A few months ago my husband and I stumbled across a movie called, “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. In short, the movie is about an Australian man, Joe Cross, who in the beginning fits the title…fat, sick and nearly dead. He was overweight, he was unhealthy and he was on several medications to help control a rare autoimmune disease. Joe Cross takes you on his 60 day juice fast journey in America. Cutting out all the processed foods, junk and animal fats that were in his typical daily diet, he literally only consumed raw vegetable juice for 60 days. Now, of course anyone is bound to shed a few lbs if you’re cutting out food from your diet, but his overall transformation is quite impressive, inspiring and amazing. Not only did he shed about 100lbs; he completely reversed the disease he was suffering from and was able to discontinue the use of all his medications. After the 60 days was through he began adding in foods again, but healthy ones. Along his journey, Joe met another man who was much like himself, fat, sick and nearly dead, and who suffered from the same disease. He too began the juicing diet and was able to lose weight, reverse his disease and lower his cholesterol and blood pressure.
After watching the movie my husband was determined to buy a juicer and start to adding raw vegetable juice into his daily diet. He researched different juicers and decided on a Hurom juicer. (They aren’t cheap, but with gift certificates from our wedding shower it completely covered the purchase!) I’ll be honest, I was very reluctant to start “juicing” in the beginning because I have an incredibly sensitive stomach and I was concerned drinking a ton of raw veggies would aggravate my system; however, since we got home from our honeymoon a month ago I’ve been drinking them and I’m officially addicted. I started with one and realized my stomach was OK and I felt pretty good. So one juice went to two juices and three juices a week and now I’m drinking them every single day. I’m literally and officially addicted to the juice! I’m sleeping better, I have more energy and my skin looks and feels amazing. My stomach has also felt a lot better and isn’t aggravated at all by the raw veggies.
After posting a picture on Facebook of our “Mean Green” juice; we were then recommended by a family member to watch the movie “Forks Over Knives” which outlines just how bad animal fats are for us. Chicken, steak, pork, eggs, cheese; it’s all linked to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and essentially several life threatening diseases. The movie also shows people who are suffering from things like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. After cutting out animal fats and eating more of a plant-based diet these people were lowering their blood pressure and cholesterol and essentially curing themselves from life threatening diseases. We also found the movie “Vegucated” which much like Forks Over Knives, outlines the many health benefits of a plant-based diet; although, also shows how cruel and disgusting the animals we eat are treated. I am not only appalled at how bad it is for us to eat meat, but I’m also disgusted at the cruelty of how it’s done. While becoming a vegan is not part of my personal plan or long term goals (I love cheese too much!), the movie really helped me open my eyes to eating a healthier diet and wanting to eat animals A LOT less!
So, why am I writing about all of this? As healthy as my husband and I typically eat, we also eat things like french fries, steak and ice cream. We realized that eating a meal that is only half healthy or eating healthy only half of the time doesn’t quite cut it. For the past month we have cut way back on eating meats and have seriously bumped up our veggie intake not only with the juice but in our meals. Keep in mind that cutting out meat entirely isn’t my short-term goal, but cutting WAY back is and has been very easy for me seeing as I typically don’t fill up on meats. On any normal given night prior to our “revelation”, 75% of my plate was veggies and grains and 25% was meat. I truly feel healthier and better when I’m not loading up on a bunch of high fat and cholesterol foods. This is not to say I won’t splurge on occasion, but I am 110% committed to being healthier and it’s not just going to the gym or exercising weekly that brings you to health, a HUGE part of it is our diet.
That cliche saying, “you are what you eat” is true. If you eat high fat bad for you foods you will be fat; some of you may be “skinny-fat”. If you eat healthy good for you foods you will be healthy; this doesn’t necessarily mean you will be a skinny little rail, it means you will be healthy! Unless you are a professional athlete literally burning thousands of calories a day, a normal gym session doesn’t justify gorging and binging on a bunch of unhealthy food, and I have found the average person doesn’t realize that. The average person thinks, “Hey I went to the gym for an hour so I can eat french fries, a burger and drink a soda because I earned it!” (Don’t get me started on soda!) No, actually you didn’t earn it; it’s only going to set you way back. I’ve really learned that exercise helps you maintain fitness, but it only takes you halfway to healthy. If you want to truly be healthy you need to drink and eat your way there. If you give your body the appropriate resources it can heal and cure itself.
I’m not a nutritionist or a doctor or a dietician, but I have learned and I am still learning through many resources how to be as healthy as I can be. There are several reasons of wanting to be healthy and change how I eat. I want to live for a really long time, as I mentioned I have a really sensitive stomach and I want to maintain a healthy gut and not feel or be sick all the time and most importantly, I want to teach my future children healthy habits from day one. If my husband and I don’t have healthy habits they won’t either.
I’m drinking and eating my way to health and I hope this blog can inspire even one person to check out the movies that have truly impacted me and my husband and helped us change the way we eat. Eat healthy, drink healthy and be healthy!
Until next time, here’s wishing all my blog readers a healthy and happy day!
~SLP