PEI has the worst health in Canada. It is our health that drives the costs that are now making cuts in all sorts of services the new normal.
If we don't want cuts to eductaion, to roads, to social services etc - then we need to think about how we can be well and so reduce the load on the healthcare system.
I used to think that getting fat and then ill as I grew older was inevitable. Maybe you do too. But it is not. If we eat as we are designed too, then we can be well for the rest of our lives. It's as simple and as hard as that. And it is hard because our entire food system is based on foods that have caused this epidemic. It is hard because most of the advice we get from trusted people, such as our Doctors, to eat more grains is wrong too.
So seeing is believing. Here is what happened to me.
Here I am in August 2009 – pre diabetic – a typical middle aged man. I thought that this was my destiny – that all men of my age had to be like this.
This is who I am now
Not thin – but 35 pounds less and importantly most of my visceral fat has gone as have my man boobs.
With luck, I should be able to be healthy and fit and like this until I die. With luck I have pulled back from the normal on PEI where the average man aged 65 is disabled by ill health and then lives for another 10 years a drain on his family and the state.
My aim was not just to lose weight – this is so much more than just another diet. It was to return my body to its designed natural state which would allow me to plateau. To keep have a long “Healthspan”.
Most of this has taken place as a result of a change in diet – I gave up most modern foods – grains – dairy – legumes. I do cheat now and then too. I am not perfect. Routinely, I eat no processed food though – drink no pop or beer unless I am travelling and then very very rarely – I am only human!
I do drink a lot of wine. 3-4 glasses a day.
I don’t eat any kind of candy and no sugar at all.
I am never hungry. I rarely need to snack and if I do, I tend to have a few nuts. What about exercise? Diet is the most imprtant element in getting well again. Then it is important to be ACTIVE.
I did spinning for 2 months in the late winter once a week – but most of my “exercise” is activity based. Why pay for a gym when I can stack 4 cords of wood! I feel so much better. Lighter – not just in weight but in spirit. My knees don’t hurt. You put a back pack on with 35 pounds of bricks in it and walk all day and you might see why my knees hurt.
I work at a standing desk and can do that all day now without getting too tired. It took 2 months to be my new normal and is now. I garden, move wood, use the stairs and walk the dog.
I go to bed early and rise with the sun. I work outside all year. If it is not mowing – it’s shovelling. I walk our dog every day rain, snow, wind or shine.
Changing my way of eating was in fact the easiest and fastest way back to health.
You can do this too - if you want to
