Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Today, I had an appointment with a podiatrist. It was a routine visit but they had to update the medical charts at the office. The medical assistant asked all the routine medical questions and I of course said no to all of them! You know the questions... do you have diabetes, asthma, etc. Then she proceeded to check my blood pressure. I told her ahead of time that I usually have a higher blood pressure when in a doctor's office.

She happily told me 120/70. Really? Even with anxiety, my blood pressure still was great! It made me think of how far I have come in six years. When I was heavy, my blood pressure was like 140/100. I was told I would need to take medication. To hear that my blood pressure is healthy made me so happy to be plant based.

I think a lot of people share my frustration. The belly is the toughest area to workout and I never see results there. My arms are great, my chest is looking better but this belly has gotten nowhere fast.

That is why I scheduled an abdominoplasty. I was a tough choice to make as I never wanted surgery. But I rarely spend much money on myself and I hardly ever take vacations. I know some people who take vacations and the price of it is more than an abdominoplasty.

So much focus is centered on weight loss, I wanted to blog about the other reasons to go whole food plant based, that being the health benefits. There are a lot of amazing stories out there and I thought I would share my own personal experience eating this way for better health.

Before I lost the weight, I was on so many yo-yo diets but nothing ever worked. I was unhealthy with hypertension and most likely pre-diabetes. I was going down a path of being on meds like so many in my family. I did not want to be like my parents, constantly making sure I had all my medication with me, worrying about side effects, etc.

I always tell people that I eat clean... in fact I will tell people I challenge them to find someone who eaters cleaner than I do! But what exactly does eating clean really mean?

The meaning depends on each individual and it's open to so many interpretations. Some people would think if they avoid sugar, that's clean eating. Another person might think that if they buy only organically grown food that it could be considered clean. And someone else might buy "cage free" eggs or grass fed beef (don't even get me started on these foods!).

Look at this picture. I'm embarrassed of it. I don't know when it was taken but it had to be over six years ago, as I reached my lowest weight in Dec. of 2012. I almost didn't want to share this photo as I can't believe how I ate back then.

I thought of this photo because when I was at the gym today, the channel happened to be set to the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating contest. This is especially troublesome for me to watch. I know I overindulged in the past and never felt good about it. I never ate 75 hot dogs but still it was a repulsive amount of food.