Vegucated!

I have been vegucated! It started with a New Year's resolution, though, I did not set out to drastically change anything other than the number on my scale and the size of my waistline.

My husband, on the other hand, had decided to buy "us" an elliptical for Christmas, and I decided to use it. Not one to enjoy the monotonous ride to nowhere on any moving machine, I needed a distraction to fool myself into staying on longer than the prescribed absolute lowest effective 12 minutes workout. So while most people use music, I need to be so totally engrossed (audibly and visually) that I lose track of time. For me, I had to watch a movie.

Based on the past viewing on my iPad, Netflix suggested Scooby Doo, Mutant Ninja Turtles, Charlie Brown, and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I opted for the last one. (Obviously, the others were based on my son's selections because he truly uses my iPad more than I do.) Now, the last title, though not something I was drawn to, was based on my interest in a certain type of documentary, and I did not have time to surf their site for other selections. After all, it was 4:45am, and I was too sleepy to think for myself. Lucky me, because it forced me to watch the first movie in a trio that set me on my path to a better diet and a new me.

In the movie, a gentleman who was not my idea of "sick and dying" but rather overweight and irritated, went on a 60 day juice fast. It really was amazing how much he lost based on pure vegetable consumption.  It either meant he was starving himself to death, or the processed food he used to consume was so filled with "junk" and fillers that he was overweight because of it.

Half way into the film, we met another man who at 400+ really was a few pounds from his grave. By the end of the movie he was not only very much alive, but was a spokesman for vegetables, and was even running on a regular basis -- something I wasn't even doing. By the time I finished the movie, I wanted to buy a juicer and crates of veggies and fruit to shove through it. But after a day or two I knew I could do no more than a week's fast at the most... if, that is, I ever tried at all.

Next, NetFlix suggested Vegucation. The last one was a winner, so I took their advice again. By the time I was half way through that film, I seriously considered going vegan. However, reality set in, and I realized more important than switching from carnivore to herbivore was once again, how I needed to add more veggies to my diet. Also, it made me realize the importance of buying organic and  not just for the vegetables, but also when eating meat.

The last movie in this trilogy of my "vegucation" is Forks Over Knives. This one was important in giving me facts and clinical trials that show the effects of vegetables and meat on our health, in particular was the relationship of health diseases to the comsumption of meat. The facts were amazing. There were entire countries that had little to no cancer, heart, or liver disease that consumed little to no meat. Then there was meat heavy United States, need I say more.

I will say that I am not about to become a vegetarian, but I did some soul searching and felt that my plate was filled with typical American portions, the vegetable was a side dish... a really small side dish to a huge hunk of carcas. Thus for me, just as pizza was not a pizza without pepperoni, a meal was not complete without meat. And that is what I am changing.

Of course I am always one to overdo everything, I went from eating a few vegetables and very little fruit, to eating many more vegetables, and using fruit for an all day snack fest. Hey, it was fresh, and since I am trying to lose a little weight, it was something I could gorge myself on guiltlessly to fight off my hunger pains-- or so I thought.

Well, when they say everything is to be done in moderation, they mean everything. I ate so much fruit in the last week that I have turned on the histomine. As I sit here with an itchy black and bumpy lip, and puffy, itchy eyes, I wonder if it was the grapefruit and four oranges a day for a week that has set me off. And now I am terrified to consume any fruit at all, yet I am afraid to eat too much meat. Gluten bloats me up, and cuccmbers and peppers give me indigestion. I have no idea what to eat anymore. Can anyone suggest a good documentary to help me out?