The struggle continues...

I want to record that on November 9th, 2009, I took my first step on the road to taking charge of my health.  I began reading Dr. Esselstyn's "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" and it filled me with hope that with a new style of eating and living, I can at least attempt to avoid ill health as much as possible, especially strokes and heart attacks, which may not lead to death, but often lead to dependency.  In the past 17 days I have been reading and researching books and online information concerning what is, in effect, a low fat vegan diet.  In the process I have given up coffee, soda,  meat (except for Thanksgiving turkey) and a host of other foods.  It would be simpler to say what I am allowed to eat now, which is fruits (two or three a day), vegetables (including starchy ones like potatoes), whole grains (brown rice and steel-cut oats, parimarily).  I feel very good.  I won't be able to record the weight that I started at, since I refuse to weigh myself.  I have found that in the past to be a recipe for failure.  If you diet merely to lose weight and you don't lose weight, you begin to feel that there is no point to the deprivation that you are enduring.  However, if you diet for health, to feel better, to improve your odds in the great gamble of life, then you are far more likely to stick with it, especially if you begin immediately to feel better and lighter and happier, which is what has happened to me so far.  Even more to the point, the "cheating" I did on Thanksgiving and the giant oatmeal cookies I succumbed to at Earth Fare made my gut hurt and was convincing proof that no matter how good things might taste, it's not worth the price.  I'm blogging about this mainly for my own benefit, to try to keep myself honest as I explore this new path.  I hope to inspire others to look into the health benefits of the low-fat vegan diet, but I'm not kidding myself that it's easy, because I've had a few struggles with it myself and I am just about as motivated as I could be, short of having actually had a heart attack!  I wish I'd read this information years ago when it first came out.  Think how much further ahead I would be at this point and how much needless worry I would have avoided.  Ya live, ya learn.