My fear of butterfly needles has always prevented me from getting my annual blood work performed. It took me nearly 10 years to face the horror stories of nurses possibly “fishing” for your veins during these tests. I know I may sound like a weakling of a man, but the pain and discomfort that I’ve feared was exactly as I imagined. I HATE ANNUAL BLOOD EXAMS. I think it’s something I will never get used to, sadly.
A couple weeks go by and I get a letter from the family physician for a return appointment to see him. He would later diagnose me with high cholesterol. Total cholesterol of 243 to be exact. He reminds me that Asians are at higher risks of having high cholesterol than others and it’s pretty upsetting considering I’m a fitness nut and run about four miles four times a week at the time. In addition, I also lifted weights at the gym. The doctor consequently put me on cholesterol medication.
The thought of myself getting older always arose every time I took the medication. I believe the only foolproof way I can actually lower my cholesterol without medication is to become a……… wait for it…….. WAIT FOR IT………YES, a VEGETARIAN! It wasn’t until after watching the documentary Forks over Knives on Netflix that I’ve decided to gradually rid animal products from my diet including chicken and seafood. For about 2 months, with the exception of the Bahamas trip, Christmas, and New Years, I was a dedicated transitioning veggie. All I ate a week was veggies, tofu, fruits, nuts, and grains. I would only allow myself to eat meat twice a week. Not 2 days a week but 2 occasions a week. Hopefully, in about 6-12 months I can progress into a full vegetarian.
It’s pretty amazing the amount of energy I have going through this phase. I don’t normally take my afternoon naps anymore. The amount of times I have to eat to keep myself satisfied speeds up my metabolism which in turn is causing me to lose more fat weight. And since I’m the only one doing this in the house, I’m forced to learn how to cook (what up, ladies). All of these factors, consequently, all leads to a much better state of both mind and body. I challenge any meat-eater out there to try this regimen for a couple weeks and feel for yourself.
One of the dishes I’m pretty proud of making is my avocado mango salad:
This is probably one of my favorite and most popular dish I eat, mixed veggies with tofu:
And here are some of my favorite images from the New Orleans workshop a couple weeks ago, ENJOY!:::
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