Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I have been a nutritarian for 11 days. A what? The book "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman, talks about the concept of being a nutritarian. It's eating foods as high in nutrients as possible. The plan he proposes boils down to eating as a vegan for 6 weeks while also completely cutting out sugar, oils, and as much salt as possible.

So I've been doing it for 11 days now and I must admit that this has got to be the healthiest I have ever felt in my life. I'm rarely tired, I have lots of energy, and losing weight isn't very difficult. I can hardly claim that I'm starving myself either because I'm stuffing my face with fruits and vegetables. I've lost roughly 11 pounds over the last 20 days and the rest of the weight coming off is just a matter of time. With that said, here are a few things that I've learned over the last 11 days:

• I have always been so concerned with what I weigh, but while eating the right things and moving down the right path, I've begun to not care. Weight really is just a number, but it's how you feel and your health inside that counts. I can really feel myself improving in health. I donated platelets the other day and my heart rate was 52 and my blood pressure 110/72. I'm psyched to see my weight drop, but I just really don't care how fast at this point. It'll settle where it wants.
  
• Walnuts are really good. I used to think they were dull and boring, but it's a very under rated nut. Super healthy and delicious.
  
• Without eating sweets, clementines have become my new dessert. They are so sweet and delicious.
  
• Now that I've freed myself of the toxic habit of fatty foods and overeating, random hunger suddenly doesn't bother me anymore. There was a time that missing a meal or not eating enough would cause me to get a headache.I truly believe that overeating is an addiction, and I really had a problem with withdrawal. That should never happen. Terrible.
  
• Taco salads are awesome. Throwing some beans, corn, and salsa on top of some lettuce is freakin' delicious.
  
• "Don't sweat the small stuff". It would be easy to go crazy on this plan. For example, salsa's 5th or 6th ingredient is salt. I'm not supposed to have salt but when I'm doing so many things right, I'm not going to drive myself crazy by caring that my healthy taco salad has a slight bit of salt in the salsa. Not to say I'm careless and not following the rules, but that's nit picky. Who cares. 

I could go on, but I'll stop there. Do you want to know the 2 main reasons why I am giving this plan a try? Dr. Fuhrman has many patients who cure their allergies by following this diet plan. I can't imagine living Spring through Fall without allergies. My life would be much happier during those times, so the first reason is to see if that is actually possible. The second reason I am trying it is to get faster at running. It's about time I put in the same effort into my food as I do with the training in my running.

This should be the best year of our lives, can't wait to see what happens.