Not Your Ordinary Vegan!: A 21-Day Journey to Emotional, Physical, And Spiritual Health

By Michael C. Robinson

Not Your Ordinary Vegan will push you to discover the depths of holistic health in 3 particular areas: Emotional – One can not truly be healthy amid emotional instability. Physical – One can not truly be healthy amid poor physical vitality. Spiritual – One can not truly be healthy amid empty spirituality. With intentionally consistent devotion, prayer, reflection and an active plant based lifestyle, the Not Your Ordinary Vegan 21 Day Journey to Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual Health will leave you forever changed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543924305

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

WHY VEGAN?

GROWING UP IN the small southern town of Clinton, SC, food was a very important part of my life. Much like many in my community food was the main attraction at every event. Whether it was a family gathering, church function, business meeting, funeral, holiday or just a typical Sunday dinner food was at the center of it all. Let me clarify, when I say food, I mean food! I am talking about pork chops, ribs, roast, chicken, meat loaf, turkey, catfish, mac and cheese, potato salad, and collard greens simmering in jowl bacon. Did I forget to mention a dessert table covered with every type of cake and pie you could think of? Every meat was fried, smothered in gravy, or fried and smothered in gravy. Growing up that way developed a love for food that was close to sinful and created a culture of eating that was dangerously unhealthy.

In my family, almost every aunt and uncle I have has struggled with some food related illness. Diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol were as much a part of my family as the people possessing them. My father was a diabetic and for as long as I can remember I witnessed him taking insulin injections. As I grew older, being an athlete created a false sense of security in my life. I played middle school, high school and college football at the University of Kentucky and the intense training was an equalizer to my unhealthy eating habits. It wasn’t until I was finished with sports, married and extremely less active that my poor diet began to show its effects. One evening while playing a game of tennis with a friend I noticed I was having a tough time seeing the ball. I rationalized my blurry vision and convinced myself there was nothing wrong. Inevitably my symptoms increased. I started having to use the bathroom almost every time I swallowed anything. I started having trouble seeing the channels as I was watching television. After finally going to the doctor, I was informed I was a diabetic and that my blood sugar level was over 600. This should have been shocking to me but, remember, diabetes was like a relative. I grew up with him; I saw traces of him all throughout my childhood and it only made sense that he would come and visit me as well.

The gravity of my situation didn’t hit me until I actually had children of my own. Until then I pseudo managed my disease like most people, not by changing my eating habits but by simply using insulin to bring my levels down after I had eaten something unhealthy. Once my wife and I began to have children I started to realize that if something did not change, those unwanted house guests of illnesses would make themselves acquainted with my children as well. From that epiphany I launched into a series of diets that all worked at getting off weight and controlling my glucose level, however they all only provided temporary results. This book would be far too long if I listed the countless diet fads I adopted as I strapped myself into the roller-coaster ride of losing and gaining weight. Recently the results of roller coaster dieting began to manifest themselves once again in my health. After experiencing a few health problems I’d rather not mention, the final straw was some eye issues that caused me to have a series of 6 needle injections directly into my eye. This didn’t just horrify me but it also scared my children. As a result, my oldest daughter decided to help me make the life style changes I needed in order to become a healthier person. We started off with a pescatarian diet. This means that we gave up all meat except for fish and concentrated heavily on eating more vegetables. After several months of that we pushed even further and went to a vegetarian diet. Throughout this shift both of us were looking and feeling great. As strict vegetarians we were introduced to the What The Health documentary and, in all honesty, this helped push us from a vegetarian lifestyle to a vegan one. Although the information is presented from an obviously biased point of view, the facts within the documentary are difficult to refute. So, my daughter and I have been faithful vegans for some time now and look forward to helping you make the transition as well.

THE TRUTH

The reality of health is simple: eat to live instead of living to eat. If America analyzes its eating habits it is safe to say that those habits have gotten us to the place we are right now. It is without question that if we continue to do the same things we will continue to get the same results. Therefore, if we continue to eat the same way we will continue to see the same health problems. That is what had to click for me. As someone who loves good and tasty food, there was a time in my life I would have never envisioned myself embracing a vegan lifestyle. After really asking myself some tough questions and reflecting upon the value that I placed on my health, I had to make some major decisions. Making such an extreme lifestyle shift is difficult so my advice to everyone is to identify and embrace the WHY behind your decision. For me, my WHY was greater than a personal need or desire. My WHY was centered around my family. If I am going to be around for them and see my daughters graduate college, walk down the aisle and become productive members of society; if I am going to be around to travel the world with my wife once we become empty nesters, then changing my eating habits was no longer an