Potato Chips are Vegan Too - Charlie Petteway (chromebook ebook reader .txt) 📗

Still Working On This

This is a work in progress as of the last edit I started my "new way of life" (not calling it a diet) just over 3 weeks ago and I have lost 19 pounds of the goal of 200 pounds.

 

(Sunday, July 30, 2017, 25 pounds)

Chapter One: Why This Book?

 

I have often been asked, why I wrote this book, and why the title? The truth is there are already tons of books on nutrition, the last thing the world needs is another one. But this is more the story of how I let myself get into such bad shape, and what I am doing to fix it. As for the title, for decades, I have dealt with people being shocked to hear that I don’t eat meat. Their reaction clearly speaks their thoughts, “how can a 400-pound guy not eat meat”. People are often confused about nutrition, vegan is NOT automatically healthy, loads of foods do not contain animal products, but are highly processed, or refined and are often times simply toxic. So while this book is a book about nutrition mostly it is written to tell you my story. Simply, if for nothing else, to let you know “if I can do it you can”. A lot of the book is written as a “journal” of my day to day struggle with the weight, even though it is a simple solution to the problem just eat whole plant based foods and get some exercise, there is/will be nothing easy about it when I began this book I was over 400 pounds, and NO I am NOT 11 feet tall, I am 5’11” so 400+ is more than twice what I should be. But more important than the weight I was in terrible shape. I had no range of motion, I couldn’t reach my toes and even had to come up with clever “tricks” just to wipe my own ass. (yeah I know TMI but it is truth) Needless to say, I was fucked up, and it was simply a miracle that I was not already dead. So I have started writing this book, in the hope that it may help you to “save” yourself. I wish I could tell you there was an easy answer, some “quick fix” magic solution but the truth is you are in for a long hard road. Regardless if you just need to lose that last few pounds or for the people this is really written for that need to lose large percentages of their body weight like I did, it is going to be hard, and it is going to suck. The good news is I am nothing special I am a lazy shit and if I can do it you can too. So strap in and get ready for the toughest most rewarding journey ever. You will look and feel better than you ever thought possible. You will enjoy things in life you never imagined you could life will be GOOD.

 

The fat guy who doesn’t eat meat. (with the exception of fish) yeah I know how hard it is to believe when people look at me. So more than a decade ago I quit eating meat, (again with the exception of fish more on the fish later) before that I only ate chicken and turkey mostly. Even though it is not good for you I didn’t do it for the health reasons, I just didn’t really like pork and red meat that much. I never labeled my self (still don’t) as any vegan/vegetarian etc. and I never worried about what I ate if I ate something with animal products in it who cares. And as for the fish I always ate it because I love the taste of fish, any seafood really. I never considered it “good for you” that’s part of how I ended up a 400+ pound guy in the hospital with a heart attack. You would like to think the heart attack (or the $100,000.00 bill for it) would have been my “wake up call” but I continued to get worse, eating animal products, dairy, mayonnaise, cheese, pizza,  (cheese, ice cream mostly) no need to worry, I have a dozen prescriptions keeping my blood pressure, cholesterol etc. in check.  And I just continued to get worse. Each time I lost an “ability” I just come up with some clever “work around” can't reach my feet to put my socks on, sit on the bed and prop my leg up with the edge of the bed, never tie my shoes just slip them on/off. The more “clever” I became, the less I had to move/bend and the more I became unable to move/bend without pain, and so the downward spiral went. Everything hurt, all the time I couldn’t stand/walk for any length of time just walking across the room I could get winded. Back pain was not only unbearably severe, but it was the norm in my life. So have you got the picture yet? I was fucked up. I the worst thing, I always knew what to do about it, I just never did anything.  I don’t even know what the “wake up call” was one day I just decided I had enough.  Something had to be done, I knew exactly what to do and finally, I was going to actually do it. So like I said earlier, it is simple, it is not easy. In fact, it may very well be the most difficult thing you ever do in your life. All I can offer to you is hang in there, find a support group, friends, family whatever it takes.  

 

Chapter Two: Getting Well Almost Killed Me

So as I said in the beginning of this book before I started down this road to “recovery” I was in bad shape, (really bad shape) and on tons of medication. When I decided to “fix the problem” I changed my diet overnight, the change was drastic and hard. I completely cut out any animal products (even my beloved seafood) at the same time I was broke, and could not afford to refill my prescriptions, so I began skipping a few each day to make them last longer. During that time I didn’t feel all that great but never realized it was the drugs lowering BP/cholesterol etc. while the diet was naturally lowing them. Resulting in them being too low. It was not until about 3 weeks into the “new diet” when I refilled the prescriptions and Saturday morning I took them all for the first time since I cut out animal and refined foods. By mid morning I was feeling so bad I had to go to the emergency room and by the time I could get there I was suffering badly and in and out of consciousness. My blood pressure was 80/40 and when I stood/moved around it dropped lower. Even if I was in a “safe place” and was probably not going to die, I truly wished I was dead.  
  In the weeks to come, I continued to take my medicine skipping most of the doses and just kept a close eye on my blood pressure. I had an appointment with the heart clinic already scheduled for the following Thursday so I decided not to call and move it up to sooner. When my BP got a little high I took one of the BP drugs I had, and I  kept up the aspirin daily. I never felt great, but I felt ok most of the time.  I made it to the doctor’s appointment without dying and revisited the need for the drugs I was on. 

In that appointment, the doctor reluctantly took me off of 4 of the 8 prescriptions I was on. she did, however, instruct me to continue to monitor my blood pressure and record it daily so she could see it at my next appointment, also to call her if it went up at all or if I had any chest pain, shortness of breath etc.. and so I went off with my new instructions. I feel better and as I continue to lose weight each day "life" tends to hurt less, which is a good thing I guess. 

Chapter Three: The First Few Months

The beginning was the worst, I can only compare it to recovering from a drug addiction. And yes I have quit drugs and quit smoking so I have experienced those things to compare this to them. People have told me “you are feeling sick because your body is telling you your need meat.” That is the biggest load of crap I have ever heard. You have the same sick unbearable feelings when you quit cocaine does that mean your body is telling you it is good for you? No, like any addiction your body wants it even though it is killing you it feels good your body wants it and you will soon find out (if you follow this diet plan) animal based foods are a powerful addiction.  They are NOT anything you need or have to have to survive. There are plenty of examples of people who are vegans that are perfectly happy, healthy people. I am not going to start listing off names of vegan persons here you can google it if you like proof. Science, experimentation and testing aside animal products (and more importantly quitting them) have the same kinds of effects on your body as quitting hard drugs, that can’t be a good