Rationale ... WHY the Vegan Challenge?

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The Beginning & Inspiration

So, hopefully you have read about my story on the Inspiration post and you have some idea as to how I evolved to become a vegan. As to Why begin the 30-Day Raw Vegan Challenge, it truly hinges on getting my life back and gaining control over my health, my future, and my destiny. 

Speaking of the word "life", I will boldly say that I truly value life, and maybe it is because I am a Biologist and I have studied living things since I was a kid. Maybe it is because I have traveled to various parts of the world and I have found the beauty of the world in Nature. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I have a deep connection with all living things and when I look into the eyes of a non-human animal I can see that they too feel pain, fear, excitement, joy, and happiness. I will say that life took on a new meaning when I found out I was going to be a father. If I didn't understand the true value of life before then, I certainly do now. Alyssa, my daughter, is the light of my life and I want to make sure that I do all I can to take care of the planet and the planet's inhabitants so that I can pass it on to her in as good or better condition than how I received it. 

So, I mentioned I am doing this 30-Day Raw Vegan Challenge and I would like to explain why. First, I will be the first to say that just being vegan and choosing a diet that is free of meat and all animal extracts doesn't guarantee personal health and a long life. As with all choices that affect our lives, it is best to do them with a foundation of knowledge and the flexibility and open mindedness to adapt as new information becomes available. While I have been vegan for many years now, my consumption of high calorie bread products or wheat products has probably been too high. I also admit that I am nowhere close to meeting the "60 Minutes per Day of moderate to intense exercise" that is recommended. That being said, I find myself in my current position of being slightly overweight and out of shape. As mentioned in the Inspiration post, I accept that I did this to myself and I know I am the answer. After years of research and inquisition, I have come to learn that not only is it more compassionate to adopt a vegan lifestyle, but it also is the most beneficial to the planet as well as supported with evidence to lower or eliminate all of the risks of the main reasons people are dying today. 

According to the American Dietetic Association:

"Appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. A vegetarian diet is defined as one that does not include meat (including fowl) or seafood, or products containing those foods. This article reviews the current data related to key nutrients for vegetarians including protein, n-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium, and vitamins D and B-12. A vegetarian diet can meet current recommendations for all of these nutrients. In some cases, supplements or fortified foods can provide useful amounts of important nutrients. An evidence- based review showed that vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate in pregnancy and result in positive maternal and infant health outcomes. The results of an evidence-based review showed that a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease. Vegetarians also appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than nonvegetarians. Furthermore, vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index and lower overall cancer rates. Features of a vegetarian diet that may reduce risk of chronic disease include lower intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol and higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, soy products, fiber, and phytochemicals. The variability of dietary practices among vegetarians makes individual assessment of dietary adequacy essential. In addition to assessing dietary adequacy, food and nutrition professionals can also play key roles in educating vegetarians about sources of specific nutrients, food purchase and preparation, and dietary modifications to meet their needs."

So, here I begin on this 30 Day Challenge ... with the true challenge for me being going raw not the vegan choices. This means I am excluding now all bread and processed foods sticking 100% to whole plant foods, nuts and seeds, and some spices and supplements. As obligate heterotrophs, humans are the ONLY animal that cooks their food before eating it. While this broadens our diet tremendously, it is still unnatural for the body to absorb and try to extract nutrients from SO MUCH cooked food! As a scientist I have learned that there are a few things that change, alter, or denature the foods and proteins we eat. The pH (acidity) of substances changes them, the ionic condition (cation and anion concentrations and salinity), and the temperature alters or changes foods and nutrients from their whole and intended purpose to something else. Our bodies, which are millions of years old, know very well what to do with raw-whole foods but cooked foods are treated as a foreign substance and elevate our white blood cells as if we were fighting an infection. Inflammation and various other effects all account for what is called digestive leukocytosis when we eat a meal that is mostly or all cooked foods. The best way to avoid chronic inflammation in the body is to eat mostly raw foods that have not been processed or refined in any way from their whole-plant form. This is not reality for most people, I realize this, as I recognize and appreciate the fact that food is as much a cultural and social experience as it is a necessary activity for life. One way I have tried to reduce inflammation in my body is to make sure that at least 50% of my meal at any time is raw. In most cases 90-100% of my meals are raw already but for the 30-Day Challenge I will stick to the 100% raw for those 4 weeks. I already know I am going to miss the taste and feel of warm, salty foods like the pastas and breads with bruschetta sauce that I love. Like many others, I find comfort in knowing that I will be supported by friends and family ... even strangers and members of the vegan community around the world. To see the guidelines, goals and intended outcomes, as well as parameters and meet those involved ... visit the Vegan Challenge 2014 page and JOIN US! 

Please visit the pages throughout this blog and reach out to the resources provided on the pages of this blog and learn more about this topic. There is truly a plethora of information out there regarding plant-centered diets and there are many happy people willing and excited to share what they have learned and experienced in their lives becoming and living as vegans and vegetarians. I am no expert ... I am a student just the same as you are and everyone else. 

There is always a higher level of awareness and I personally believe that when we place "life" as a precious drop in the center of whatever decisions we make, we will more often make decisions that honor, cherish, and preserve life for ourselves and our loved ones to cherish ... and hopefully inspire them to do the same. 

~ Jason ... I am Vegan ... I am Groovy
:-)

Inspiration ...

Before I launch into why I am doing this I think it is best to provide a little background and insight into who I am:

* My name is Jason and I have been a curious scientist and nature lover my entire life. Fascinated by animals and the natural world since I was young, my favorite books to read were and still are animal encyclopedias. It was this love of nature that eventually led me into a degree in Biology and I currently use that degree as a high school biology teacher. I have been fortunate to do a fair amount of traveling to various places within the U.S., Europe, and Central America where my love of nature has only been reinforced to become stronger. At one point I even wanted to uproot my family and move to Costa Rica to live a simpler life in the rain forests of Central America. This love for animals and nature will play a key role in my evolution as an eater/consumer/heterotroph throughout my life.

* I grew up with a pretty normal childhood whatever "normal" even means ... what might have been abnormal was that I decided at a young age (15 yrs old) to omit soft drinks and fast food (including hamburgers from anywhere) from my diet. This was a personal choice as a young athlete trying to gain an edge on the competition and thus my journey into personal health began. I still ate large amounts of food and my favorite food was still steak! In fact, the bigger the cut the better! Not much changed throughout my years in college where I thought I was in the best shape of my life playing college volleyball and working out daily for hours at a time. I was 6'3" and weighing between 195-200 pounds with a body fat percentage around 8-10%. I was fast, strong, and appeared to be in optimal condition. I now know that I was only partially there. Being able to do 500 push-ups and sit-ups every day doesn't mean you are healthy. 

* As an adult I have lived much of my adult life around the Palm Desert, CA area and I am now in my second career ... my calling as a science teacher currently at Indio High School. The 2013/14 school year is my 9th year in education and at I.H.S. I teach Biology CP/HP/AP sections and two different Food Science/Nutrition Courses that I have pioneered. These courses, named Physiology of Digestion I & II, are taught from the same college textbook used by food science majors in college and the course is challenging, rigorous, and inspiring. PoD was first taught in the 2011/12 school year and has its own story of inspiration and development that may someday be found on another blog. My evolution into the enlightenment of nutrition began a couple years before this course ...

* As an adult I gradually ate less and less meat mainly inspired by my wife who grew up as a vegetarian. She is an incredible chef so she easily integrates a plant centered diet into our home. I also tried soy milk and eventually almond milk to replace dairy milk in my diet with a small nudge by my loving wife. I was further inspired into examining a vegetarian or vegan diet because of my childhood friend, Scott McCallister, and my brother, Matt. Both had made changes in their lives years before and it was a conversation with my brother before a trip to Tucson, AZ to attend a U of A vs A.S.U. football game where our sister was cheering on the sidelines that I was challenged by my brother into examining the digestive tracts of carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. That conversation was the spark that led me to cutting red meat entirely from my diet after going to a steakhouse for dinner in Tucson. It was a late dinner in a dark, sad restaurant and it was there that my wife and I ate a baked potato instead of my usual steak ... the steak I had eaten prior to that night was the last steak I have ever eaten and I won't ever eat another. For about 6 more months I still ate chicken and, on occasion, salmon. It was during the first week of summer school in 2008 that I was emailed a link by my wife that changed my diet forever. Already understanding that what I eat plays a role, somehow, in my overall health I had avoided eating processed foods, fast foods, and dairy products for many years. Months before this link I had cut out red meat from my diet stopping cold ... One day I was eating red meat, the next day I was not and haven't since. It all comes back to my childhood, my deep connection with nature, and my love and understanding of animals that catapulted me into becoming a vegan after watching "Meet your Meat" ... a PETA undercover video showing how animals are treated before they are served as "food" to people. I watched the video, which was only a few minutes long, then sat there in silence and sorrow. The deepest state of sorrow I had ever felt in my life as I regretted eating every single piece of meat I had ever eaten in my entire life all at a single point in time. That day was the day I had completely eliminated meat from my diet and I haven't gone back since. For me, the reasons are many and include but are not limited to the fact that I don't need to eat meat to survive,it is better for the environment to have a plant centered diet, animals that can't speak still have the right to live, and it is better for my personal health to have a plant centered diet. 

* I have become, since, a student of nutrition learning more each year and making new friends and contacts along the way. Multiple documentaries, books, web resources, and lectures later I am still a student of nutrition but now an ambassador for nutrition education with the goal of infusing nutrition and health education into every biology classroom in the country as a response to the fact that what we are eating is killing us more than all other ways to die combined. The most used and important kitchen appliance in my home now is a Vitamix blender where I make daily smoothies using anywhere from 10-15 raw-organic ingredients for my family. My wife, and teammate in life, makes beautiful salads every night for my daughter and I and our daughter has been vegetarian (mostly vegan) since the womb. We have a beautiful family that I am SO proud of and on this blog you will get to meet many of my family members. 

* So, I still teach Biology and Nutrition in high school and I am learning more about how to live in the world each day with my family. I used to exercise so much that my nickname in college by my best friend, Andrew, was the workout nazi. 

This brings me to my current status since I am saying I used to exercise daily and I admit that I have let my own personal health decline in recent months. I am walking, talking, living proof that just eating vegan alone doesn't ensure perfect health. As with all things, there is a right way and a wrong way to do them. From a glance, I don't fit the body profile of a stereotypical vegan and I have a strong reason to believe that it has everything to do with a few factors:
1. I have greatly increased my consumption of processed foods and breads including various other wheat products.

2. My sugar intake and dessert consumption has increased since before the holidays and is tapering off now but the damage is done.

3. My exercise routine I developed during the summer months slowly tapered off and disappeared from my life around the time excess calorie consumption began in October. 

4. I have let various forms of stress including family and professional life affect me without resolving them. These stresses have undoubtedly been a factor in my excess calorie consumption and overall declining health. 

5. I have taken on more responsibilities than I can probably manage efficiently and every day feel like I am behind and trying to catch up.

"I am the cause of all this and, therefore, I am the solution."

Until I have my complete physical and blood panel done the last week of March, here is what I know now:

***************************************

The Good: (kept brief and just some of the highlights)
a) I have a loving and supportive wife and daughter who are my biggest fans and I am theirs!
b) I have a job I LOVE and hence never work a day in my life!
c) I have my wits and I am getting wiser and smarter every day.
d) My family has zero financial problems and zero debt.
e) I am strong willed and know what I need to do and what will work to get myself back into optimal health.
f) I know I am not alone on this journey and that is comforting.
g) I am still young at age 36 and have time to make sure I live a long and healthy life so I can see my daughter grow up and maybe even become a grandfather.

The Bad: (Including but not limited to)
a) I am more stressed than I have been in a decade.
b) I am overweight according to a BMI calculator at 6'3" and 211 lbs.
c) I get headaches almost daily and I feel generally ill all over.
d) I am probably the weakest I have ever been in my life physically. 
e) My emotional state is down and borderline depressed.
f) I am afflicted with an upset stomach and acid reflux almost daily.

The Ugly: (I will add to this after my blood panel and physical)
a) Well, I had the most extensive blood tests done and FOUR PAGES of results were given. After all that I have only 2 "areas of concern".

1. My Vitamin D levels are low. It is recommended to have between 30.0 - 100.0 ng/mL and I am at 118. ng/mL

2. My HDL levels are low. It is recommended to have > mg/dL l and I am at 4 mg/dL L

< Visit the Blood Lab Results post for more information>

* So, thus the journey begins ... the next post will describe the Reason for doing this and explain the goals and purposes of this blog and the 30-Day Vegan Challenge. Thank you for sharing this time with me and I do hope you join the vegan team ... after all it is totally groovy to be vegan!