I’ll turn 43 in a few more weeks. Four years ago I started experimenting with a vegan diet. After two years of off and on vegetarianism I came across “The China Study.” That rocked my world. Finally, something more than “eating meat is mean to animals.” You can’t argue with the China Study. No one can. One has to look away or stop reading. It’s solid statistical evidence. So I started experimenting with a full-on plant-based life-style. Gave up cheese and milk (but not 75% dark chocolate once a day after lunch). And started feeling great. Finally, my waist line stayed at 34, down from 38. And my weight dropped from 98 pounds to a steady 180. I felt great, and still feel great, compared to those “meat and three” days. But now I’m ready to go to the next level.

I’ve not been a real vegan, honestly. Potatoes, bread, beer. They keep that extra 10 pounds on. Carbs are everywhere. Pasta, pasta, pasta. So yummy. So yummy. But I might as well stick it to the outside of my shirt. Cause that’s right where it goes. I’ve known there’s no real nutritional value in those spongy off-white simi food products. Nor did I care. I was “a vegan” anyway, in spite of toting the belly. Well, no more. I’m tired of living with the extra poundage. On Jan 1st it was even 5 more than normal, thanks to a “wonderful” holiday season full of nibbling on crackers and sneaking those cheese bites. “185 won’t cut it!” I said on Dec. 31st. And so on New Year’s Day I broke out the juicer and cut out the carbs. Today, only 10 days later, on a genuine plant-based diet, I’ve lost the five and feel great. Well, great and awful at the same time.

I don’t guess I’ve ever really done a pure vegan diet. But thanks to Dr. Fuhrman on PBS and all my favorite documentaries, I’m staying right in there. Breakfast every morning is juice — a huge glass of carrot, apple, celery, and kale juice. It’s surprisingly filling. Drink it at 9 and I’m not hungry until noon. And if provides way more energy to me than that egg-white veggie omelette cooked in coconut oil. Lunches and dinners have been soups and salads, or beans. It’s great and awful the same time because, well, a cleanse-is-a-going-on. “Keep the colon flowin'” as a friend of mine once said. That’s the awful sick feeling some parts of some days. But it’s a detox, I know. Come off of any drug and you’ve got to detox. Carbs are a wonderful drug, too! The great, however, is the end in sight, and the way forward of a sustainable, more healthy vegan life-style.

The plan this week is to introduce some new recipes from Dr. Fuhrman’s website. I have a few picked out that I think my family is going to love, including the home-made sorbet.

Crazy Vegan Man, over and out.