Feb 27th and 28th: THE END (AND THE BEGINNING!)

Sorry about missing the post yesterday.  But it felt like a whirlwind weekend that would be best summed up today, the last day of my 28 Day Challenge.

And really, the first day of the rest of my life.  That’s the corniest thing one can say, but man, it’s true.

When I went vegetarian a few months ago, it was pretty much because my friend Kristy went vegetarian.  So I did it, for kicks.  Then I went vegan for this 28 Day Challenge, mostly to get a free membership to a gym, honestly.  And also living the vegetarian lifestyle was really quite suiting me.  I wasn’t missing meat at all, so I figured, let’s make the plunge and cut out the dairy and eggs.  But these decisions were made a bit haphazardly.  Not a WHOLE lot of thought went into all of this in the beginning.  But as weeks went by, my veganism became much more a part of who I was.  I enjoyed finding new vegan hotspots around town and recipes.  I was losing a bit of weight and feeling more energetic.  I was looking forward to the Engine 2 Immersion.  And then I went to the immersion.

And it was then that things (and well, me) REALLY changed.  That I felt these foods become an integral part of who I was.  I started thinking of myself as a being who needed fuel in order to live well.  Now I’m looking forward to putting my own artistic and creative touches on this “fuel”—making the plant strong diet something luscious and exciting and fun. It’s not going to be hard.  I have a huge array of beautiful delicious foods to spread my love of cooking to.  All these veggies and grains will know my name.  That’s for certain.

And exercise—this is going to be the REAL challenge.  I know this.  At least at the beginning.  Though I absolutely loved exercising every day this past week, and went to the gym yesterday, and plan on going tonight—I know it will be a challenge.  I intend on finding affordable yoga classes.  I intend on running this Spring.  I intend on getting fit and trim with exercise being a great ally.  Still, harder to make it a habit.  I’ve eaten every day of my life.  I know what it is to change that up.  Exercise—not so engrained yet.  But I want to make it my beautiful addiction.  Exercise.  Activity.  Moving my body and staying in touch with it.

What else can I say?  My ex boyfriend emailed me a couple of days ago.  A few months ago, I’d let that tear me up.  Now it’s like, meh.  I’ve got my own thing going on.  No matter what happens—if I have to move, if I lose my job, if I lose a lover, if my whole world collapses around me—I’ll still have this Engine 2 Diet.  I’ll still have exercise.  I can always put some spinach and tomatoes and mushrooms in a pot and pour it over brown rice.  I can always take a walk in the park.  I can always practice dietary excellence and be in charge of what goes into my body.  It might sound like an obsession, but it’s the best kind.  Obsessed with feeling good.  Obsessed with living long.  And obsessed with being plant strong.

I’ll be keeping up with this blog every now and again though I might have to rename it as it’s past February.  Though Vegan February was a momentous time for me.  It might be good to keep that title and remember when it all began.

May the adventures continue.

Day 26: Feb 26

And I'm back in NYC. Just like that.

What a tremendous week.  Today, we had a little graduation from our Engine 2 Immersion Program and as I walked up to the stage, Rip said "Can I just tell you?  I LOVE the way you dance!  It's like this crazy sexy Austin Powers THING.  It's awesome." 

Sigh. Rip.  Everyone falls in love with that guy a little bit.

I told my story of the tree with the muscular plant strong arm after I accepted my diploma because we could get a minute of time to say anything we wanted about our experience.  I got roaring applause.

There's always something so inherently satisfying when I talk in front of an audience and tell a story.  Like my true self is being expressed.  When everyone gets it, I'm proud.  And I also said that I was grateful for this week because I was placed BACK in my body with the exercise.  And I felt strong and capable.  And I did.  I do. 

My next plan of attack is to wake up tomorrow morning, go to the gym (until I find an affordable yoga studio or something of the like), go grocery shopping,  and cook.  I'm just going to do what I have to do in order to have no gap between the program and my life.  And it's gonna be a struggle.  But I think it's gonna be fun, too.

Before we left, Rip gave us all 28 Day Challenge Journals, to record our food and the like.  Because he wanted us to start a 28 Day Challenge tomorrow, when we got home, for ourselves.

I will be finishing this one on Monday. 

Then I will start my next 28 Day Challenge.  And after that, another 28 Day Challenge.  And after that, another 28 Day Challenge.  Until my life is full of 28 Day Challenges and I am someone who is living a life that is not only challenging, but fulfilling.

That's the deal.

Day 25: Feb 25

This was my last full day at the Engine 2 Immersion at Travassa in Austin, Texas.

I'm a little sad.  But I'm ready. 

And tonight, I'm tired.  Good tired.  I had actually already shut off the lights and then remembered that I hadn't blogged and took out my laptop.  So, here's a short one.  This morning, we got weighed, blood pressure-ized, and got blood drawn.  I lost 4 lbs, my blood pressure went down, and I'm betting my blood work's gonna say great things.  It was a great start to the day. Needless to say.  Before that, I had a great yoga class, too (!) where I successfully did the sitting lotus position, or whatever it's called.  Pam said "I'm very impressed!" when she saw me do that!  I loved the praise.  Ha.  I'm gonna go again tomorrow.  Whoda thunk.

It's been such an emotional, exciting, informational week.  So many thoughts and feelings are running through my head right now.  I am full of hope and there's bits of doubts, but I'm certain I'm going to take what I've learned here and just fly with it.  I'm plant strong.  For now, hopefully, forever.  But forever is just one day at a time right now. :)

One more thing.  Tonight, I went for a walk along the Mesa Trail before dinner.  It's a beautiful walk thru the woods.  A little hilly but not too bad, and just quiet and pleasant.  The shadows were so lovely that time of day.  I was just walking along when I came upon a tree. A big old tree.  With a huge horizontal branch that, well, looked like an arm.  With a bicep.  A big strong muscular arm reaching out into the canyon below.  And I thought: PLANT STRONG!!!!  And get this, I immediately started crying, overcome with emotion (though I know most will read this and think wow, that's cheesy, or boy, she's gone nuts).  I was just so happy to be where I was and who I was with and with what I'd accomplished this week.  I said Thank You. Out loud. To the universe.  To Travassa.  To Rip Esselstyn and his family.  To Whole Foods.  I felt healthy and well and in control of my body.  And my destiny. Literally on a plant strong path.  I'm seriously now on my way. 

Day 24: Feb 24

Okay, there's a disco dance party in a little bit that I must attend (yes really) so this will be brief.

I went to yoga again today. It was...better!  Much better!  Some of the stretches I learned were very helpful with current soreness and we went over a couple that I was actually kinda GOOD at!  So, this is a small success. I'm going tomorrow, too.

Next:  my stomach is shrinking.  My jeans are too big.  My fat roll is getting smaller.  I find myself sucking in my tummy a lot lately.  And finding that there's a bit of muscle there.  Not that I built any this week but that it's coming through now that the fat is decreasing.  Not sure I'll lose any weight this week, but man, I'm feeling good.  My appetite is smaller, too.  I'm sticking with cereal and fruit for breakfast.  That seems to sustain me throughout the day.

Next,  we learned all about oils today.  Olive oil.  You know? That heart healthy one?  The one that's all over the tv and grocery store and marketed as a super food?  Guess what?  It's still terrible for you.


Ha.


Some things I've learned this week have been huge AHA moments. And some have been huge DUH moments.  And some have been somewhere in between.  It's like everything I'm learning is at once obvious and a surprise.  Almost like I learned them once upon a time and forgot them.  Or like I missed that day in class. But really, no one is taught this stuff.  And that's on purpose.


Lastly, the black bean burger was bad tonight. I was not a fan.  But I think, I THINK, they might have fed us light and low cal today because the blood tests are tomorrow.  Ehhhh that might be a LITTLE bit conspiratorial of me, but it would also make sense.  I still love that cereal though.  And greens.  I am getting addicted to them.


Off to the disco dance party now!!!

Day 23: Feb 23

Wow. What a day.

It started off with yoga, which I hated, I mean HATED.  I couldn't do the stretches, my breathing was off, my balance sucked, and I looked around at everyone else and saw that they were doing better than me which is exactly what you're not supposed to do but I did it, and judged myself and walked out of there thinking, Kelly.  You suck at yoga.  So, I went to breakfast, got my bowl of cereal, and being the sporadically emotional person that I am, I burst into tears.  I was walking out of the dining hall to get some private time when I ran into Jane Esselstyn, the awesome sister of Rip who is hilarious and irreverent and smart.  She stopped me and said, "What's wrong?  Did something happen at home?"

"No, no. I went to yoga.  I sucked at it."

She kinda smiled and shrugged and said, "Yoga's hard."

I said, "I know, and I'm being hard on myself, I don't like that I'm not good at it, I was thinking of my athletic family and me not doing well at yoga and all of a sudden I got emotional, and I know it's ridiculous and I'm just having a very emotional week and--"

Then Jane said, "Listen, I'm a nurse.  You're expressing yourself well.  You have good color in your cheeks.  You look great.  You're fine.  And I come from a f***cking athletic family (Dad, Olympic medal, Rip, Triathlete, Medalist) and I know what that's like.  But you can do it, you'll be fine, yoga's not for everyone, maybe take a different class.  You're fine."

And then I was fine.

And since I completely blew out my legs with the crossfit workout, I can't really do that class tomorrow.  And the hilly hike workout option also sounds like a nightmare as every step really hurts.  This means I'm probably going to have to do yoga tomorrow.

HA.  IRONY.

Whatever.  I can't be as bad as I was today.  Or maybe I will be.  But at least I'll approach with a sense of humor. 

One more thing:  go to this website.  Forks Over Knives  Watch this trailer.  It will be coming to AMC, Regal and Landmark Movie Theaters. I saw it tonight as a special preview.  I'd happily see it again with anyone who wanted to see it!  IT'S GOING TO BE PLAYING KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA IN CAMBRIDGE MASS ON MAY 13!  And the cool thing is--it's about SCIENCE.  Not speculation or fads or media or gurus or anything like that.  Science.  All the people in it are my mentors in this journey and it's an exciting film that will blow the lid off some things, I think.  I hope. 

Ohhhhh man, one more thing.  I've started to eat MUCH less these last couple of days here.  And I'm feeling VERY full still.  Greens, man.  A huge gigantic plate of greens and a vegetable based soup to start lunch and dinner.  It's going to shave off crazy pounds.  I'm so excited about it.

Now, I'm excited for sleep! 

Day 22: Feb 22

Oh boy, these days are just FLYING by, in a way.  But so so so dense!  It's hard to keep up with everything, so I guess I'll just put down the highlights.

Oh, so first and foremost: dinner last night. Which was Black Beans and Brown Rice Extravaganza--you know beans and rice and tomatoes and salsa and avocado and scallons and corn.  With chipotle orange glazed tofu which was DELICIOUS and tasted totally indulgent.  Also, the staple--steamed greens with cashew sauce.  After considering how much fat and calories (though good fat ) the cashew sauce has, though--and how much I've been using it as it is sooooo delicious--I asked Rip Esselstyn if we could get a bottle of vinegar by our greens tonight to use instead of said rich cashew sauce.  He said, Great idea!  We're on it!  See!  You just ask and you shall receive.  :)

Here's a picture of the black beans and rice extravaganza and chipotle glazed tofu!

I can't tell you how delicious this was--and how cheap it would be to make for a family! 

Before dinner, we rolled our own nori rolls!  Here's mine!  (A couple pieces were lame, admittedly--but it was due to the knife, swear!)

Then after dinner was an inspirational talk by Dick Beardsley, who you may recall NEARLY won the Boston Marathon in 1982.  Beardsley is remarkable for many reasons.  He grew up a hick kid in Minnesota, never really was much into sports until he made up his mind about running.  Unfortunately, Dick experienced a crazy string of accidents--from tractor, to running over by a car, to falling off a cliff--and so he sort of messed up his body.  And then got majorly majorly addicted to painkillers.  He was popping up to 90 pills a day at one point.  A former marathoner.  But he got clean.  And now he's been sober for 14 years and tells an incredible story of perseverance, positivity, and good humor.  I didn't know where the story was headed when he first started speaking it.  He just sounded like a good ole boy from Minnesota, but man, has he been thru some serious stuff.  I was inspired.  Truly.  What a guy.  Woah.  The inspirational talk took place in a beautiful space called the Sanctuary which was outside and just--hmmm.  Dreamy.  See below.

Then this MORNING, I experienced my own athleticism!  I took a cross-fit workout taught by Nathan Turner for my morning workout.  And it was intense and fun and made me feel strong!  So many lunges.  Yikes!  I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

This afternoon, we had a question and answer period.With all the big wigs--the entire Esselstyn family and Dr. Pam Popper of The Wellness Forum who I am telling you is quickly becoming someone I admire.  This woman is so cool.  I sat with her the first day at lunch and had no idea who she was.  She is totally brill and personable and tough and cool. Anyway, during the q&a, people were asking questions about their family and their stores and disease and health questions in general.  But I had a very selfish personal question to ask.

"All my numbers are perfect, optimal, except my weight.  Could I be healthy as a bit overweight with perfect numbers? I'm annoyed that my numbers are great and my weight is this."

Dr. Esselstyn said, "Yes, you can be perfectly healthy and a little overweight."

Pam said: "Give up flour.  You'll lose it quickly."

And Rip said: "Ha, give it a few months.  Do the diet. You'll be exactly where you need to be."

So I have those three comments, all of which are encouraging, and exciting.  I'm not sure about giving up flour altogether, but we'll see.  It might be an interesting idea.  Something I've never tried.  With all the veggies I'm eating, I'm getting everything I need.  We'll just see.  I'm happy where I am right now. I'm on MY WAY.  Just being on MY WAY is awesome.  I'll get there.  It's in sight now.  Just going to enjoy this journey.  And all this delicious fooooood!

"

Day 21: Feb 21

8am
I'm going to semi-live blog this day today...saving as I go and then posting at the end...

I went on a major hike for the workout this morning.  Hilly and beautiful.  The sun rose as we headed up the hill and it was just like WOW. Such an awesome start to the day.  Then I chugged lots of water to go get my blood drawn, as all of us "immersionists" are going to be part of a year long study of those who went to this immersion.  Even if you fall off the wagon, and don't do the diet after you leave.  They just want proof that it works if you do it, and that it's worth the money WFM is paying to send team members.

After blood work--breakfast!!! Yummmm.  Breakfast burritos, self made--corn tortilla (no oil!), black beans, homefried potatoes, peppers, onions, scrambled tofu, steamed greens, salsa hot sauce.  No oil in any of it!  Then I had a small bowl of what's called Rip's Big Bowl--which is a bunch of healthy cereals and grains covered in fruit and a milk of our choice--I chose almond.  Can't remember the last time I had my bananas sliced for me.  Deeeelicious.

Just the food, by the way--reason to be here. :)

But now we have an entire day of intensive classes and lectures.  Which is supposed to be pretty amazing and lifechanging.  So, that's it for now! More later...

5:45 pm
Woah. What a day of classes!  Three intensive lectures, taught by some of the greatest experts on plant based nutrition in the whole WORLD. T Colin Campbell who wrote THE CHINA STUDY did a Focus on Nutrition lecture and "Protein Worship." Protein Worship was FASCINATING.  He talked all about how there is this whole idea of protein being something that Westerners think is the most important part of their diet.  And the typical question that plant based folks get is: "How are you getting your protein?" The answer to which that is, BY EATING! As only 5-10% of our calories really need to be protein, and we get tons of proteins from leafy greens and wheat.  Protein DOES make a person grow faster, but that isn't really necessary for most of us--and athletes can get their protein from plants.  It was fantastic. 

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who wrote a highly impacting book called PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE lectured endothelial cells and how the bad cholesterol sticks to them, invades the endothelial space and then white blood cells come in, become foam cells from eating all the bad cholesterol, and then those foam cells do nasty stuff.  Like break down the plaque lining and cause heart attacks!  I THINK I have that right.  I'm not POSITIVE--i'm gonna review with some peers to make sure.  

Another awesome lecture today was one by Jeff Novick, who basically disected the Western Diet changes over the last 40 years.  He was funny and informative and delivered heavy information in a light and entertaining way. 

Now I'm off to the dining hall for a cooking lesson on nori roll rolling!  That's sushi!  (Vegetable of course.)  Then we're gonna have a big ole dinner followed by an inspirational lecture on ADDICTIONS by Dick Beardsley.  Which is sure to be fantastic.

Not sure I'll have time or energy to write later tonight, so I'll just post this now.  Oh, one more thing: headache.  Caffeine withdrawal. Very. Annoying.  But besides that, I feel GREAT!