Weekend of Pleasant Surprises

For Christmas, my uncle gave me a gift certificate to a place called the Turnip Truck. Prior to my current health situation, I enjoyed buying locally produced dairy from the mom and pop grocery down the street. However, they have recently stopped carrying it and I have recently had to give up the 2% milk they provide. I love being pleasantly surprised.

Leighanne recently reconnected with a friend from her old workplace and planned to meet her and her boyfriend for lunch on Sunday after church. Having my unused gift card, I figured we could basically eat lunch for free. I ended up paying for lunch and using the gift card, plus some. Turns out, this place is one big organic grocery store (or a mini whole foods).  They also have a daily buffet of fresh cooked, organic vegetables with lots of vegetarian dishes and organic, free range roasted chicken. Lunch was amazing but I was more impressed with the fact that they had so many types of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables as well as dozens of different vegetarian meal options. It was unlike anything we could find at a Kroger or Harris Tetter and is almost a half hour closer than the nearest Whole Foods. It will now be my Healthy Mecca, so to speak.

After buying quite a few different soy meals, by the time we got home we couldn’t decide on which one to cook for dinner so we tried one of their “turk’y” style holiday dinners. It was basically a meatless, soy/tofu style turkey stuffed with dressing and cranberries, and comes with rosemary gravy. WOW. If eating vegetarian is like this, I don’t think I’ll miss the real thing as long as I have it every now and then! It was delicious. Coupled with some baked sweet potato fries, I was thrilled to know there are some enjoyable vegetarian meals out there.

I mean, I’m a guy and I like guy food. And to be honest, I feel like I lose a little bit of my manhood every time I just say the word “vegetarian.”  Yet, by the time I finished dinner I could have cared less if I lost man-points for this one. It was delicious. I also found quite a bit of other things such as their tomato basil hummus and their organic, free range curry chicken salad.

So far, a lot of this healthy vegetarian stuff has been hit and miss. For instance, we grilled some tof-urky kielbasa sausages this past weekend for dinner and from the first bite I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat much. Just imagine adding pepper to wet, shredded cardboard, then putting it over a flame and allow it to dry. Major fail. However after discussing with my Zen-Vegetarian instructor, my sister, I discovered that you’re not really supposed to eat it like a grilled sausage. It is apparently best to chop it into small pieces and sauté with onions and vegetables with different seasonings. This way, it absorbs more of the other flavors. We'll have to see about that one.

On the bright side, I did discover that I have will power after all. We met some friends for dinner at Urban Flats on Saturday night, which was followed by going to see a favorite band of mine, 18 South, at The Station Inn. (Side note: I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see Dierks Bently, Sam Bush and Sheryl Crow make impromptu performances with them.)  For my appetizer, I ordered the Sesame Tuna Poke which is "flash" seared tuna (mostly raw), diced and served with soy sauce. It was absolutely delicious. For my main course, I ordered the baked chicken WITHOUT the garlic butter sauce for dinner. It came with a roasted bouguet of squash, red onion, and cauliflower and was served on a bed of mashed red potatoes. Surprisingly, I managed to get out of there with taking only a few bites of the potatoes. (If #Winning were still cool to use, I would insert that here) It was a small accomplishment that, to me, is a big step. As my sister did remind me, in my situation I cannot diverge from my path or write off failures as “baby steps.” In my situation I have to make the better decisions and take the bigger steps. This weekend, I felt like Neil Armstrong.

Superman vs the Super Market

My daily cocktail consist of the following:

4000mcg of Omega 3 Fatty Acids

200mg of COQ10

1000mg of Vitamin B12

2000iu of Vitamin D

1 Prenatal Vitamin for Folic Acid (obviously not because I am pregnant)

I have to say, day two of my vitamins and I feel like Superman! I am not sure why vitamins affect me the way they do, but I feel like I have had a cup of coffee within an hour or two of taking them. I am assuming this is due to the B12, which gives you energy. I am highly susceptible to caffeine and is the reason I don’t drink coffee, therefore I am interested to see how my sleep cycle is affected with this increase in energy. Yet, for the first time in a long while, not only did I sleep like a champ but I actually popped up this morning, wide awake, ready to save the world before my alarm went off. This could be awesome!

I also went on a grocery store run yesterday. Interesting bit of information: Did you know that EVERYTHING either has fat in it or cholesterol? I think I spent an hour standing there thinking how I was going to work this equation to my benefit. I am assuming lowest fat possible with no Cholesterol? But the sugar is higher, and I DON’T want a report that my sugar has gone up. Who knew there was some rocket science involved with eating healthy?

On top of that, you’re going to spend about 10-15% more for your groceries. No wonder our country is on a fast track to obesity. It is cheaper for a single mother to feed her kinds McDonalds than it is to go buy fresh fruits and vegetables. This saddens me knowing our society puts a high price on good health. The domino effect kicks in as we end up spending more on our medical bills, the price of insurance goes up, people drop their insurance and spend the rest of their life in debt and in bad health. What a vicious cycle.

Friday nights used to be for partying, meeting up with friends and having a good time. Getting older does have its downside. For me on this Firday night, my schedule includes the gym then home for a date with ChaLEAN. Oh how I hate that woman. Details on that in a later blog post. That one is Leighanne’s fault.

So it begins: Being Human

To make a mistake is to be human. It happens. Sometimes we make huge mistakes that are deemed harmful, damning or unforgivable. However, the majority of the mistakes we make are minor and with some hard work and dedication, we can reverse the course of our actions. Whether they involve just you or others around you, often times we put more emphasis on our own individual reactions, response or results. I’ve made a big one.

I am 29 years old and I am out of shape and over weight. Big time. I’ve spent the majority of my life eating what I want, when I want and not giving a damn about what I look like or what other people think of me. To an extent, that is a good character trait. However, the opinions of certain people should matter. I think I have ignored one too many voices of concern over the years and now find myself in a situation of regret. I may not have a self image problem, but I have a major health problem.

Recently, my new company hosted a wellness day in which we could all get our blood sugar, cholesterol, height, weight and body mass checked to receive a discounted health insurance plan. All you have to do is participate. It just so happened to be that my company sent me to PA for work the day they came to our office. In order to receive the discount, I had to go to my personal physician and have a physical. Lucky for me, they run a whole host of other screenings that my company would not have performed and found some abnormalities.

First, and most obvious, I am obese. It SUCKS typing that out because it means admitting the truth. I rarely have a hard time telling the truth, but this one hurt. Fearing diabetes for several years since leaving my ideal, healthy lifestyle in CO, I have since quit smoking and packed quite the few pounds. The equivalent of a high-school cheerleader to be exact. I am the largest I have ever been in my life. Yet, diabetes wasn’t an issue. Suspecting a low metabolism and/or thyroid problem, those too were ruled out.

The conclusion? The doctors are 90% sure I have Fatty Liver Disease. My first reaction hasn’t been of shock, nor has it been one of acceptance. Somewhere in the middle, I find myself quite pissed that not only am I fat, they had to diagnose me with the one disease that has the word FAT in it; scientist must have run out of medical terms the day they discovered this one. After a substantial number of questions and online answers (which vary depending on if you are reading notes from a doctor or a homeopathic healer) it was nice to see that this “disease” is not incurable. Quite the contrary, with a strict diet and most likely some medication I can be cured of this disease. So far my “doctor” has me on vitamins, which tells me they may have received their medical degree from a hippie commune. But, I’m following the doctor’s orders to a T.

In a few weeks, I’ll go in for an ultra sound. An occasional doctors visit due to a cold, or a couple of broken bones is the extent of my medical treatment over the years. Other than an insanely nightmarish and embarrassing trip to the ER when I was 8 that gave me a wretched fear of water guns for several years, the majority of my visits have been rather mundane. Yet, this one is a doosey. They need to determine the extent of my fat liver and how to correct the problem. Most likely this will entail no more fast food, any type of food with high cholesterol and fat content with the addition of fresh fruits and veggies. It’s the end of my world as I know it; or is it?

With the help of my girlfriend, I have made some very serious diet changes since the start of the year. Progress has been slow with a few relapses on the bad food drug known as pizza, over all I have done pretty well. At this point, I’ve already lost almost 10 pounds, have incorporated soy and tofu into my diet and have been ‘juicing.’ No, I am not talking about steroids. I am talking about making my own fresh vegetable and fruit juice blends. It has become addicting and I have started thinking that living a healthier life may not be so bad.

Thus comes to my conclusion; maybe a lifestyle change is in order and will not be as hard of a pill to swallow as I originally thought. I am almost 30, diabetes is in my family as are heart attacks, and with high cholesterol and a fat liver (as I will so eloquently refer to my disease from here on out) I am at a high risk of dying young. How ironic it is that I am in the high risk insurance business and handle situations like this in other people’s lives daily.

Without further ado, I would like to welcome you and thank you for reading this initial blog posting. I decided to enter into the blogosphere so as to document my path through these choppy waters. I feel it will help keep me accountable if other people know my situation and even if I can help just one person (hopefully me) I will feel a sense of accomplishment. In this blog, I will keep my readers up to date as far as my medical procedures, diagnosis, treatments and progress in hopes of reversing my fat liver and becoming a more healthy individual.

I am 29, weigh 363 pounds, and stand at six feet and two inches. I have a lot to live for yet as a result of my eating habits, I am slowly committing suicide. It is high time I start living and make the appropriate changes for myself, as well as for those who mean the most in my life.