grandfather at 49, my maternal grandmother at 59 and my father at 55. So the heart stuff was on my radar, but figured I had some time before we had to put serious focus on this potential disaster.

As far as my lifestyle goes mine was not perfect, but it wasn’t as if I was rolling into the McDonald’s drive thru on a daily basis. We eat well at home, but I am not always at home.

I smoked cigars, not cigarettes, and I did not exercise nearly as much as I should have. And for as long as I remember some form of booze miraculously found its way into my left palm. I rarely drank too much, but I drank just enough to where the body got used to it, and missed it when it was gone.

Spending a week in the ICU is a great way to kick most bad habits. I understood why there wasn’t a cigar lounge but figured a bar would be just down the hall. I was mistaken. So check cigars and beer off the list. That was easy.

On to the food. At some point during the last decade I got the reputation of being a “foodie.” I’m not, seriously, in no practical understanding of that term am I a foodie. Yes, I can cook. Yes, I have worked in restaurants. Yes, my wife is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet. And yes, I have certain quirks when it comes to what I eat, but I swear I am just like you, unless of course you are a foodie, in that case we are drastically different.

During these first 100 days my meals will be getting the most significant overhaul. Exercise will come next but right now the doctors what that to go slow, apparently the sternum gets cranky when it is sliced open for half a day.

Back to the food. Meat is out. Glad we got that out of the way. At some point we can talk about health benefits, animal cruelty, environmental impacts, but I promised to make these posts no more than five minutes of your day, so moving on.

Yes, all meat, not just red meat. I can hear pigs and chickens from all over the Berkshires exhaling. As for now fish is still in, on a limited basis. I am also eliminating any animal by-products, I’ve never tried this before so that will be challenging. And I’m not counting out a move to an all out vegan diet but one step at a time people.

My wife has also had me reading about a Brown Rice Fast. It seems that if I was ever to attempt a fast it would be now. With the beer and cigars kicked, my body is ready for a complete jump start. So the fast will be coming soon and be reported on here.

I wouldn’t say I am excited for these changes in my diet. You rarely see people making signs or writing songs about eating sprouts or tempeh. And when was the last time you heard a friend or loved one say, “I am so pumped, going to soak the shit out of these beans so we can have them 24 hours from now.”

What excites me is reducing the potential for another massive heart attack and spending 40 years with my wife instead of just the four months we had before the first hiccup. So it begins, feel free to toast me tonight with a glass of wine, I’ll be having 100 proof grape juice.  

There are other parts of my first 100 day plan. Come back soon, we have to go over how I am going to handle exercise, going back to work, bigger picture items and more.

Food on foodies.