Man Up And Eat Your Veggies

24 ounces of Spinachy Carroty Strawberryish Goodness

When Lor and I decided to start looking into more drastic weight loss solutions initially, she had me watch Joe Cross' excellent documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", chronicling his weight loss journey performing a 60-day "juice fast" and losing over 100 pounds in the process. While "juicing" didn't really sound like my thing, I had to agree with the tons of nutritional advice in the documentary focusing on one major dietary problem in our lives: instead of a diet made up of 33% (or so) Fruits and Vegetables, our diet was nearly entirely made up of meats and processed foods. We made the decision that, when we could afford it, we would get a juicer or a blender and start making the necessary changes in our diets. Oddly enough, we found a normally $200 blender/food processor combination in the Clearance section of our local mega-mart for 75% off within 48 hours of making this decision. Almost instantly, fruit and vegetable smoothies entered our daily diet, taking the place of our normal lunch routine.

Yesterday, given all the pet-centric chaos and commotion around here, we skipped our daily smoothies. Lor had some canned fruit, I had some leftovers from dinner the night before. I felt completely drained of energy by 8 last night, and woke up this morning with all the symptoms of a good, old-fashioned hangover. The lack of plant-based nutrients yesterday had me paying a serious price today. I told Lor this morning: "I should've just manned up and made our smoothies yesterday."

We both chuckled at the idea that "manning up" equated to eating plants. And I have been thinking about that laughter ever since. Why is it, I wonder, that we look at eating veggies as un-masculine? It can't really have anything to do with the work involved in raising plant-based foods: any farmer will tell you that farming is anything but a weakling's profession. It is work made up of days filled with long, arduous labor. We'll have to look elsewhere for where meat = man.

There is an inherently combative element to the idea of eating meat, I suppose - "Nature, red in tooth and claw", and all that. But talk to any professional athlete about the idea of eating an all-meat diet and you will be laughed out of the clubhouse. Whole, plant-based foods contain nearly all the nutrients a human needs to survive and thrive. (Some vitamins can be an exception.) What the heck is so manly about being nutrient-deficient?

But, the myth persists. We know a family where the wife attempted to start she and her husband on a daily regimen of plant-based smoothies, only to have the husband reject the idea. Why? Because it wasn't "real food". I, myself, have frequently mocked the people I know who prefer salads over steaks, calling them "tree-huggers", and saying they are eating "bunny food." Now, at 150 pounds overweight, I wish I had eaten more salads and otherwise kept my mouth shut.

There is nothing manly about gasping for air after a walk around the block. Embrace your inner bunny, and start making decisions based on what your body needs, instead of the foods that you think of as masculine. Your six-pack will never be visible if it is hidden beneath a beer keg, like mine.

Drinking My Lunch (And I Don't Mean Budweiser).

- Hawkwind