Ponderous

I have been studying how to lower my blood pressure and maintain a normal blood pressure since late May of this year. Or you could say early December last year, but actively studying and researching since late May. I've read everything about heart health by Dr. Andrew Saul (the guy sitting in the brown chair in Food Matters) on doctoryourself.com. I've watched Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and reread portions of The China Study. For the last 2 weeks I've been reading and somewhat following the diet recommendations from 2 books: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., and The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn. There are other books and heart health advocates out there, I just haven't read or watched all of them yet.

And all of my research comes down to this: If you want to have better heart health, you must eat a plant-based diet.

Just in the first 2-3 days of following the diets from the books by the father and son team of the Esselstyns, I could tell a difference in my health and energy. And I could see from monitoring my own blood pressure that this diet would definitely help efficiently control my blood pressure. I currently take 2 blood pressure meds to control my blood pressure. Normal is 120/80. My blood pressure a week ago Thursday was 109/62 (before I started focusing on changing my diet). My blood pressure 2 days ago on Tuesday was 92/63. Yesterday it was 101/66.

This evening I needed a break from studying heart health and plant-based diets, so I went to Five Guys. Why? I figured I would eat something completely off-limits because I needed to make a decision: back to normal and counting my calories which would possibly get me a lower medication doseage, or plant-based and get rid of those blood pressure meds for good? I've made a lot of changes this year, so I figure I might as well go ahead and make one more. Back to plant-based tomorrow.

I read somewhere that Rip Esselstyn's diet was "plant-strong" while his dad's diet was "plant-perfect." I follow Rip Esselstyn's diet: he allows walnuts, pureed cashews in spaghetti, and the use of Pam cooking spray for stir-fry meals. Otherwise, there is no oil at all. I never knew how many things there were that contained oil. And no dairy.

Here are my new 4 Food Groups:
Vegetables
Legumes
Whole Grains
Fruit

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's program is very similar, but he allows fish twice a week and poultry once a week. So maybe that's what I'll try for when I go out to eat.

I'm trying for 90% on the Engine 2 diet. I eat peanut butter and toast before my morning workouts and peanut butter without added oil is just awful. I'll stick with my Skippy Natural. And if I'm making my own vegan pizza, and I can't find a pizza crust without oil, I'm still buying the pizza crust. I figure that gets me to 90% following the Engine 2 diet.

If you haven't tried Haagen-Daz Strawberry Sorbet, I recommend it. And it's totally Engine 2 Diet approved.