Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn and forces you to reconsider your habits. That’s exactly what happened to my wife and me this past weekend. A leisurely indulgence in fast food ended up being a rather eventful gastronomic adventure as we were ambushed by the uninvited guest, norovirus. Without needing to dive into the less appetizing details, suffice it to say that the experience was far from pleasant. Yet, every cloud has a silver lining, and our silver lining was the jolt we needed to recalibrate our health journey.
What happened over the weekend served as a stark reminder of why we needed to reconsider our food choices. We had been playing with the idea of a healthier lifestyle, one that was more than just the generic notion of consuming more vegetables. The concept we had in mind was something more holistic, a complete revamp of our diet, our eating schedule, and most importantly, our mindset.
My enthusiasm for this healthier lifestyle hadn’t been fully shared by my wife, until now. What I consider as “crazy healthy” is largely influenced by Dr. Terry Wahls’s diet. It is a diet plan that not only enriches your plate with nutrient-dense foods but also aims to nourish your mitochondria, the energy powerhouses in your cells.
Here’s a template of the vegetable salad to eat everyday as given by Dr. Terry Wahls:
Do 1 cup of each of these for each 3 meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner):
1 cup of green leaves like kale! More parsley, more cooked greens, more smoothies and greens, dehydrated kale chips!
1 cup of sulfur rich vegetables (Brussels sprouts!!) LIKE cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, turnips, runagabas, collards, radishes, kale. Onions, garlic, leeks, chives, shallots, mushrooms, asparagus.
1 cup of “bright color” ! Beets, carrots, red cabbage, BERRIES – or fruits. Grass fed meat, organ meat, and seaweed – salmon and herring, grass fed meat, liver and onion, heart, tongue, gizzards, sweetbreads ONCE a week. Seaweed at least once a week!
3 cups is a dinner plate heaped high!
Our “crazy healthy” also involved a novel approach to intermittent fasting. Unlike the popular practice of skipping breakfast, we decided to skip dinner. The logic behind this was to maintain an optimal glucose level and improve sleep quality, inspired by Bryan Johnson’s insightful suggestions in his “Blueprint”. Johnson is a longevity advocate who passionately shares ways to reverse the aging process.
My wife’s motivation for joining this health journey came from a personal health concern. She had been battling with a thyroid imbalance, prompting her to take this significant leap towards a healthier lifestyle. We decided to visit a functional doctor, a health professional who prescribes food as medicine, guiding us to use nutrition to restore our body’s balance and functionality.
Our new path led us to consider various health-boosting supplements as well, as suggested by Dr. David Sinclair, a Harvard geneticist. Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) is one such supplement that we’re considering. NMN is known for its potential to boost the production of a molecule called NAD+ which is believed to play a key role in promoting longevity and maintaining overall health.
Our Future Selves
It might appear far-fetched at first, but I genuinely hold the conviction that our future selves will vehemently reject the prevailing western diet. Whenever I step into a grocery store, it feels as though I am being drafted into a losing war. No matter where my eyes wander, they land on harmful foods loaded with sugars, apparently laying in wait to sabotage my health. This phenomenon isn’t isolated to your typical grocery stores – even establishments with health-conscious reputations aren’t exempt. For instance, at the Good Food Store in Missoula, a massive fresh pizza machine – packed with ingredients of questionable quality – holds a prominent position. The parallels with Costco, in this regard, are stark.
Bryan Johnson illustrates this internal battle that we all experience, using the terms “Morning Bryan” and “Night Bryan”. “Morning Bryan” is a resilient individual who makes conscious, healthful food choices, while “Night Bryan” is akin to a reveler with an uncontrolled appetite for junk food. It seems, then, that this “Night Bryan” resides within us all, leading us astray with cravings for unhealthy options.
To counteract this, we’ve adopted a somewhat unconventional approach – we’ve essentially given our “Night Bryan” the sack. This is the rationale behind our unique take on intermittent fasting, where we consume breakfast and lunch but skip dinner. This goes against the common practice of skipping breakfast, and it helps us avoid falling into the trap set by our internal “Night Bryan”, who tends to show up in the evening hours, primed for junk food consumption.
By dismissing our “Night Bryan”, we’re building a bridge to our future selves who we believe will resist the dietary pitfalls so prevalent in our society today.
In Conclusion
In the end, life is an ever-evolving journey, and our bodies are the vehicles carrying us through it. The fuel we choose has a significant impact on the performance and longevity of these precious vehicles. Our fast food weekend and the norovirus episode was, in a way, a much-needed pit stop, making us realize the importance of the quality of the fuel we were using. It put us back on track, steering us towards the highway of health and longevity.
Despite the unpleasant experience, we are grateful. We now look forward to each meal with more mindfulness, knowing that every bite is a step towards better health. With each sunrise and the breakfast that comes with it, we remind ourselves of the power that lies on our plates, and the potential it holds to transform our health and, in turn, our lives. We may not be able to stop time, but we can certainly make the journey through it healthier and more enjoyable.
John Michaels, a Missoula native and author, has been captivating readers with his writing for years. A graduate of Brown University’s esteemed creative writing program, Michaels has spent the majority of his career crafting stories that resonate with his readers and capture the essence of the human experience. Despite the demands of raising children, Michaels has continued to pursue his passions, finding solace in the bustling downtown Missoula scene. There, he spends his free time honing his craft, whether it be working on short stories, playing music, or dedicating himself to his work at Sunflower Counseling, MT.