From a meat-atarian.

Hi, my name’s Deven, and I used to be a meat-atarian…. sounds like an AA meeting for meat lovers.  Yes I used to be a self-proclaimed meat-atarian.  I loved to cook and eat meat.  I have every cast iron skillet, dutch oven, fire grill, tongs, welding glove, fire poker, etc. for perfect open fire cooking.  I have been trying to perfect that perfect juicy meaty flavor for years.  Erica and I love to camp, and I cook everything over open wood flame.  I love it- the smells, the tastes, the environment.  While camping I would cook ribeyes; medium rare with garlic salt and pepper, baked potatoes loaded with butter, sour cream and cheese, grilled asparagus loaded with butter spices and herbs.  We’d make a big salad and load it with blue-cheese crumbles, tomato, bacon bits, hard boiled egg, and onion.  And don’t forget the RANCH.  I love ranch and would drown my salad in it.

Breakfast would start with a good fire, and a cup of coffee with french vanilla dairy creamer.  Once the coals were ready, bring on the bacon.  Mmmmmmm those sweet sizzling greasy little strips of pure heart attack causing joy.  After the bacon was done, I would cook hash-browns, saute onions, mushrooms, spinach, and then cook the eggs, all in that sweet bacon grease.  Then down it all with a large glass of low fat milk.  A breakfast any mountain man would salivate over.  Yes I loved all things meat and dairy and swore I would never in a million years change…….

Until Monica- a vegetarian/vegan for years and a great friend. I always thought she was crazy and that we humans need meat and dairy for protein and calcium and that God made man to eat meat.  She wrote on our fridge when over for dinner one night to watch Forks over Knives.  The sticky note sat there for months, until one night looking for something on Netflix, we saw it, watched it, and sat in disbelief- Monica wasn’t the crazy one, we were.  The next morning we threw 4 full trash bags away of processed (or what I call synthetic food) meat and dairy.  Yes in 2 hours my life was completely changed.

I believe in truth, and the truths about processed food, meat and dairy where backed by medical and scientific fact.  God made us to eat a plant based diet.  A diet that we can thrive on.  In this documentary, heart disease and clogged arteries disappeared.  That was the kicker for me. To see a blood vein almost completely clogged, ready for death, and then the same vein months later, after the patient switched to a plant based diet….. completely open and healthy.

This is what did it for me, that heart disease and clogged arteries are reversible without the use of prescription drugs that just keep you sicker…. but alive;  that there is no punishment for years of abuse we have inflicted on our bodies.  All one needs do is eat the way God created us to eat and our bodies will heal themselves.  It’s that simple.

So for me it was easy, God’s will not my will so I switched cold turkey.  Yes I may cheat, but for the majority of my meals, I eat plant based.  AND…………  I have never felt better. I feel like I am 18 again, in my physical prime, a time in which I could do anything, had abounding energy, and was never tired.

I am the perfect test subject for this plant based experiment my wife and I are on.  As a union heavy equipment operator at the time of switching, I was beat up and abused all day long.  I woke up at 4 every morning, ate a processed bagel and cup of coffee and raced off to the job site.  I got on a tractor as the sun came up and didn’t get off until the sun went down.  My company builds the large community and highway projects in which we typically move millions of yards of dirt.  That’s a lot of dirt and we moved it fast; real fast.  When you’re running machines the size of houses that weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds it gets rough…. real rough.  Until one actually experiences what this feel’s like it’s incredibly hard to describe….. but it hurts.   A big clue to the results of this bodily abuse was made apparent every time I asked the older men that have been doing this for 20 + years the status of their backs.   Almost all of them have already had back surgery.   Not one could tell me “ah my back is perfectly fine.”  It’s like driving on the worst dirt road that just rattles you to the bone, times 10.  So you can imagine how tired I was every single day as my muscles fought to counteract all of the jarring.  I started believing that it was just a part of getting older.

I am getting older, and my body can’t process the meat, dairy and processed foods like it once could.  It’s medically proven that it takes more energy for one’s body to break those foods down.  This was the tired feelings I was having.  Since switching I have noticed an incredible amount of energy through out the day.  I was no longer coming home a zombie from the day’s work.  I’ve noticed my mind and thoughts are now sharper.  Most important of all, I’ve noticed my quality of life has increased.  I feel more alive, more jubilant.  It’s amazing how mundane life feels when you’re constantly tired.  Add a plant based diet to your life and see for yourself.

I am constantly jeered by my fellow men… The same old saying that I could never do that… I need meat to survive… You’re full of crap.  Well… men are stubborn and I just think to my self “If only they knew.” Yes it’s hard at first to switch but guess what, after a few weeks your body starts to change itself.  I now crave new, different flavors and foods.  I love the taste of soy milk and can’t even stand dairy milk anymore.  (this comes from a guy who drank a gallon of milk every day for 25 years with my brother and dad; ask my mom, she bought it for this many years; the old Ralphs two-pack)  I have had three steaks since switching; cooked to perfection, grass fed American raised beef; I couldn’t finish them.  I am amazed by this marvelous creation called the human body.  Don’t worry folks; God does all the work for you.  Don’t stress about the thought that you could never give up your cheese; after awhile you won’t even remember it.

So with all this said……. Yes absolutely 100% with out a doubt juicing and a plant based diet have solved all of this.  Praise God my back will be saved as well since I’m done with that high-paced way of work as a grading contractor.  I feel amazing, vibrant, clear headed all day long.  Instead of my morning coffee, I have my morning juice packed with vegetables and fruit.  It’s a shot of super food straight to the system.  I drank coffee one morning and felt horrible and tired. The next morning I drank juice = vibrant and energetic.  It feels like ten energy drinks, but in a clean healthy way.  I feel more alert, awake and lively…… all day long, no crash mid-afternoon and evening. Then for lunch I re-energize myself with a plant based meal that has humus, celery, nuts, fruits etc. and man I have never felt better.

Being so active and feeling this positive change makes me not want to go back to the old way.  When I cheat and eat meat and dairy I can literally tell a significant difference in how I feel.  So it’s easy; I want to feel good and not bad.  Eat meat/dairy/preservatives = feel bad…… juice and eat plant based= feel like superman… literally.  I feel like I’m bounding with energy.

So don’t worry about making the switch.  As God says, “Can you add a single day to your life by worrying?”  We are commanded to focus on the now, to live in the moment and let Him plan the rest.  So just switch; your body will do the rest.  Give it two weeks and if you don’t feel incredibly better…. then go back.  I’m betting you won’t.