Born Again! Vegan & Raw 'til 4. Looking 4 More MF Pals :)

Hello!

I'm not new to MFP actually, I've been using the app since 2011. But I've been on a hiatus for many months. Consequently, I've returned and things have been quiet! Too quiet for social media for sure! So, I checked my friends list, and it turns on about 3/4 of my MFP pals are now inactive! Isn't that just the life of a dieter? On the wagon, off the wagon...

So, I'd like to recruit a bigger social network of interesting people who are passionate about health, fitness and diet. Or, should I say lifestyles?

About me:

I became a vegan this passed June after 32 years as an omnivore. It's been one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I wasn't able to commit to it until I learned that a vegan diet, without a doubt, IS the healthiest diet for a human being, scientifically speaking. I was scared for many years of actually converting because I didn't think it was 'natural' for human beings to eat that way, but it turns out that was a bunch of bologna (pun intended). In the last week and a half, I've actually taken things down a slightly different path (still vegan), and that would be the raw path. I'm not entirely raw, because I'm all about compromise and I do still live in the real world . . . and hey -- WHATEVER WORKS!

And that's just it, I've found what works for me. Raw 'til 4. This 'diet' is anything but. It is honestly the first LIFESTYLE I've ever found in all my years of dieting (that's 19 years morbidly obese, and the last 13 yoyo dieting and losing 80 pounds and regaining/losing 20-80 pounds repeatedly every single year). I've done every diet I think I've ever heard of, and the one tie that binds them all--DEPRIVATION (calorie restriction).

So, after 13 years of depriving myself, of messing up my body, my metabolism and my mind, I've finally found a way of eating that doesn't deprive me AT ALL. And that is how I know, whole-heartedly, that this is a way of life! This is no fad, this isn't temporary, this is it! And it only took me 32 years to find... God... The media sucks, and the government sucks, and every health organization on the planet sucks... I bought their crap for 13 years (literally, bought book after book, watched show after show, I bought supplements, gym memberships, I bought and tried it all...). If you fish through all the *kitten* out there, all the crap about the multitude of calorie restricting diets, they all work--temporarily. Yes, you lose weight, because we're depriving ourselves and we start cannibalizing our tissues (not just fat). But what animal on this planet lives like that? Animals (and us) were meant to eat until we're full, until our natural mechanism says "That's enough". It's not our mechanism that's screwed up, it's our "food"! And how many animals out there in nature are fat? They eat and eat, and they exercise as much as they have to, and they don't get fat. We should be able to do that, we are designed to do that, and we have totally screwed ourselves, confused ourselves, and are now killing ourselves.

It's not how much you eat, it's what you eat. Eat as much as your body wants, but eat 'real' and 'natural' food in order to reach your 'real' and 'natural' weight. This shouldn't be so damn confusing, and finally, for me, it's not.

I'm eating the 'human diet'. What we evolved to eat. And yes, I do think that we evolved to eat the occasional bit of meat, but I mean OCCASIONAL -- once or twice a week, if that. Think of the Aztecs and Mayans (corn people), think of Asia (rice, and now they're eating more of a western diet and getting fatter, getting heart disease and way more cancer). Think of medieval days--peasants ate plant-based diets and were thin, and royalty ate meat and were typically fat. This obesity epidemic, laden with heart disease, cancer and diabetes, is RECENT. We're talking the last 50 years or so, since we started manufacturing 'food' and processing eeeeeverything. We need to go back . . . Back to real food, less meat, and health.

Me, I chose not to eat animal products for ethical reasons (factory farming produces 95% of our meat and animal products and it's completely and utterly F*#@ED what we do to animals (or 'products') these days. (Watch EARTHLINGS, or even just the trailer, if you want to know where 95% of your animal products come from). But that's just me, and that's what works for me. But no matter what, less is definitely more.

So, that's where I'm at. The results are amazing on RT4, I must say. I eat between 3200 and 4200 calories per day, I work out a few times a week, and the pounds are falling off... I feel amazing and healthier than ever too!

It's not how much you eat, it's what you eat!