A friend was pushing me to go on an experiment. To go 100% vegan, AND 100% liquor free for 6 months, and see what effect it had on my health. Well, no secret, going 100% vegan, and liquor free, and exercising for 6 months, had a tremendous effect on my body. I dropped 60 lbs, felt great, and my vitals like cholesterol and liver enzymes went from danger zone to exceptional.
The purpose was to film me. My friend's friend was Heather Mills who has her own vegan company in the U.K. and I was the guinea pig (a typical overweight Yank who gorged on red meat and other animal products). I was to eat her brand of vegan food (actually, I ate very very little of it), and be filmed transitioning my life to veganism. The idea was born from the Australian documentary, "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" about a guy, not unlike me, who did a six month juice fast. This idea from Heather was self-serving for her company, but she also wanted a champion for the vegan lifestyle who was a regular guy. And by regular, I was the perfect choice since I was formerly anti-vegan. For me the entire goal was to just lose weight and get back to my college weight of 225 lbs (from my weight of 300 lbs). The drinking aspect was suggested by my friend, and she was right - alcohol contributes mightily to weight gain with all those empty calories, plus inebriation, however slight, invariably leads to poor food choices.
The experiment was a success, and the thiner me was ready to concur the world.
But then, after all my public proclamations about living a new, healthy life going forward (I was never going to remain vegan, nor alcohol free), something happened on the journey, after my six month vegan quest. I fell down. Not just fell down, but dug a hole and jumped in it. As my life changed radically, from personal relationships to career upheaval, I relied on the constant friend: over-indulgence, over-drinking, and a sedentary lifestyle made me happy. Then sad, then happy, then sad, then happy, then sad...well, you know how it goes.
I have had a rather tumultuous decade since where I wallowed in misery (long stages of unemployment as my ad industry changed), and celebrated tremendous joy (falling in love and getting married). I ended up marrying, dear readers, the Irish girl who was my co-host when I made vegan lasagna for my inebriated friends.
Along the way, I lived bouts of healthiness, but mostly over-indulgence. My trouser waist size grew, my unhappiness grew, and I ballooned up, eradicating all the weight loss and even adding on a substantial amount.
I was dumb, I was immature, I was lazy, I was stuck.
Last week, at an ad industry event I was speaking with a guy from Beyond Meat, plant-based food company. I mentioned my vegan quest (which I did all the time as a shameful way to say that I used to be skinny as a child, and college athlete, and again when I was vegan, so this fat slob in front of you used to be thin). I also mentioned that the best vegan meal I had was at the iconic, and decidedly non-vegan, 21 Club. While dusting off this old blog last week looking for the 21 Club story I started reading my words, words from when I was fully entrenched in healthy living. And I remembered how happy and in control I was! I decided to make a change in my life again: eating wise and drinking wise. I also stepped on a scale for the first time in years and was simply horrified.
At its height, 10 years ago and before the massive explosion of social media (twitter, facebook existed, but not like today), the most activity on this website was the day my story appeared on AOL's home page, and I got over 8,000 unique visitors to this blog.
Now, no one is reading these words, of course, so this is just me delving into a healthier lifestyle, a much healthier lifestyle, and drop all this painfully (literally) excessive weight. This is my journal to keep me motivated and honest.
This is me, 10 years after my first successful lifestyle change, trying to make this my Comeback Special!
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