Surviving without meat....kinda...

Been awhile since I've written the blog, but really not a lot going on. But that's kind of a good thing, I mean, that I've settled into this plant based diet life so much now that it's just another day....and at the end of the day, there's no regrets. None, zippo. I mean, my decision to give up meat, poultry, and dairy 6 months ago was an experiment to see if food intake had a direct connection to my health. Not that I was in bad health, I've always worked out and kept in pretty good shape. I seldom ate fast food, but I was consuming a lot of meat and dairy. When I cooked, I cooked with a lot of butter....a lot!!! But I had talked myself into the fact that since I was making everything fresh, from scratch, that it was OK to consume, and hey, how can all these fresh ingredients be bad for me??? Now I'm not saying it's bad for everyone, I'm just writing my own story here. Not preaching, just relating my experience to whoever wants to read it. So the experiment worked for me, 6 months later I don't have any joint pain, my energy level is higher than ever, and I'm probably in the best physical shape that I've been in years. So, I've settled into this new diet without regrets. I can see and feel the results. Direct relationship between my health, and the food I take in. Winning....(as Charlie Sheen would say)

All that said, and again, not preaching here, but this works for me. But that's not to say that I don't miss a big old juicy hamburger with a chunk of bleu cheese drippin all over it. Red Robbin has a great Blue Cheese burger btw....but I digress....
 So, I was riding my bike in Manhattan the other day and as I was riding around the southern tip of the city, I happened to ride by Blue Smoke BBQ downtown....(here's the link to Blue Smoke), holy crap did that ever SMELL GOOD!!!! I came really close to dropping the bike and goin in there and having a pulled pork sandwich and a brewskie....or five, but I didn't, kept peddling, enjoyed the smell of a good BBQ and continued over to the Brooklyn Bridge. I had never even been on the Brooklyn Bridge before, and it was very cool to ride my bike over it. Over on the Brooklyn side, there was a lady and her son with a cart selling ice cold water and fresh cut, ice cold pineapple slices....you talk about delicious, cold and sweet, and extremely satisfying.

 I thought to myself that I was glad to smell the BBQ, but very glad to find this vendor to satisfy my thirst and hunger....peddled back to the Weehawken ferry back to Jersey satisfied with my 20 mile ride, and satisfied with my snack.....

But really, every now and then I'm gonna eat some meat, some poultry, an egg or two, but only if I can get it from an organic farm. If I'm going to consume meat or poultry, I want to know that it was raised in a humane manner, not from the factory farms that supply all the fast food, and grocery store chains. Not eating any of that shit. Now I'm on my soapbox.....the factory farms raise chickens and beef that are overcrowded, horrible places. The animals don't have any room to roam, let alone even turn around. They live their lives standing in their own excrement, get sick, and so they have to receive antibiotics to stay alive long enough to get trucked into the slaughter house, and then the meat gets hosed down with ammonia....no...not for me...ain't eating that. OK, end of rant.....so when I do want to eat some eggs, or poultry, or meat, I've found an organic farm in northwest jersey just down the road from where I go fly fishing on the Big Flat Brook...perfect. It's called Flatbrook Farm. (here's the link to Flatbrook Farms website). So a few weeks ago I went and got some eggs and two steaks there. I went with the intent of buying chicken that they had raised, but they didn't have any ready yet, told me to come back in a few weeks and they should have some ready for sale.....so I bought steaks and eggs instead. Made the steaks that night, but truthfully, it wasn't the mouth watering foodie event I was anticipating. Not that the beef was bad, it was great; great flavour, and no antibiotics, humanely raised beef. But I think I actually enjoyed my Salad Nicoise way better. It's a classic French salad that happens to have eggs and tuna fish in it. Lots of good protein.

Some of my friends say that since I eat an egg or meat once in a while, that I'm not really vegan. Well, never really claimed to be a full blown vegan. I've even been called a hypocrite. Well, then I'm a hypocrite. It's a plant based diet, not a plant exclusive diet. So, call it whatever you want. I call it working....I think the tally here is 1 steak in over 6 months, maybe 10 eggs in 6 months, and 1 chicken wing during the super bowl. Think I'm good here. But the whole point of today's blog was to say that after all this time, I really do not miss or crave meat or dairy. There are other things that are a lot healthier for me to consume...like ice cold fresh pineapples on the Brooklyn Bridge....

One last thing before I get my Sunday started here....found this stuffed tomato recipe the other day, made it a few nights ago and it was great!!! I substituted wild rice for the quinoa....the cilantro pesto was the bomb...I love cilantro. 

Here's the recipe:

Stuffed Tomatoes

So, have a great day everyone....please feel free to  comment and/or share this blog. Love to hear some feedback.

Eat clean, stay healthy!!!

John

13,000 year old food.....yup

Lentils...these things have been on the dinner plate for 13,000 years!!!! Can you believe it??? OK, not the dinner plate, maybe the dinner rock...probably didn't have plates back then...probably didn't have utensils back then...whatever, the point is, these things are awesome...you don't have to soak em over night, you just take them from the stupid plastic bag (probably didn't have plastic bags bags back then), and you cook em for 15 or 20 minutes.....and that's it. Been doin it for 13,000 goddamn years....(according to wiki...)Wiki...there's the link...

I've learned about these little things since goin on the old plant based diet I'm on...didn't want to run to the grocery store after my 20 mile bike ride today; feeling a little lazy, so I found some stuff in the pantry, including lentils, didn't know what to make with them, but I wound up with this amazing supper. It's Saturday, I went to the gym at 10 this morning and did a spin class...not a dry spot on me after that. Then came home, and since it was such an awesome day here in the NYC area, decided to get on my bike for the first time this year, and peddle around NYC for a few hours....it was awesome. I can ride my bike down to the Weehawken ferry and they'll take me and my bike to NYC for a few bucks...wound up riding around Central Park a few times and then back home. About 3 hours, 1200 calories, and 21 miles in all. Felt great!!!! Although, I do need a new bike. I have a 20 year old Trek mountain bike that I bought in Ventura, CA, when I lived there in 1995...had some cool mountain bike trails...anyway, it's not really a road bike. Everybody in Manhattan today (and every time I ride) frickin just zoom by me on there $3000 road bikes....I'm really not ready to pay that just for a bike...anyway, I digress, like I often do. Riding around the city is great. However, it took all my will power NOT to stop at the 100 million food carts along the way...they smelled soooooo goood!!!! Hot dogs, pretzels, halal food, kabobs, unbelievable aromas....but I didn't give in, and focused on making something healthy at home tonight. Finally made it home, exhausted, and then realized I had left the apartment a frickin mess when I left in my hurry this morning. I never do that. I have to, have to, have to, make the god damn bed, put everything away, do all my OCD things (clean out the sink, make sure there is no water droplets in it, shut all the closet doors, leave the bathroom a certain way, etc..ridiculous)...so, before I could get to supper, I did the chores from this morning. After that, I didn't want to go out to the grocery store, so I whipped up whatever I could find. I found lentils, collard greens, onions, organic tomato sauce in the fridge, fresh thyme, and threw it all together with some Indian spices and viola, a frickin excellent tasting, super healthy, supper!!!!
13,000 years old those little lentils are. Wonderin if the peeps 13,000 years ago ate a tasty meal from them like I just did.....Being on the plant based diet, those things are really good for me. Have a ton of protein, a lot of fiber, zero fat, all good shit.
So, I'm learning to cook all over again. I have a million recipe books, and there's a lot of good recipes on line, (Thug Kitchen is a really funny one....here's the link...Thug Kitchen ),but tonight I didn't follow a recipe, I just threw them all together, on a bed of polenta, and had me a delicious, nutritious, meal. Feeling good about it all. Can't remember when I've had this much energy, pain free, spring in my step, and absolutely loving it......if you anyone out there is thinking about adjusting your diet to improve your health, trust me, do it, and do it now. It's easy, it's a little different at first, not normal, but once you realize and feel the benefits of it, you'll love yourself for making the move.

Peace everyone!!!!!

Eat clean, feel better.....

on the road.....

Just a quick post...it's amazing how my eating habits have changed. I'm in Ridgecrest, CA right now for work for a few days, so I pulled into town today at around 11:30. Drove 3 hours from Ventura (my old home town...) and so I was hungry....went by my old go to healthy lunch place called "Pure Healing Foods" and gasp!!!!!! SHIT!!!! IT WASN'T THERE!!!!!!!!! WTF???? It was MY place!!! The total opposite of McCancer, Barfer King, Cancers Jr.,,,, just to name a few medical emergency lunch places....I was soooooo bummmed....how can this happen??? I thought they were doing a pretty good business....selling healthy sandwiches, smoothies, health food supliments...and now it's gone....egads....

So I went to Albertsons and bought a banana and some cherries and ate that for lunch.  Then I head into the lab and told my buddy about the Pure Healing Foods closing, and he says, "no, they didn't close, they just moved."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy.......so I''m going there tomorrow for lunch. Ridgecrest is a small desert town, not much goin on here, but guess what.....they still have some organic, healthy sandwiches for lunch....and some killer blueberry smoothies!!! Thank God........

So, anyway, if you're ever in or passing through Ridgecrest, CA, stop in Pure Healing Foods on Norma,  you'll feel better, and you're body will thank you......

Eat like you give a fuck.......

healthy always seems pretty....

Did ya ever notice that when you're lookin at joining a gym, or starting a diet, or discovering yoga, or going on a nice healthy vacation to clear your head, that it's always pretty...it's always attractive....pictures of healthy men and women, always in shape, smiling, and it always seems like perfect weather, right??? Why the heck is that? Are healthy people that much happier?? Are they always better looking than the rest of us??? WTF???  I've done a little investigating myself, just from my own experiences, during the 59 years of my existence on this earth, that, I believe, if you are happy and healthy, you are better looking....more attractive, and have a better personality. Yep....that's what I think. Thats what I've discovered. I don't think it's rocket science, look, if you have a cold or flu, you feel like shit, you look like shit. If you just came out of the gym after a great workout and feeling on top of your game, you look great, and you feel great, which means, you are more attractive to people...it's easy. My point of all this is, if you feel good, you are a better person on this earth, and you can do more good for people, do more good for your family, friends, and yourself! So how do you do that??? I started by eating better. By eating this plant based diet. I feel way better, I've lost a bunch of weight, and I hope to God I am more attractive without my big old gut sticking over my pants.... Dude, that's a no brainer. Eating better, getting more exercise, equals feeling way better about yourself. It's self help....and the easiest self help there is. No Prozac, no Xanax, no other bullshit medicine, just good clean food and a little excercise folks.

I'm in the middle of a 2 week business trip on the west coast. I used to live out here in Ventura, Ca, years ago. Great place to live. But even out here, with a perfect climate of 72 degrees all year long, perfect beaches, nearby mountains, flowers filling the air with their great fragrances, there are some people that are still miserable....and I truly believe it is their diet and their outlook. Eat shit, feel like shit, no matter of your surroundings.
I drove up to Mammoth Lakes last weekend, quite a long drive, but I'm not one to sit in a hotel and watch TV for hours on end; I'd rather go to someplace beautiful, so I suck it up and drive for hours.... First place I stop in while in Mammoth Lakes is Stellar Brew Cafe...it's an organic coffee/tea food shop that's super chill, and really great food, juice, and coffee. Great way to start the day at 10,000 feet in the mountains. Grab a vegan wrap there and tuck it into the backpack and hike away. Last Saturday there was a fresh coating of snow up there. I was the first one out on the trails, feeling blessed to be in the middle of such a beautiful place, and feeling super healthy and energized. I know it's my diet that gives me this energy, I know it's because I'm eating clean.

It was great!!! Eating clean, on a clean, fresh trail with clean snow, 10,000 feet in the clean mountain air.....felt super energized. The few people I met on the trail that morning were all smiling...all very happy and super excited to be out there!!! I guess my point here is, when you are healthy, you tend to be happier, and you tend to eat better, and make better decisions for your body. It's a circle, it comes back around, when you exercise more, you tend to eat healthier. When you sit on the couch, you tend to eat crap, processed foods, chips, crackers, frozen pizza, and then all that makes you feel sluggish and you don't want to exercise, no matter how beautiful outside it is.
So, yeh, the gym ads, the yoga ads, the hiking ads, the healthy eating ads, all have attractive people in them,,,because they are attractive, they are happy, they are living life to the fullest and feeding their bodies the right foods....I firmly believe that. Ask any athlete how important good nutrition is, and ask them if/when they eat fast food anything, how it makes them feel.....

One more last shout out to a great restaurant I've discovered in Ventura, CA. It's called the Himalayan....it's awesome....great food, a lot of vegan options, it's basically Nepal/Indian based cuisine...spicy if you want it, either way, super clean and super healthy!!!! Love it....go there if you are ever visiting Ventura....I know my friends that live in the Ventura area all have been there.

Eat healthy and clean peeps.....we only get one chance at this....NEVER EAT ANYTHING THAT HAS A COMMERCIAL....that's an easy way to check if you're eating clean!!!!

Peace

Now it's not a diet...it's my life, and I've never felt better...

It's May 1, wow!!!!.....May day.....May day....now that I just wrote that date, I'm sitting here thinking, hey, maybe that's what my frickin body was screamin at the end of last year...ha ha...."mayday, mayday, we're going down"....It's a call for help...one last drastic, desperate call.....

I was a little overweight, not by a lot, but I had the big ol' 58 year old gut...frequent occurrences of gout, all kinds of other joint pains, and, even though I worked out occasionally, still generally had low energy...very unlike me.....I'm usually a pretty high energy, semi whacky, close to weirdo, energy...always up for trouble....  But at the end of last year, it all came to logger heads....all came to a screeching halt....so something had to give...after looking in the mirror, seriously looking in the mirror, because, what I do sometimes, I "glance" at the mirror, because I don't really want to process what I'm seeing....so after seriously staring at my fat self in the mirror, I decided that was it...it's not going to take care of itself, I ain't wakin up tomorrow with some six pack abs....so....the adventure began....listened to the big "mayday, mayday, mayday..." that my self was callin out.....

So...fast forward 4 months....here we are, May 1st. Down 20 pounds, no gout, no joint pains, incredible energy, and really, really, just feeling so good. I was talking to one of my friends at work today in the lunch line. He knows I went vegan, I said that i do have a little cheese every now and then, and that I've had fish twice in the last 4 months, but no other dairy or meat at all. A guy overhearing our conversation asked me how do I feel??? So I told him truthfully that I've never ever felt better. That I didn't start this change to make myself "feel better", but an attempt to ease gout and arthritic joints...., but now it's turned out to relieve those symptoms and has also made me feel just generally sooooooo much better.....wake up with more energy, walk down the mile long hallways at work with a big spring in my step....get through an hour of ballroom dancing lessons all sweaty but super energized.....oh, yeh, ballroom dancing lessons....that's another topic....salsa, waltz, oh yeh,,,,twirling my gal around the dance floor....but I digress.

So, here's some food to make you feel good!!! Made these a few times in the past few weeks. Vietnamese Spring Rolls....these things are awesome...really easy and fun to make!!! You can basically add whatever you want to these things...think of it as a see through tortilla...tonight I made them with sliced carrots, sliced cabbage for some more crunch, scallions, bean sprouts, cilantro, mint, sliced black seedless grapes, sliced papaya, and crushed peanuts!!! Frickin AWESOME!!! You can dip it into some homemade sauce, but I used a store bought sauce called "Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce", it's a classic vietnamese style sauce with chilies, carrots, and garlic...it's a beautiful thing people!!!!   OK, go back and read those ingredients......there's a lot of flavor going on there!!!! And all vegan...all good, not bad peeps!!! No animals were hurt in this recipe...ha ha...(except the pack mules that had to carry the chilies in some 3rd world country....), but, hey, that's their job.....

I paired that with some grilled cauliflower and broccoli. (on a grill plate on the stove top...easy),put a bunch of Moroccan spices on that, (olive oil, turmeric, cumin, paprika, chilli flakes, himalayan pink salt), which was awesome....
Walked away from that meal feeling like Muhammad Ali...a champ of champs...felt clean and good!!!

So May day peeps.....if your body is screamin "Mayday".....don't be afraid to change your diet like I did....you'll be happy, and your body will be happy to answer that mayday call with a new, healthy, non GMO, organic, food input....you will love yourself all over again, AND have renewed energy!!!

Happy May folks!!! Eat like you give a fuck........

wait, what??? peanut butter is in here???

Sittin on the balc on a Friday night smokin a stogie (thank you Sonny) and sippin an after dinner cordial...as my great Dad used to say when he drank an after dinner drink..."...it fills in the cracks..." Genius.....a little Tia Maria, which my sister and I , God rest her beautiful soul, used to partake in much to the chagrin of our then spouses....so we kind of over did it every now and then...hey, you only go around once, as far as we know...no one has ever come back to confirm that, but that's another story. Soooooo, I sit here on my balcony gazing at the beautiful sight of NYC across the Hudson, very content and satisified after cooking an African dinner. I say African dinner because thats what it said in the title of the recipe....keep in mind that Africa is way bigger than the USA, geographically, so saying I cooked an African dinner is like saying I cooked an American breakfast when I made grits....no....totally misleading. So the recipe was titled "African Peanut Stew".....well, that didn't exactly sound to frickin appetizing.....I read on...and, it was, apparently, a recipe from North Africa, probably Morocco, (based on the ingredient list), and so I made it....and it was excellent!! All vegan, all super fresh, all organic......some people just know how to eat.....I found it when I was searching vegan recipes and found the site "Clean Eating"...I'll post the link below. It was easy to make, had an incredible depth of flavor, and is super healthy......sometimes you have to really, really, open your mind to things and just let them in....dive in, and it gets so good.....the new flavors are really great for you body....of course, they are only NEW FOR YOU, because we get stuck in the same old rut....same old shit...so if you want your life to be different, you have to be able to try different things, different tastes, different flavors....I love that. I'm all about change, it makes life exciting....who wants to live their entire life doing the SAME OLD STUFF???? There is more to it...there is more to experience!!!!! Take it all in, get healthy.....no reason to accept the fact that if when you grow older that you have to be ill, or in pain, or not feeling any energy....bullshit...you don't have to do it....I'm tellin ya, for me, it's all about the food intake....I swear....eat shit, feel like shit....eat good, feel good....and I feel good...never felt better in my life.....I've started this blog to document my changes based on my diet...good or bad...so so far...it's been good....if it turns bad, I'll be honest and post that too....if it turns out that eating McDonalds and other processed foods is good for you, I'll post it....but, so far, my theory is correct....all that processed crap is exactly crap...leads to illness and disease, and is totally allowed by our government....if I were king of the forest (my favorite saying...) I would ban the shit that they are selling to people...make them sell real food...no chemicals....did you know in Norway, they wont allow ANY GMO foods in the country????? Not even in the country, let alone sell them....and you know why?? Because the citizens still have control....they have people in office that are not in bed with Monsanto, Bayer, or other big Ag corps....like we have in the old USA.....anyway...on a rant, but, hey,it's my blog, so, you can check out if you want, or you can read on.......
here's the link, by the way..it's an awesome, super tasty, recipe...

http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/recipes/dinner-tonight/african-peanut-stew/

....live for today...eat for tomorrow.....have a great weekend

John

no meat, all taste.....

it's been so long since I've had a piece of meat I can't even remember.....and it's been so long since I've had a big old gut around my waist I can't remember that either.....that's a good thing! Feeling pretty light these days, feeling good. Haven't had any joint pain in 3 and a half months (knock on wood), but I'm leaning towards the fact that it was my original hunch....my joint pains were a result of my diet, not my age. 6 months ago, I was having to hold on to the bed, chair, door frame, and whatever else I could use to support me in the morning when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom.....I thought, wow, 58 years old and this is it??? This is what happens?? I can't get up in the morning without pain??? I felt like an old fart...I wasn't ready for that. I thought the pain was from all the racquetball  I played for years and years; jogged at lunch time for a lot of years, and generally thought that I just finally destroyed my knees and ankles. But then I looked around at other "old guys" and somehow they were still jogging, still walking OK....etc, so I figured it really wasn't self inflicted wounds, so maybe I should troubleshoot this thing. All my life, I've worked on complicated electronic warfare systems. Love it...the more complicated, the better...the bigger the problem, the better...made a living doing this...still am. So I figured I can troubleshoot my body problems as well, hey, it's a system, takes input, does functions, creates output...boil it down and make it simple. So I read a million articles, watched a million documentaries, and everything pointed to diet....diet, diet, diet. So I cut to the chase...I decided to take on the diet that Okinawans, some of the Greek Islands, and some other cultures in the Mediterranean area have. Basically, pretty much plant based diets, little meat, little dairy. I stepped it up a notch and went all vegan, which means, NO MEAT, NO DAIRY, just plants...just stuff that was grown in the earth. And it worked...it worked,...it worked....I haven't had joint pain since the end of December...I have high energy, I'm slimming down, and I've really never felt better in a long, long, time...

Today I was sitting at work thinking about what I should cook for dinner....I always do that during the day...try to get a new, fresh recipe....so I found a website that had recipes for "meatless Mondays"....even though it was Tuesday......supposedly it is a site to help people that want to reduce their meat intake a step at a time....so they have some pretty good recipes....this one tonight was pretty tasty!!!

This bad boy was full of flavor....it's eggplant, roasted, and then broiled, on a bed of lentils and rice with mint, cilantro, garlic, and pomegranate.....frickin excellent!!! All plant based, all very satisfying........let me know if you want the recipe....I'll post it if anyone is interested....

Stay healthy and happy folks.....live for today....eat for tomorrow....