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A lot of people reading this blog and my Facebook page are probably wondering what happened to the hedonistic, foie gras loving, wine swilling Roch they all know and love. Yeah, that's him, the guy in the picture. May, 2006 and, if memory serves me well, pushing 260 lbs. at 50 years of age. I thought I was fit. I worked out regularly, ran on the treadmill and had quit smoking a few years back. What the heck, you only live once, right?
Well, when I saw the pictures of me from that fishing trip, I decided I had to do something about my weight. I went on a high protein, low fat diet and worked out like a fiend, both cardio and weight training. I got my weight down to around the 220 mark pretty quickly and, in October of that year, met my beloved Brenda, who, despite my aversion to running, convinced me to run a marathon with her. Not just any marathon, the Medoc marathon where you run through the vineyards of Bordeaux and sample 22 first growth wines and, eat cheese, oysters, steak and ice cream along the 42 km course. But that's a story for another time. As it turns out, after all the training, I actually began to enjoy distance running.
Unfortunately, distance running and my 220 lb. body conspired to injure menisci in both knees, inciting me to take up cycling instead. And as much as I love my bike, I always missed those long runs.
A couple of years down the road, Brenda introduced me to Chi running, a technique involving a mid foot strike and minimalist shoes, that significantly reduces the impact to the knee joints. I adopted the style and, am happy to say, was able to resume my running career.
In 2010, we moved from Ottawa to Montreal as I was offered a more challenging and lucrative position within my company there. In very short order, I became a victim of my own success and found myself busier than I ever hoped to be and, in fact, too busy to handle all the work that was coming my way. In January of 2012, my body started talking to me. I ended up in hospital with atrial fibrillation and had to be de-fibrillated to get back to sinus rhythm. I promised myself I would heed the warning and cut back on my work, but by the end of the year, I was back into the same routine. Add in the great food and fine wines available in Montreal and my health was on the decline. My weight still hovered around the 220 lb mark, but my blood pressure was up and I was not sleeping very well.
In January, 2013 I found myself back in hospital with another bout of atrial fibrillation AND a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in my right leg. This time, attempts to de-fibrillate my heart with paddles and with chemicals were unsuccessful and surgery was required to fix the problem. A week later I was released from hospital and told I would have to take coumadin to thin my blood, flecainide to control my arhythmia and cardizem for my blood pressure. FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!
That thought didn't sit well with me and I went into a total funk. We're talking severe depression here folks. Until this point I took no medication and now, I've been sentenced to put all these chemicals into my body ad infinitum.
I searched for alternative methods to deal with my health issues and saw a homeopath who recommended I follow a liver cleansing diet. It involved cutting out all red meat, dairy, most oils, most nuts, eggs and alcohol, amongst other things. I followed the diet religiously for 6 months and was rewarded by reducing my weight and blood pressure to a point my doctors allowed me to stop taking both the cardizem and the flecainide. Now I only had to get off the anti-coagulants.
During the summer of 2013 I rode over 3700 kms on my bike. At the end of 2013 we returned to Ottawa and I was able to convince my new blood doctor that the chances of me developing another DVT, having it dislodge, travel to my lungs and kill me were far less than the odds of crashing my bike at 40 KMH and dying of internal bleeding. He stopped the Coumadin and had me start taking a baby aspirin per day to thin my blood. I can live with that. So, by the end of 2013, I had accomplished my goal of getting off my medication. Simply through diet and exercise.
In January 1, 2013 I saw a news report on Janette and Alan Murray, an Australian couple in their '60's who were about to run around Australia, running a full 42.2 km marathon every day, eating only a raw food diet. Several years earlier, Janette had been diagnosed with breast cancer, was given 6 months to live, and refused conventional treatment. Instead, she adopted a raw vegan diet and her cancer was completely eradicated. On January 1, 2014, the couple ran their 366th consecutive marathon to complete their epic and record setting journey.
Brenda had been experiencing some odd scaly patches on her skin that were eventually diagnosed as symptoms of T-Cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. Inspired by Janette's story, she began exploring the raw food vegan diet and decided she had nothing to lose by adopting it. Our entire relationship started out based on sharing our love of food and wine, so her decision to go down that road was a little hard for me to swallow. We went through a rough couple of months, but eventually found some common ground. Her skin lesions were quickly disappearing and she moderated her diet a little to include some cooked foods.
In August, we attended the Woodstock Fruit Festival, a one week celebration of raw foodism in Upstate New York. We thought it would be interesting to learn more about the diet and, in my case, try eating raw for a full week. There were some incredible speakers at the festival including Doug Graham, creator of the 80-10-10 diet, Dr Robert Lockhart, a 25 year fruitarian, Janette and Alan Murray and ultra runners, Michael Arnstein and Grant Campbell. We were able to run the 7 kms around the lake early in the morning with Janette and Alan and speak, one on one with some amazing athletes, all fueled only by fruits and vegetables.
One evening we dined with a father and daughter from Georgia. She had dragged her Dad, kicking and screaming, to the festival. He'd had some recent coronary issues and was a long time diabetic. He admitted that after only 4 days of eating a raw food diet, his blood glucose levels had dropped by 50%.
The ads for the festival said it would change our lives and, in my case, it did.
When we returned home, we were training for the Prince Edward County Marathon that was taking place October 5. Inspired by our talks with the ultra marathoners and Janette and Alan, we decided to continue the raw food lifestyle, at least until we'd run our marathon. And we did. I had to abandon the race at kilometre 34 due to a blister, but Brenda managed a personal best, qualifying her for the Boston Marathon in 2016.
So here we are in Southeast Asia and we're completely spoiled with the abundance of fresh, ripe, delicious fruits and vegetables available to us. Of course, there are also those fabulous Thai curries, Pad Thais and Kaoh Soys that are everywhere you look. How do we deal with the temptation? We eat a fully raw diet every other day. The next day, we eat raw until 4:00 PM and then have a cooked meal for supper. We do try to stay as Vegan as possible, but with the predominance of fish sauce in Thai cuisine, it's pretty hard to do. By eating this way, we get the best of both worlds without seriously going off our preferred diet.
Over the course of this journey, Brenda and I have met people who have overcome diseases including diabetes, heart disease and various forms of cancer, but most importantly, we experienced first hand what healthy lifestyle choices can accomplish.
Anyway, you wanted to know what happened to me, well, there it is. I don't intend to be preachy and I won't judge anyone for their dietary or lifestyle choices. I will continue to post interesting articles from Dr. Michael Greger and Forks Over Knives on my Facebook page that I feel could help someone deal with health issues. In the end the choice is yours. Please don't glance at these articles, roll your eyes and think,"Here he goes again". There may be something in them for you. They're all based on sound science and long term studies. Do your own research, ask questions and come to your own conclusions, but for your own sake, please don't dismiss them outright. I post them because I feel they contain important information that may save or, at least improve the lives of the friends and family that read my posts. I post them because I care about you and want you to maintain your health
Me, I want to live, really live, a healthy vibrant life for as long as I can and I believe this is really the way to go. I've never felt better in my life, my weight is currently around 190 lbs and I'm setting new personal bests every time I strap on my runners.
Sometimes I mourn the disappearance of the fat guy in the picture (and the duck confit that got him there), but the fleeting pleasure I gained from those bites of saturated fat just don't stand up to the benefits of kissing them goodbye.
- comments
Dave Thanks for sharing, Roch! That's an amazing journey. I'm very glad to hear that both you and Brenda are doing so well and happy in your choices, including to be in Thailand.
Betty Very inspiring Roch. YOu are choosing and living your best life...that brenda-boo is a pretty good supporter too!!
Vanpel I am super happy for you guys and very proud! It is very interesting and I will take a look at the article that you will be posting! Tu as piqué ma curiosité! Xxx