The Iceman

There is a great health and wellness podcast called THE RICH ROLL PODCAST and it can be found at www.richroll.com.  I discovered a man by the name Wim Hof on this podcast.  Wim has developed into an incredible machine. He has climbed Everest wearing only a pair of shorts and spiked shoes, no shirt and no  supplemental oxygen in two days. He can hold his breath with ease for over six minutes while swimming under polar ice without a wet suit. Hof also ran a full marathon in the Namib Desert without water. The run was performed under the supervision of Dr. Thijs.  He also ran a barefoot marathon above the arctic circle in -4 F (-20C).  Through trial and error Wim has trained his body to over come obstacles that would seriously injure if not kill the average Joe.  One last fact about Wim, he is vegan and only consumes one meal per day after 6PM.  #theveganfast

Can't out run a bad diet

I stumbled across an article from THE TELEGRAPH by Sarah Knapton titled  LOW-FAT DIETS AND EXERCISE ARE POINTLESS FOR LOSING WEIGHT. All and all it was a pretty good read. In this article Lord McColl, emeritus professor of surgery at Guys Hospital in London warns that the advice we were given thirty years ago to avoid fat has been fueling our obesity epidemic. He said fat actually delays the release of food from leaving the stomach into the small intestines causing us to feel fuller longer. I have personally noticed this when adding avocados to my diet so I know this to be true for myself. Lord McColl also pointed out one only becomes obese by consuming too much food. If you want to lose the excess weight eat less. The Vegan Fast falls in place with this article. If you have extra weight you want to lose eat one meal a day and make it whole food plant based.

Vegan Lima Chewies

My daughter had a class project to do for school. She needed to reproduce a family recipe and share it with the class. We don't really have a family recipe that has been handed down, especially one that is vegan so we decided to create our own.  We came up with a cookie that tastes pretty damn good. My daughter calls them VEGAN LIMA CHEWIES.

Cookie:
2 1/2 cups flour
1teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups original applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1 teaspoon grated lime rind

Sift flour and soda together and set aside. Mix remaining cookie ingredients together and stir in dry flour mixture. Mix well. Drop by teaspoon full on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake 350 F for 12-15 minutes. Frost while warm  

Frosting:
1Tablespoon applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime rind
Juice from 3 limes
3 cups powdered sugar

Mix all frosting ingredients together and drop by teaspoon onto warm cookies.

These turned out good. Normally I would not have eaten any but this was a special occasion. The next time I make these I'm going to try adding a mushed re banana into the cookie mixture to see how that affects the cookies texture. A side note the cookies do not spread while baking so make sure they look how you want them to before you put them in the oven.

Fat Chance

Fat chance that I was able to cut out all overt fats out of my diet. I have eliminated oils out of my diet but I still enjoyed avocados and some nuts. I tried to eliminate avocados as well but have failed miserably. I noticed that by eliminating the extra fat I felt famished. It could be withdrawals, I'm just not sure. I do know my normal amount of food wasn't cutting it. I ate more and found myself feeling hungry sooner. I usually experience the second meal effect from the beans I eat which would last till mid morning the following day. With out the overt fat I haven't noticed the second meal effect. I'm bringing back my avocados tonight!

Sprouting Has Me Boiled Over

I'm toying around with sprouting my grains and beans. I've  learned that sprouting could be a healthy option to pack more nutrients into my food. Sprouting breaks down the seed before you consume it. That means less work on your body's digestive system. Sprouting is also less allergenic to people with grain protein sensitivities. I'm not worried about E.Coli, salmonella or listeria because I'm going to be cooking all my sprouts. I'm not sure how cooking will affect the nutrients though.

I found some interesting information about sprouting and cancer.  As pertaining to breast cancer there is a study where raw bean extract, boiled bean extract and sprouted bean extract were dripped into a Petri dish of cancer cells.  There was no amount of raw bean extract that appeared to totally stop the growth of the breast cancer cells but just small amounts of boiled beans and sprouted beans can. The same is true for melanoma. Against kidney cancer though, raw and boiled beans worked but the sprouted beans did not.

What about protecting the brain?  The most abundant type of cells in your brain are called Astrocytes. These are little star shaped cells that keep our brains running smoothly. Damaged astrocyte cells may play a pivotal role in neurodegenerative disorders such as Lou Gerhig's disease, Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's.

In a Petri dish they tested healthy astrocyte cells to see if the different bean extracts affected the cells. Boiled beans did not hurt the cells and sprouted beans seemed to even help them grow a little.  How about damaged astrocyte cells? Boiled bean extract offered the damaged cells protection whereas the sprouted beans did nothing for the damaged cells.

After finding these results I have decided to mix sprouted beans with non sprouted beans when I cook them. I will play around with the ratios but I think I will start with one part sprouted and two parts unsprouted. I will most likely do the same thing with my grains, but only if I have time to plan out my cooking for the week. If I forget or miss judge my timing on when to start  the sprouting process, screw it. I'm cooking regular.

Water Fasting Fridays

Fridays I do water fasting. From Thursday evening till Saturday evening I only drink water. I do it for spiritual reasons, but find overall I just feel better. Find your purpose and everything will fall into place.

Stress Eating

I would like to say my life is perfect and I am 100% compliant with The Vegan Fast, but life happens. One of my eating triggers is stress. It doesn't matter if it's family stress or work related stress. As soon as stress kicks in the urge to eat cranks up. Sometimes I am able to beat the urge back and sometimes I'm not. I keep healthy foods around the house for just these types of situations. When I stress eat I eat a small bowl of fruit or raw broccoli dipped in guacamole (which is amazing by the way). And I don't beat myself up, I move on.

It's not about willpower, it's about purpose. What is your purpose for doing The Vegan Fast? Purpose gets you a lot further than willpower ever will.  Purpose gets me back on track when I have a stress eating session. Purpose keeps me from beating myself up. Apply purpose to your grocery shopping habits too. It causes you to make better buying decisions so you don't end up with a lot of processed food laying around.