Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I have a lot of people that inspired my over the years, but two people stand out as the biggest influence to how I live my life today. One is Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who I have blogged about many times. The other is vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke.

Dr. Fuhrman defined the way I eat and Robert Cheeke helped me to become 100 precent vegan. Before learning about Robert, I was struggling with loose skin, especially around my abs, a result of my 150 pound weight loss. I tried everything to try and tighten my skin and believed that if I built more muscle, I could disguise some of the skin. But the problem was, my arms were skinny, resulting in loose skin that slightly hung, the chest was droopy and my abs were a mess.

This year, I decided I wanted a plant based doctor. I felt like my previous doctor didn’t understand my diet and I wanted someone who appreciated the way I eat. Also, my doctor never ordered tests to check my B12 and D3 levels, something which I was always curious about.

I researched online and came across Dr. Scott Harrington, a plant based doctor out of Florida. Due to COVID, he had licenses in multiple states, including the state of Connecticut. I decided to go for a telemedicine doctor and I’m so glad I did. Although I won’t be able to keep Dr. Harrington as my primary (he loses his license for the state of Connecticut after the pandemic ends). I decided to keep the primary I have for now, but am so glad I still was able to do an appointment with Dr. Harrington. He was able to order the tests I’ve been curious about ever since going vegan!

I know some people who lost weight but they end up putting the weight back on. My heart breaks for them. I can’t imagine going through a weight loss journey only to gain the weight again. When I lost the weight and lost an incredible 120 pounds the first year, I was worried I would gain it back, but not too worried.

As I wrote in my book, I lost the weight with a lifestyle change. I don’t think it’s possible to have sustainable weight loss without a lifestyle change. The two have to go together.

I think I went back to running too quick. My knee was feeling awesome for weeks after the physical therapy. I made the mistake of making some wrong movement and here I am again, a swollen left knee and doing physical therapy.

I know I went back to running way too soon.Even though it was feeling great, I went full into it again. Had I given it even more time to heal and get stronger with the strength training, I think I could have avoided the swollen knee this time.

After healing another knee injury from almost 6 weeks ago, I am back to running. It felt great, and most importantly, my knee was pain free. The physical therapy works and I can't thank the therapists enough! Also, my anti-inflammatory diet brought the inflammation down within a few days of the injury.

I saw my orthopedist the other day and she thinks that maybe there was a small tear that healed. It could have got trapped under the knee cap, causing it to swell like it did almost a year before. She checked my knee and how I moved it. I definitely have full range of motion again, no problem! She reminded me how far I came. During my appointment in late November or early December (whenever it happened), she recalled the crutches I was using. She recalled how I could not bend the knee. And she knew how painful it was if I put any weight on it at all.