Testimonial287

Hi Uri 🙂

A while ago I asked you how on earth you manage to stay looking so young, and how you keep your energy levels so high.

You replied to me to say:

“be a vegetarian, don’t smoke, keep away from smokers drink one small glass of red wine a day, take multiple vitamins, do aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week, take at least one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil a day, keep out of strong sun but get 10 minutes of sun shine for vitamin D, take 1000 mg of fish oil for Omega 3 every day, try to smile a lot, be kind to others, look cool, be clean, try to live in a rural area for less pollution.
You can’t stop the ageing process but you can slow it down!”

I looked at that – and I thought, yes, I’ll cut down on the drink – I drink usually more like 2-3 glasses of red wine per night, sometimes more – and I know I’ll be able to cut that down. So that’s fine.

Smoking – not a problem, I don’t smoke, my wife doesn’t smoke either. I smoked for about a week when I was about 13, my mum found out & made me wish I’d never been born! I never touched them again! (Thanks mum).

All the other points you made, yeah – doable, and really good lifestyle choices I think, so great routines to get into. My wife & I have both realised we need more exercise, so we’ve bought ourselves some running gear for Christmas, and we’re just about to start running on a regular basis (we both like running, but haven’t done it for quite some time) – I’m also making a point to go surfing more often, it’s difficult to find the time to do it, and to invest the money to get down to where the surf is, but it’s so much fun it’s well worth it – and the amount of exercise I get in one day of surfing, is immense.

But when it comes to the suggestion of thinking about becoming vegetarian – I just completely discounted that at first, didn’t give it a second thought. How could I be vegetarian? I “LOVE” meat, everyone who knows me would laugh at the thought of me being a vegetarian. I love meat, I even did the Adkins diet once when ALL I ate was meat (luckily I didn’t do it for long so hopefully it didn’t do me too much damage!!) .

My wife used to be veggie before we had the kids, I still never contemplated becoming veggie myself, I was just so used to eating meat.

So anyway, over Christmas my wife decided she was going to become veggie again in Jan, and I thought about what you’d said – and I thought, you know what – I’ll give it a try too.

My wife & I never really believed it would be a permanent thing, in fact I didn’t even make a big thing about it in the first few days, and I ate meat a couple of times without even realizing, as I was so used to doing it.

But now – 3 weeks later, and I’m amazed – I’m now convinced that I’m a vegetarian for life!

I never, ever expected to be saying that!

The first thing I noticed, within a few days, is that I was feeling less sluggish, and more energetic. My stamina levels were getting better, I wouldn’t have the same kind of energetic lulls after eating that I usually would.

I started to notice that I just feel generally “better” , more positive, more alive, more energetic, more enthusiastic. I’m not sure why this is, maybe just because my body isn’t always so busy processing dead animal, or maybe there’s something more to it about the vibration levels of vegetarian food being much higher than meat. We know that everything we see, touch, eat & drink is all vibrating at certain frequencies, and I’ve read previously that meat has a much slower rate of vibration, and when we’re processing it, it slows down out vibrations – maybe there is actually some truth in this, I certainly feel more energetic than I did when I was eating meat. Not just physically, but mentally too.

Something else I didn’t expect, is how much more enjoyment I’m getting out of food!!

For me food has always been fuel. I’m not at all fussy about food, as long as my stomach is full I’ve never really been bothered about what I eat, I’d eat just about anything, and I don’t recall ever having such a good relationship with food in terms of enjoying the taste of it, looking forward to meals, choosing what type of food to eat etc – it was always more a case of just shoveling whatever it is down my neck quick. This has completely changed since going veggie!

I’m being exposed to a whole range of different tastes & textures, and I’m actually looking forward to meals, I’m starting to think about experiencing different kinds of food, and my whole relationship with food is completely changing, from something you just shove in your face for fuel – to being something to enjoy & savour.

Today I we went out for a Mexican meal, I had 3 mushroom Burito – I didn’t even know there were three different types of mushroom!!

I’m eating things like chickpeas, mixed beans, Tofu… I thought that vegetarians had a much smaller range of choices than meat eaters, Wrong!!

And here’s the thing, I’m enjoying food more – but I’m actually losing weight! I’ve lost around 8 pounds in about 3 weeks, and I’ve not started with the exercise yet (there’s been too much snow & ice to run, that’s my excuse), so this weight loss is due only to cutting out meat.

So what I’ve come to realise now, is that meat was no good for me, I was completely addicted to it, habitually, but actually – it’s been doing me far more harm than good, in so many ways – and after only a few weeks of being vegetarian, there’s no way I would want to go back to that.

Thanks Uri, really, really good advice – anyone reading this who thinks you couldn’t possibly go without your steaks, bacon butties or Saturday morning fry ups – just give it a go, give it a couple of weeks, and see what happens, you might just find as I did, that rather than just being a change of “lifestyle” it could actually change your life, and help you to live longer!

Now, just need to work on reducing the wine a bit, and doing more exercise!

Thanks again Uri, fantastic advice!!

Cheers 🙂

Love