The Motorcycle Gourmet – Post #1
Welcome to the first post by the Motorcycle Gourmet. Motorcycle and Gourmet don’t seem to go together, but we’ll just see how things turn out.
My food life has run the gamut from an entire year eating Army c-rations, to the Tour d’Argent in Paris, and just about everything in between. My mark of a good restaurant generally is a white table cloth but I’ve had great food from street vendors in Katmandu and Abidjan to traditional diners during my cross-US motorcycle ride for prostate cancer in 2010. But, was it good for me?
So I really like good food but what we generally think of as great food literally can kill you. in some of my previous posts at ThePCAP blog, I’ve shown my cholesterol scores that reflect the rise and fall based on how much meat and dairy products I’ve had in my diet.
What does this matter? Well, I’m a prostate cancer survivor and research has shown a direct connection between the consumption of meat and daily products and prostate cancer. I’m now a 10-year prostate cancer survivor and 10 years is the window where my prostate cancer will recur if I fall into that bucket.
As a result, I’m motivated to minimize that food risk as much as possible. The problem is that I tend to succumb to human nature and go on and off of the vegetarian wagon even though I’ve read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and know and understand the science.
Eat this. Not that.
I recently read a book by Dr. Neal Barnard: Breaking the Food Seduction – The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings – and 7 steps to End Them Naturally. The bottom line is that sugars and fats stimulate the same pleasure stimulating centers in the brain as opiates, so there actually is a physical addiction affect with these foods. So much for chocolate, ice cream, and those goodies.
My challenge is to beat human nature and last the 21 days Dr. Barnard says are needed to change my eating habits permanently. The first step is to have the right foods available – and the wrong foods in the trash bin. Here’s a picture of my food basket for the next two weeks – no meat, no dairy, almost no processed food except for the pasta sauce and the French’s mustard.
I’ve made it through two days with none of the forbidden foods, including my Aunt’s famous homemade pimento cheese, so I think I’m well and truly launched. Let’s see if I can make 21 days and what I actually wind up eating.
My Current Metrics
Height – 5’ 10”
Weight – 150.5 lb.
% body fat – 21 (150 lb. and 21% body fat? It’s true!)
HDL – 61
LDL – 88
Target Metrics
Height – 5’ 10”
Weight – 150.5 lb.
% body fat – 21 (150 lb. and 21% body fat? It’s true!)
HDL – 80
LDL – 60
How to Track Your Cholesterol
You can track your data on paper, using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or input your information into ProstateTracker and let ProstateTracker calculate your trend line. You can see my cholesterol levels here. Create your free ProstateTracker account at http://ProstateTracker.org.
