Category Archives: lifestyle

lifestyle, weight loss

giving up alcohol-I’m a non-drinker

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I’ve recently become a non- drinker.  Partly inspired by a young man I am seeing in my work as a Corrections Officer who has given up, partly inspired by wife Julie, who has had extended periods of not drinking over the last few years and partly  inspired by eating only stuff that is good for me-being a whole foods vegan.  It increasingly didn’t make sense to be putting only good things in my mouth and then to drink alcohol, which is essentially poison for the body and mind.

Given that I didn’t have a problem with alcohol, that is, it wasn’t ruining my relationships, my  work or my health, why did I give up and become a non-drinker?   Particularly, when there is huge family and social pressure to drink.  I have tended not to tell people as I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it (it seemed more likely to fail if it was a big deal) and I didn’t want to have to deal with the reaction from other people.

The reactions I have received are:

  • you won’t last – derision- you’re weak- man up
  • why would you want to do that for-incredulous- what’s wrong with you
  • you must have a problem with alcohol
  • If you’re not drinking with me, you don’t like me, I’m not good enough for you
  • you’re going to be boring

Most people have a huge investment in other people drinking.  My guess is that ultimately people know drinking is bad for them.  If someone decides not to drink, it highlights that it is possible to not drink.  It also highlights to the person, that they are choosing to drink, even though they know it is not good for them.  There is a big danger that others will take a decision not to drink, as a criticism or rejection of them.    The same thing happens, when you make it known, that you are a vegan due to animal rights or animal cruelty.   People know that eating animals is cruel,  someone choosing not to do it, confronts them with the fact that they are choosing to eat animals anyway, even though it is cruel.  This makes them feel uncomfortable.

So, why did I become a non-drinker?   Well,  like most things it was a process.  Julie and I had been talking about it for years and she had been setting an example, with stints of six  months here and there.  It  happened one afternoon driving away from a family gathering, where I had had one glass of champagne.   The champagne had had that deadening effect that alcohol can have.  So, that was the tipping point.  I just suddenly made up my mind.   When I thought about it as to why,  there were lots of somewhat muddled reasons, so here they are:

  • I am eating an extremely healthy diet in that I have been vegan for 12 years or so and over that time, the food I eat has gotten healthier and healthier.   Basically, tons of beans, grains and vegetables with almost no oil, almost no processed food
  • I am also a runner, so health is very important
  • alcohol would often have a deadening or grumpy effect on me, although it could have the effect of elation or being the  life of the party.   I was not a heavy drinker, but like I think most people, I had done some inappropriate and stupid things when I’d been drinking
  • I work with a lot of clients who have a problem with drugs and alcohol and I am very familiar with the self -delusion which takes place when using a drug/alcohol and the self delusion in a person’s view of the drug/alcohol
  • I resented the ‘control’ alcohol had over my mind.  For example, working outside and thinking about what I was going to drink that night
  • I resented the cost to buy the alcohol
  • I believe it is in the government and big businesses interest to keep the people ‘dumbed down’ and not thinking and questioning too  much.  I think alcohol is one of the ways this happens,  along with professional sport and mass media.  A Russian client,  I worked with years ago, explained the reason vodka was so cheap in Russia, was to keep the lid on the problems there.   If you think about it, alcohol is extremely cheap  here, around the same price as bottled water.   So, I wanted to keep my mind clear and think for myself.
  • I wanted to be in control of my mind.   As Bob Marley said (yes I know he smoked a lot of dope!) “none but ourselves can free our mind”.   If we rely on alcohol to deal with our thoughts or our  feelings or to bring out certain aspects of our personality, then we are giving away power.
  • Rejecting the “culture of consumption” .  This is a phrase I read in a Michael White article on addiction to alcohol.  It can easily be seen that drinking alcohol fits into our cultural paradigm of, “if I have  this, I will be happy, but never being satisfied and always needing more.   Giving up alcohol seems like a powerful rejection of the idea that I have to have something to be ok/happy/liked/attractive and more is better.

Even though I only drank,  probably much less than the average drinker, I have noticed a huge improvement in my mood,  since stopping.   I  just feel happier.  We know that alcohol is a depressant, physically and mentally.  People who are alcoholics are obviously depressed and it goes from there.  Given my level of consumption, which was drinking on the weekends, a half a bottle of wine maximum, in effect two or three nights/week, it has been remarkable the lift in my mood.   Which makes me think, alcohol is a more powerful drug than I had realised.

NOT DRINKING VERSUS NON- DRINKER

The problem with saying I am not drinking or I am on the wagon, implies I could be drinking any tick of the clock.   The decision whether to drink or not, remains a decision that has to be made over and over.  Not drinking is a  temporary thing: drinking is the default position.  I am a drinker, who is not drinking.   Whereas saying I am a non-drinker reflects a state of mind, an identity, not a behaviour.  If we want to change, it is much more powerful to change our identity: how we see ourselves.  When we have a new identity, we take on new meanings, different things become important.  The way we see ourselves powerfully shapes our thoughts and behaviours.    For me, the identity of non-drinker, reflects another step in de-colonising my mind.

Language is also shaping of identity, so carefully choosing the language of non-drinker, helps me take on that picture of myself.

Being a vegan for me is about compassion for animals and I think being a non-drinker and giving up alcohol will be another step in developing compassion for myself and others.

 

 

lifestyle, weight loss

Embrace life

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My daughter has just had a baby so life in all of its intensity and aliveness is on my mind. When we have a new born, we have all of this care and attention to baby’s well being. Mother eats well (meaning lots of veggies: folate comes from foliage of plants, not added to your bread!) for pregnancy, knowing baby needs nutrients to grow properly and develop appropriately. Mother stops poisons like alcohol. Mother tries not to be overweight, as this can set baby up to be overweight. What mother eats during pregnancy and breast feeding shapes what foods the baby is attracted to, which is going to shape its health. Mother tries to breast feed as everyone knows breast is best, nutrition wise and bonding wise. Mother tries to have a vaginal birth as this isbest for immune system of baby, as is breast feeding.

If the baby is lucky, this is the kind of attention and care with nutrition and environment the baby will be given.

Contrast this with how people ‘take care’ of themselves. Are we less valuable when we are 20. 40, 60, 80? People every day put stuff in their mouths that they know are bad for them. Whilst many people are fooled by misinformation about meat, eggs and dairy, most people know that alcohol, chocolate, lollies, McDonalds, Coca Cola, energy drinks, chips, biscuits are bad for them. Most people have a lot of these things: “a little bit won’t hurt”. Everyone knows veggies and fruit are good for you. Recent research by CSIRO found that 93% of Australians were not getting the recommended 5 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit per day! This is in line with results in America. Most people’s idea of veggies is a serve of hot chips, which is not a health food, due to all of the oil and possible cancer causing effects of acrylamide, a substance which is created in the deep frying process.

When we are having a baby we try and keep everything natural. The same applies to food: non-processed food is food, stuff from a factory is a food like substance, with the more processing the more dangerous it is.

There is a joke in our family which comes from a time years ago where we are stuffing our faces with potato chips and Julie says not to give any to our dog, Scarlet as they are not good for her! Her Dad, Val said, “look after the dog”, with the unspoken part being don’t worry about yourself. Needless to say we have stopped potato chips for ourselves as well.

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I  believe change is about a journey from somewhere undesirable to somewhere desirable.   We are motivated by wanting to leave an undesirable place and have an idea or a picture of what the desirable place is like.    I think a big thing holding up change for people is no or little experience, or no idea or picture,  of the desirable location.  That is they have never been truly healthy in their life.    When was the last time they felt alive: high energy, sense of well being, sleep well, feeling good?   This is our natural state.  To achieve it,  we don’t have to do anything but eat properly.  As we eat properly, taking care of ourselves with the care that we would take for a baby, we will get more energy and want to do more things and we will feel more positive about life.   We don’t have to resolve  abuse and neglect from our past or our personality defects: eat well.  Eat well means,  eat whole plants:nothing processed.

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Don’t be normal!

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This is kind of easy for me as I have always been the sort of person who prefers to swim against the current.  For example,  in high school I railed against wearing the school uniform.  Being this kind of person has had its benefits and costs over the years.   When it comes to food in 2014 though,  I am definetly in the right place!

Being normal in relation to what you eat in Australia in 2014, means you will end up sick and overweight or alternatively, just sick and not overweight.   It is normal in Australia to be overweight or obese.  Over 60% of South Australians, the state where I live in Australia,  are in that category.   Normal is just what most people in any environment/culture do,  so by that measure it is normal to be overweight.   It is normal to take a tablet everyday, supposedly for your health: either a prescription drug or alternative medicine tablet such as  vitamins.   This is despite the fact that the prescription drug often is only ameliorating symptons or risk factors for disease not addressing the cause of the problem, which is the food we eat.  Consequently we go on causing the problem three times per day,  365 days per year.   Taking vitamins is irresponsibly promoted by ex-sports stars in advertisements,  even though they have found in studies to be a waste of money or bad for our health.

People are overweight and/or sick because they are eating normally, just like everyone else.  This overweight thing and accompanying problems like metabolic syndrome and diabetes epidemics have happened in the last 30 years.  So,  what is now normal, that wasn’t 30 years ago?   What would it be good for your health to rebel against, to take an abnormal stance on?  Well, this list would be a good start.

  • eat no takeaway food, even the so called ‘healthy’ options-leave the fat, oil and sugar behind
  • avoid most of the aisles in the supermarket.  You know the ones with the chips, soft drinks, sauces, processed meals and so on- leave the fat, oil and sugar behind.   Rule of thumb: don’t eat anything that comes from a factory
  • leave the chicken.  The chicken we eat today is very different from the chicken we ate thirty years ago.  Todays chicken  has much more fat in it(yes even skinless chicken is high in fat) due to factory farming and fast growth of chickens by growth hormones, anti-biotics and genetics.
  • leave the fish-this means leave the mercury and the PCB’s (carcinogenic compounds from plastic) as the sea is the ruibbish dump of the world
  • cook without oil
  • ignore the latest fad, to improve your health whether it is coconut oil, fish oil or your balance of omega3 to omega 6 fatty acids or whatever-leave the oil alone and just eat fresh and unprocessed whole food

Be abnormal and:

  • eat fresh food
  • prepare and cook it yourself
  • don’t snack on poison like biscuits, chocolate
  • don’t be fooled by ‘information’ that comes out telling us that the things we love are in fact health foods!  Things like chocolate and alcohol
  • leave the processed meat, which means leaving the nitrosamines which are carcinogenic
  • when you are at a function or gathering where food is provided see the food provided as poison, as that is what it will be.  It is something that will provide an ‘insult’ to your body and your body will have to detox from.
  • see an apple as a treat
  • enjoy food and the sense of well being we get physically from putting good fuel in to the body and the sense of well being we get psychologically, that we haven’t participated with cruelty and death by eating animals and animal products. (pay attention to the next slaughterhouse truck that passes you on the road).

As we embrace being abnormal, we embrace life, having the energy to live.  Living life normally in the environment and culture we are in at present, is living a life of gradual decline and decay-extended periods of sickness and disability.   Take a look around at your friends, family, workmates and people you see in social situations and see how healthy and vibrant they are or how chronically ill and disabled they are.

It is only recently normal to spend the last 20- 30 years of our life, chronically ill, disabled and taking multiple medications.  Some people will try and convince you, we are in this state as we are living longer  now and somehow it is a bonus to be in the decrepit state we find ourselves.   They will argue that previously in human history, people lived short and brutish lives.  This is not true.  The advent of agriculture actually decreased life expectancy for a period of time, as farming animals brought diseases to humans and reliance on crops and being sedentary brought food shortages.  The industrial revolution made things worse with overcrowding and rivers of sewerage.    People did live to old ages in hunter gatherer societies.

I have argued in previous blogs that our genetics are not our destiny, as the environment we subject our genes to,  greatly affects the expression of our genes, affecting very directly our health.    It is also true to say, that our genetic heritage is out of sync with the environment of our current culture.  In simple terms we weren’t designed to eat junk,  processed food, high in  fat and sugar, be physically inactive and face few physical stresses and spend hours/day in front of screens of various kinds.  We were designed to be physically very active, be out in the sun, eat fresh whole foods and get lots of sleep.

In a nutshell, this is why if we are normal we will be sick.   Embrace abnormality!

 

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After plant powered ultra marathon

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after the run
after the run

Yes, my son, Ben does look very relaxed, but he has got 22 years on me.   I felt pretty good actually, so obviously slacked off during the run and could have gone harder!  Ben looked after me, he gave me salt tablets, as I got cramp for the last 20-30 kms.  I think this was because I hadn’t been training in hills and the leg muscles weren’t used to it.   Anyway, up for it next year,I will be training in the hills  here at Wilmington and going for a PB, of course.

I am totally gobsmacked by health professionals who continue to peddle prejudice as information, in relation to eating only plants.  My mother in law, has lung cancer at present and since the diagnosis, she has gone vegan.  She has been told repeatedly, by staff in the hospital, that she needs protein and she must eat meat.  This is despite the fact that protein:

  • is everywhere in everything we eat
  • the idea of complete protein is irrelevant, as proteins are broken down into individual amino acids and then made up into the proteins that we need, when we digest them
  • if we eat enough food, it is impossible to be protein deficient(do you know anyone who is sick because they aren’t getting enough protein??)
  • animal protein is implicated in cancer.   See Colin T Campbell’s book, “The China Study”.   He is a professor of Nutrititonal Biochemistry at Cornell University and the author of over 300 research papers in professional journals.  He came in to the field as a young man, believing animal protein was king and came to the opposite conclusion: that animal protein was the problem.
  • Pathways for cancer that are made worse by meat are  inflammation and the higher rate of sulphur containing amino acids in meat protein as compared to plant protein.   Inflammation is necessary for the cancer to get a hold, as it is how a dormant cancer cell gets a  blood supply to start to grow.  Cancer cells, like normal cells, need nutrients/food and they need a blood supply.   Chronic, low level inflammation provides that blood supply.   This is one of the many reasons keeping inflammation down in your body is a very good thing.  Eating plants is the way to do this.

Just before my ultra, a friend of the family was over for a few drinks.  She is a nurse and she started talking to me about carbohydrate loading for the race.  I replied, I didn’t need to carbohydrate load as I carbohydrate load everyday.  That’s what I eat-complex carbohydrates or sometimes known as starches: oats, rice, beans, grains of various kinds, potatoes, sweet potatoes and peas of various kinds.  Of  course, fruit and vegetables, but the bulk of my food and my energy comes from carbohydrates.

Then she went on to say, that I needed protein to build  and repair muscle!  Somehow as a health professional, she is unaware that all of the foods above( in fact, every unprocessed, natural food) has protein and plenty of it.  Most people who eat meat are eating far too much protein, the average for meat eaters, being 15% of calories in protein.    We only need 5-6% of our calories as protein.  5% is what is in mother’s milk!

There has been lots of work done on the effects of exercise and health and it is no surprise that exercise is good for you.  The good news is that it doesn’t have to be very much in fact,   anything helps.  But, is it the case of, the more the merrier?   There has been discussion about reduced immune system function and muscle damage from extreme exercise-like running 56 kms through the Adelaide Hills!  The good news is, that your immune system takes a hit for about a week and then it bounces back stronger than ever.  And if you start from a high base because you have been exercising and eating a diet high in anti-oxidants (plants) then having the drop for a week is not a problem.  It is like everything in the body: use it or lose it and the more you use it,  the stronger it gets.

I was humbled by running the Yurebilla ultra, as the people in group A,  came past me, having started half an hour behind.   But I have been surprised how quickly my body  has bounced back to no muscle soreness and high energy.  This took five days!

Yours in health

Gary

 

lifestyle

plant powered ultra marathon

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near finish
near finish broome  marathon 20/7/14

On Sunday 28th September 2014,  I am about to hopefully complete my 1st ultra-marathon with my son,  Ben.  He has promised to run with me.  I was inspired to tackle this by going to watch him run the 100 km North Face run, in the Blue Mountains last year and deciding I would like to run a long run with him, before I get too old.  I am 60,  but at the moment, there is no reason to think I am approaching the point of being too old.

I am a vegan of approximately 12 years duration and I have never felt healthier and more energetic.  We(my wife and I) are constantly tinkering with what we eat and I get great health and great enjoyment out of food.  Recent changes we have made are eating berries every day and cutting back our use of  oil to almost zero.  For example, Julie makes great cakes without egss, milk or oil.

A big change for me has been eating a lot of fruit-I was never much of a fruit eater.  Now,  I have an apple a day, maybe banana on my porridge in the morning(always strawberries and possibly dried cranberries).

I started training seriously at Christmas 2013 for this run, Yurebilla on Sunday 28th.  I bought myself a Garmin 220 watch so I can communicate with my son about my runs, via Strava website.  It’s been very helpful, as the watch doesn’t lie about how far and how fast you are going.   The watch and Strava tell me, I have clocked up over 2015.2 kms and I have been running for a total of 169 hours this year (actually a small amount of time over three quarters of a year!)  My longest run in training was 36 kms and for few months, I was running between 80 -100 kms/week.  I was living in Broome  most of this time and there are no hills there, so this run on the weekend through the Adelaide Hills, is going to be a challenge-sore thighs here we come!

I feel like I haven’t run much lately, as I had a couple of weeks recovery after Broome marathon and now resting up a couple of weeks, before this run.  I am looking forward to the run, but also looking forward to it being over, so I can just get back to my routine of running six days/week and knocking out some kms.

I have the feeling I am going to like the idea of running slow and long, so this weekend could be the start of something.  Oh, yes and I am raising money for Animals Australia to help fight live exports, so if you feel inclined to donate, you can go to my everyday hero donations page or just direct to Animals Australia and send me a comment letting me know, would be great.

I’ll do an update next week sometime after I recover from the run!

All of the best in health

 

Gary

 

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Myself powered by plants Broome Marathon Cable Beach 20/7/2014

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Just a quick update in terms of the marathon powered by plants.   On the one hand running a marathon is not particularly significant, but I wanted to highlight it, as with the culture we live in the dominant idea is, that if  you don’t eat meat and dairy then you are sickly, feeble and weak. ( or if you are not now, you soon will be!)

 

near finish
near finish

I have been vegan for 12 years and vegetarian for 20 years before that.   I completed the marathon in 3 hours 35 minutes coming in 3rd out of 29 competitors.  Yes the Broome marathon is rather small.  My son quipped when I told him my result, that I made top 30!

I was by far the oldest participant and ran this marathon 7 minutes slower than my time in the Adelaide marathon 24 years ago.

I have just bought a book today titled, Plant-powered Men:Inspirational Men Share their Secrets of Optimal Health and Boundless Energy compiled by Kathy Devine.   I am looking forward to reading it and touching base with some fellow travellers-my tribe.

I think there is an interview in there about a group called Extreme Vegans who do demanding outdoor activities.   I might chase it up as I think I am ready!

finish line!
finish line!

Yours in health

Gary

 

 

 

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I’ve gotta die from something!

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This is true-we do have to die from something but hopefully it is old age!   You know, at about 100+ we have slowly rusted away on the inside from breathing and we cark it.  A lot of people take the attitude of, “I have to die from something, so while I am here, I might as well enjoy myself and I like steak, chips, coke and alcohol”(or whatever there particular poison is).  One of the problems of course is that there is not clear information for people about what to avoid for a longer healthier life and what to do for a longer healthier life.   Clear sustained information along with increase in price, does change behaviour-look what has happened with cigarettes.   The same thing could be achieved with processed and take away food, meat and dairy.

People are clear that  they have to die from something, but not so clear that they have to live with whatever they are going to die from for a very long time.  This can be very unpleasant, unless it is  healthy old age, that you are going to die from.  I am quite happy living with old age for a long time.  Not so happy living with heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, lung disease of various kinds, various bowel inflammatory diseases, alzeihmers or other brain disorders and so on.

The period of life that people are experiencing, where their quality of life is greatly diminished due to chronic illness is extending.   It is not much fun to be sick and restricted  in the possibilities for your life.  Simple pleasures are often lost to you.  For example, we went camping last weekend and I saw a man who couldn’t get down to the beach, where he wanted to take photos of the sunset, as he was unable to walk up and down the path to the beach.

He stated his knees were no good.  It was easy to see why they may be no good.  He was obese, so the pressure on his knees over his life would have been enormous.  They weren’t designed to carry that weight.  It is likely he was also eating inflammatory foods(arthritis is an autoimmune disease-inappropriate immune response causing inflammation.  This is true of  many of the diseases of the western world)

Along with food, sex is one of the great pleasure of life.  In America, 40% of men over 40 have trouble getting an erection because their blood vessels are blocked with cholesterol and fat and they can’t get enough blood flow.   This is why Drs are seeing trouble getting an erection as a sign of possible heart disease.

The good news is that you don’t have to become vegan or an extreme exercise freak to extend your life and  increase the quality of your life.  Being a vegan exercise freak, will be extremely good for you and you will feel great, but smaller steps will make a difference.     Four steps cut your chance of disease and extend your life.  These are:

  • don’t smoke(that is a no brainer)
  • don’t be overweight (bmi(body mass index) less than 30
  • 3.5 hours of physical activity/week
  • eat healthy where eating healthy is defined as eating lots of fruit and veggies, lots of whole grain bread and low meat (this is not the optimum diet for the human body, but in this study, this is what they were using as the benchmark)

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/turning-the-clock-back-14-years/

So, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  Any step in the right direction is good and as they say, “from little things big things grow!”