Michael & Liz are Bloggable

As many of you know, at the beginning of the year I tried to be as ultra healthy as I could possibly be. I followed the "Eat to Live" lifestyle for 2 months and then went vegan after that.

At the end of February I felt as fit and healthy as I ever have in my entire life. I had lost 30 pounds, slept fantastically every night, and had more energy than ever before. I would call that the peak of my year, as far as my physical body and fitness goes.

Since March I maintained or undid my healthy ways a little bit at a time until June. Around that time I started discarding the vegan diet for what I like to call "eat what I want". I started drinking a lot of soda. I gave up veganism at first, then I started giving up on even vegetarianism. Around my birthday at the end of June I fell into it full boar, pun intended, by eating chicken sandwiches, burgers, and anything else with meat.

That leads me to today. Easily the worst I have felt physically in the last 6 months. I have fallen off the wagon in a monstrous way. It has been a week full of food that I would have called a good/delicious week only 7 months ago. I've had cheese coneys, pizza, steak, french fries, and more soda than any human should have in a month, let alone a week. It has all culminated to tonight, where I ate a full slab of ribs at one of my favorite places in the world.

To be candid, I have slept horribly this week. My allergies have never been worse. I feel sluggish and tired all the time. Only 1 week until one of the hardest marathons of my life, and I haven't run 1 mile in the month of July yet. My stomach is uneasy and there's more to say about that, but I'll let you deduce what I mean. I've had a slight headache for the past few days. And my breaking point in this madness was sitting at dinner after finishing the ribs, I actually felt dizzy and nauseous. I was not satisfied or comforted or any other word you could use to describe how food should fulfill you. I was DIZZY.

Let me be clear, it's not the quantity of food I am struggling with. I don't want to hear the cliche "all things in moderation". There have been some days I have done moderation very well, and it hasn't helped. There have also been other days in which I have eaten my face off with vegetarian burritos or tofu lasagna and still felt great. I know what full and stuffed feels like, but I'm far beyond that.

You can see where I am going with this. Food absolutely matters. This little "experiment", if you can call it that because I certainly did it involuntary, has made me realize just how much my diet matters. The "Eat to Live" book asserts that you can stop and even reverse the growth of cancer and heart disease just by changing your diet. I have never been a bigger believer in the that approach or the vegan diet than I am right now.

I believe now that once you start healthy eating, it's even more difficult to go back without feeling like a train wreck. I want to feel good. I want to feel energized. I want to undo the damage I have just done. I want to take back the last month and prepare again for a marathon I very much care about.

So starting now I am back on it. I'll be vegan for the next week and starting on July 14th, Liz in both her support and curiosity is going to be embrace the "Eat to Live" lifestyle as well. It's not easy, but I'd give anything to feel that way again, or scratch that, I'd eat anything to not feel this way again.