Living Whole Food, Plant Based!
Welcome 2020! As one year closes and another begins, possibilities abound. We spend time making (then breaking) resolutions. We want to make changes in our life, but life is funny. Old habits are so hard to change. It is so easy to fall into our …
I owe all my followers a sincere apology. I had every intention to post twice a week. Unfortunately, life has got in the way and work had been grueling! Fortunately, though, I have adhered religiously to my whole food, plant-based lifestyle! Hopefully, to help make …
I was so blessed to have grown up in Vermont. The Green Mountains and Lake Champlain were the perfect setting for outdoor activities. But as summer is relatively short, most of my memories are of fall and winter activities.
What is Vermont if not maple syrup? Almost every year, we would have a field trip to a maker of maple syrup, seeing how they would tap the trees, collect the syrup, and then cook it down to the golden brown, sweet treat we enjoy. To this day, just the thought of maple syrup brings back such fond childhood memories.
But as fond of a memory as maple syrup may be, I am confident there are few fond childhood memories of Brussels sprouts. I know there is an exception or two out there, but most kids (and some adults) reject Brussels sprouts without even trying these tasty gems. I used to be that way, until I stayed at Le Meridian in Dallas, TX for almost two years.
After roughly six months of eating at the hotel, I had exhausted the menu, and nothing looked appetizing. I asked the waiter if there was anything I could get that was not on the menu. He checked with the chef and came back and said they could accommodate me. I told the waiter I had no limits; the chef could cook me whatever he wanted. I don’t remember the meat or starch, but the Brussels sprouts were unforgettable. In fact, for the next eighteen months, I had Brussels sprouts every time I ate there…even when the entrée was Asian or Mexican cuisine.
Today, Brussels sprouts remain as a favorite. This is especially true in the fall and winter as they make a perfect warming, comfort food when the air gets cold.
The chef at Le Meridien would make the Brussels sprouts with bacon drippings, brown sugar, and Balsamic vinegar. But that would not make it in a whole food, plant-based lifestyle. Fortunately, my childhood was the inspiration of the modification that was needed to the recipe!
The ingredients are super simple, and the recipe is incredible easy to make. The ingredients are as follows:
3 to 4 cups of fresh Brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved (do not use frozen)
1 cup of raw pecans
2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of granulated garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
Zest of 1/2 lemon (save for the end)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl or gallon size plastic bag and mix. I like to use a plastic bag. I find that the bag allows the maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and dry ingredients to evenly distribute and coat the Brussels sprouts and pecans.
Spread evenly on a cookie sheet (I line my cookie sheet with aluminum foil to make clean up easy) and place in a preheated 375 degrees oven for 25 to 30 minutes. If you have smaller Brussels sprouts, the cooking time will be closer to 25 to 27 minutes, larger Brussels sprouts require a few more minutes. I like to get a nice caramelization on the Brussels sprouts, so I err on the longer cooking times.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt (to taste). Transfer the Brussels sprouts and pecans to a serving dish. Finely grate the lemon zest over the Brussels sprouts and serve. It’s that easy! In 45 minutes, start to finish, you have a wonderful side dish.
A couple pieces of advice. First, if you add too much maple syrup or apple cider vinegar, the Brussels sprouts will become very soggy and mushy. I think it is the soggy and mushy sprouts that we remember as kids that shaped our dislike for Brussels sprouts. Keep to the measurements in the recipe and the sprouts will come out cooked with a nice crunch. Second, I love the crunch combined with the sweetness of the maple syrup, the acid from the apple cider vinegar, the heat from the chili powder, and the saltiness. But too much of a good thing can lead to bad results. Avoid using too much salt or chili powder.
At the end of the day, the Brussels sprouts are a wonderful WFPB compliant side dish. Or on a cold and dreary day like today, they made a perfect lunch by themselves as I curled up under a blanket with the dogs on my lap!
On your whole food plant-based (WFPB) journey, you are going to experience many traps and pitfalls. Almost all of these will take place when you have a moment of weakness, when convenience trumps all else. If you are like me, the day begins rushed. The …
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One comment I hear repeatedly when I talk about living a whole food plant based (WFPB) life is “I could never do that, it would be too hard.”
I typically respond with “Why do you think that?”
Then I will get a litany of responses like, “I need protein”, “I could never get my family to do it”, or “We like to go out to dinner.” But my favorite reason is, “It would cost too much.”
I could go on and on with the responses, but in reality, it is likely that the timing isn’t right for them to adopt the lifestyle. Like anything in life, you can accomplish anything you decide to do (within physical possibilities…I will never be an NBA center no matter how hard I try). For some people, that day may never come. For others, it may be a health scare. For me, it is a desire to better my wellbeing and longevity (quality as well as quantity of my years).
Note, I am not referring to the responses as excuses. Excuses is overly strong, judgmental, and not what I believe is going on here. I think the responses are a process of gathering information, processing and filtering the information, and then filing this for future reference.
So, let me debunk some of the responses I receive.
I will leave you with this…
Going all the way back to the time I attended Weight Watchers while in elementary school, I have tracked or been concerned about calories. Other diets had me tracking the macros…protein, carbs, and fats. Whether measured in grams or percentages, I spent my life trying to follow a lifestyle that required a lot of work. A lot of conscious effort to record and track everything I put in my mouth. The guilt and shame that followed if I had too much carbs or not enough protein or too many or too few calories. It was INSANE!
My life today? I don’t track calories, fat, carbs, protein, or anything else! As long as I do not eat any animal products or heavily processed foods, I eat as much as I want, when I want. If I am hungry, I eat. I am putting good stuff into my body until I am full and my body is rewarding me.
I promise you, anyone can live this lifestyle. It is simple and easy to follow. Yes, it takes a degree of discipline at the beginning, but you can do it.
I would love to read about your experiences adopting this lifestyle.
Best of health to you!
Stephen
I have found that simple recipes that are easy to prepare are necessary to maintain and sustain the Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle. If you need to spend your days meal prepping for hours, you’ll quickly lose focus and reach for something that is processed, …
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Who am I and how did I get here?
Let’s see, where do I begin? It was Christmas 2017 and my Christmas gifts were all Keto related cookbooks. I was convinced Keto was my passage to a healthy life and washboard abs. It was the craze and may still be. But then a friend of mine expressed his concern.
This friend is very well read on diet, nutrition, and exercise. He warned me about the impact of Keto on my heart health. I was 52 with total cholesterol of 290 and blood pressure of 146/110. He asked me if I fully researched the impact of Keto on my heart health. Honestly, it was something I paid attention to, but when you are wanting to do something, you search for anything that supports what you want to hear.
The common theme I heard was that cholesterol numbers were misleading. Studies seemed to support that in defense of Keto. This was contrary to everything I had heard for years.
He suggested I watch Forks over Knives and What the Health on Netflix. Two documentaries that challenged the Standard American Diet (SAD) and offered a solution to obesity and chronic diseases. It was not pills and medication. It was not fat and protein from animals. It was a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet.
Vegan? Me? My skirt steak was legendary. My brisket had smoke rings that would remind you of counting the life of a freshly cut tree, not to mention the burnt ends. My Korean Spare Ribs could not be more tender. I was probably the last person you would expect to adopt a WFPB life.
But my friend’s concern and what I watched in the documentaries made more sense to me than the “science” behind Keto. I looked at it this way…this lifestyle would not hurt me and can only help. Before doing Keto, I decided to give this WFPB thing a try.
I had one last hoorah! Dinner at Texas de Brazil where the leg of lamb and garlic sirloin was consumed in quantities that should have caused a heart attack! I finished that meal and went cold turkey. This was February 19, 2018. I adopted a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle.
My weight at that time was nearing 200 pounds. In fact, when the scale hit 200 I jumped off. So I will admit to 199 lbs. but not an ounce more.
I had a physical exam with my doctor in mid-March. He has tried to prescribe Crestor or some other cholesterol lowering medication for the last six years. I refused to fill the prescriptions that he called in to the pharmacist, convinced I could do it on my own with diet and exercise. My weight had dropped to about 188 at the time of the physical. But what shocked me after four weeks on the WFPB lifestyle were my cholesterol number (it had dropped to 211) and my blood pressure (118/80). Could this be a fluke?
Well my doctor feared it may have been a fluke and asked me to return in sixty days for another blood test. So, at the end of June I returned. After ninety days of a Whole Food Plant Based life, my cholesterol number was 171 and my blood pressure was 110/70. I was elated and felt so empowered and in control of my life and my health. As I neared my 53rd birthday, I was 162 pounds (a loss of at least 37 lbs.), felt much younger than I had in years, and told anybody who would listen to me that I found the Fountain of Youth! And I went on to live happily ever-after…
Ok, it didn’t quite work out that way.
My wife and I went to an all-inclusive in Mexico at the end of July and I indulged in what I paid for. All you can eat and drink…and if filet mignon was on the menu, I ordered it. Oxtail, seafood, eggs, bacon, steak, steak, and more steak. I’m not even mentioning the alcohol that was flowing (into my mouth).
Shortly after was a cruise with my step-kids. Eight days of excess. A cruise is essentially an excuse to eat yourself silly and I was delirious!
Returning home to college football season had me outside grilling skirt steak, ribs, and wings.
I had fallen back into my old routine. My weight crept up again, reaching 190 during the Christmas holiday. My skin was inflamed and my joints hurt. The energy levels I enjoyed for the five months while adhering to the WFPB lifestyle was gone, replaced with a lethargic and flabby being. I was embarrassed and ashamed of my lack of control and discipline. My health was taking a turn for the worse and I needed to take control and own my destiny.
I wanted to be the husband and father my wife, kids, and step-kids deserved. Healthy, vibrant, and not a burden physically or mentally. Plus, I had another very important reason. I will be a grandfather in 2019. I want to be out there throwing or kicking the ball with my grandchild(ren). I want to be rough-horsing with them in the ocean. I want to exemplify health and vibrance that defies my age.
On January 1, 2019 I rededicated and recommitted myself to the Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle. I have seen what it offers to my overall health and I want that for myself. And what better way to lead by example and hold myself accountable than starting a blog on the subject. Put myself out there for the world to see.
So here we are at the beginning of the new year. Two weeks in and so far, so good. Down 6 pounds, but weight isn’t everything. I’m sleeping better, feel my skin looks better, and my energy level is improving.
But I know every day presents new challenges. I will discuss my trials and tribulations, offer tips, share recipes, review products, and just be real with you. I’ll be honest and open with you. That is my promise to my community. At the end of the day, this blog is about you. You stay and read my posts not because of me, but because I am serving you by providing information and hope that will help you and your quest.
My commitment is to post twice a week, scheduled for Wednesday and Sunday. If there is a subject you would like me to address, please comment below. I will make every effort to respond to each comment and where I can, incorporate your questions into my blog.
I invite you to join me on this journey.
Wishing you the best of health!
Stephen