Your Health …

It is not the fault of Medicine, Medical Machine, Pharmaceutical Industry, Beef/Pork/Poultry/Fish Industries, Dairy Industry, Advertisements, TV Shows, Radio, Social Media, the Government  …

… it is not their fault.

These Powers do not tie you down, and force toxic foods and drinks into your mouth.

You are the one who loads the fork, fills the glass, opens the bag, buys the sacks of unhealthy stuff that your hands place in your mouth… you chew, you swallow, and become addicted to, and comfortable with …

You are your own ‘dealer’, ‘pusher’, and ‘enabler’.

You are also your own liberator.

Set yourself free.

Take ownership.

Take control.

Be free.

Stop counting calories, stop measuring proteins, stop living in the fear of carbs…

Be free.

oldmanskinandbones.com

After my Triple By Pass October 5, 2015, my Cardiologist gave me several bits of ‘bad news’ ….

One, was I would ‘be on Blood Pressure Meds for the rest of my life, as well as Baby Aspirin and Statin Drugs for the Cholesterol Control. All of that is another story for another Blog, another Day…

Second, while the Cardiologist was filling out my records, he tells me I was a smoker.

I PROTESTED and explained it had been about eight years since I quit smoking COLD TURKEY, and never looked back…..

I was all proud, high and mighty!

Until he tells me this….

The Lungs, Heart and Vascular System would forever ‘say’,  I was a smoker .

He tells me that smoking permanently marks a life, a body.

Sure!  The moment you ‘put out’ each cigarette you smoke, the body begins to heal the damage.  But the Doc tells me that every time a Medical Person would look at my BODY, they would always see evidence that I was a smoker…. even though I had stopped years ago.

In that moment, I pictured myself standing in front of a gathering of people and say, ” Hi!  My name is Ray, and I am a smoker”.

In fact, I did that with a gathering of folks last week.

It is just that after that statement and seeing their SHOCKED FACES (because you can always SMELL a Smoker) I was able to conclude with this statement….

“… BUT, I have not had a cigarette in almost TEN YEARS.”

With that completed testimony, they could understand why they had never smelled that stench of tobacco death on me.

There was a series of events that took me from a smoker of almost two packs a day, to stopping, and never desiring another (another Blog, another day)

But I can say, I have never desired another cigarette since Good Friday, 2008.

But then, I find out that I would always BE a smoker.

Damn.

I hate that….

Regrets?  I have a few…

This ‘Good Friday’ (March 30, 2018) is the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of the day I stopped wanting to smoke.

I can celebrate that, and the fact that I can now run a 5K and breath MOST OF THE TIME with my mouth closed.

Have I recovered from the smoking damage I did to myself?

Hell yeah I have.

My BY PASS SURGERY was successful, it seems.  There is a certain percentage of these procedures that ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL.

I have not returned to have Stents, nor more BY PASS SURGERIES as many have, and will.

(Yeah, you DO KNOW that Stents and By Pass Surgeries do not ‘fix’ your Heart Disease… what you eat can fix the Heart Disease, but not procedures, nor medicine.  Heart Disease afflicts the 60,000 miles of the Vascular System… replacing, or stenting a few inches will not address the whole problem…

Sorry  🙁

With every bite of food I take, I purpose to provide the ‘tools’ of nourishment to repair and heal damage done to the WHOLE body…

But I will always be a smoker …

… but it has been TEN YEARS since I have had a cigarette.

and…

it has been almost three years since I have counted calories, measured protein, or been afraid of Carbs…

Being free from those burdens feels good.

May we all find freedom …

oldmanskinandbones.com

OH YEAH!  Like a really disobedient ‘bad boy’ …. I have been off all medication, disobeying Doctors Orders, since March 2016.  Food has been my MEDICINE since then.  Also … since June 2017, I have begun to ‘Work Out’ and since January 2018, I have started to ‘Run’, and let ‘that’ be my Medicine too…

 … my BP this morning, after three cups of really strong ‘black’ coffee …

See?  I told you I was a ‘Bad Boy’ …

Years before, and up to my Heart Attack I could not stretch and enjoy it!

You know, one of those early morning gooooooood stretches… or come to think about it even in the evening…

For years, I remember getting into a good hard stretch, and the feel the ‘cramp’ at the heart area coming on, and I would ABORT the stretch about half way through.

Not only was this frustrating, it was as scary as crap.

My heart attach was not the eye ball popping elephant setting on my chest, arms going stiff all the sudden terror….

it was subtle.

You know how it feels when you have a crick in your neck, or shoulder blade area?  That is how mine started.

As the time progressed, I tried to convince myself it was something I had eaten and needed to be thrown up.

It would get worse, then better, then worse, and then worse.

Enough that about 16 hours later I was ready to go see a Doctor…

Lets journey from those days, and nightmares, to now…

I can stretch like a well slept BEAR coming out of a very successful hibernation, and fulfill the entire function and purpose of a good stretch.

I love it!

I really love not living in fear of another stretch.

I also love living in the realization that I do not need to fear another Heart Attack.

Really.

I know, because of eating NOTHING BUT HEALTHY food, and no doubt, nor debate about that! I do not have to fear another Heart Attack…. nor the other most common reasons the typical American will suffer, and die slowly over a long period of time.

You want that joy and freedom?

Stop counting calories, stop measuring protein, stop FEARING CARBS!

Eat Whole Food Plant Based.

Freedom feels so good!

oldmanskinandbones.com

It occurred to me that I have never been in shape, so therefore I can not get BACK in shape.

That is the ‘shape’ I am getting away from.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Yep, that is the ‘shape’ I am getting away from.

What I am entering now is “New Territory”.

‘NEW’ in so many ways…

Like…..

… Who wears those types of undershirts when running 5K events?

… Since when has oldmanskinandbones.com ever worn a SMALL SHIRT anywhere?

…  AND FINALLY … WHO WEARS ‘READERS’ during a 5K Run!!??  WTH!!??

 [getting the ‘game face’ just before the gun goes off…]

… (ok, I freaked out that morning when I realized I wouldn’t have belt loops to wear a belt, therefore not be able to have my trusty cell phone holder on my belt, and that means I would have to carry the cell phone, or place it in my pocket…. and LORD KNOWS that was going to be a distraction!  So, I just put on a belt and placed the holder and there you go!  WRONG!

My fashion consultant informed me with ‘THAT’ question, ‘Your not going to wear that belt to the Run are YOU??’ … which you know is spoken in the form of a question, but is an actual declaration of “… you are not JUST wrong if you think I am going out with you dressed like that, but you are DAMNED WRONG!”

So I actually found a belt I had set back long ago I bought for a quarter at a garage sale, that NOW fits perfect, and it was acceptable to the Fashion Police Chief I live with…

I had to have the phone with me so the FitBit Josh bought me could sync with the satellites in geocentric orbit designated to tracking my steps not just for the NSA but Black Ops too ya know….  OK really I wanted the thing to measure my stride while running the event, as well as track the distance so I can know it is a valid record of distances recorded…)

Yeah, all of this is new territory for me…. I have never been here before.

My first race in my life and I was in the age bracket marked ’60 and above’.

Looked like to me I got to the starting line just in time.

(Git it?  I was in the LAST AGE GROUP …)

Any way,

Since this is all ‘new’ to me, I have been studying the ‘HOW TO’ Run …

I have a few books I have read and they have been very helpful.

The current book I am listening to is … “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen”

This book is not just a study of the reclusive Tarahumara Native Mexican tribe in the Mexican Copper Canyons, but it covers the massive fraud of the Running Shoe Industry in our world.

Yeah, I now know, I have to train running barefoot and buy the cheapest running shoes and wear them for years, even to the point of wearing the right shoe on the left foot and left on the right …. (I will explain later…>)

Oh!  And I have also learned to have good Duct Tape at all Running Events where I go …. ( again, I will explain later)

But all this stuff aside….

I seriously have never worn a size SMALL anything in my life.

Yep, I am not getting ‘back’ into nothing… ( Yes, I used the Double Negative on purpose)

And yes, yesterday, March 23, 2018 I participated in a 5K Run and it was only the 2nd time I have run outside the ‘womb’ of my homemade training room.

I placed Third, and I have the Medal to prove it.

Bragging much?

Damned right I’m BRAGGING!

I am also not counting calories, I am not measuring Protein, and I ain’t afraid of Carbs.

oldmanskinandbones.com

I went to school in a small town named Wofforth, Texas.

In the 8th grade, (67-68 school year) there were just a few hundred people that lived ‘in town’.  The school was rated a Double A size mainly because the students from Reese Air Force Base were bused in, and that caused us to play schools we thought were bigger that we, and that was our excuse for losing a lot of games and other competitions….

I had ‘gone out’ for football my 8th grade year, and decided since I didn’t have anything other than my street shoes to wear during the games, I would not return for the Freshman (9th grade) season.

Yeah, we had to provide our own footwear for sports.  Dad wasn’t into that kinda foolish expense, so …

So two weeks before the Freshman year began, Mom and I were trimming the Wisteria Bush at the corner of the yard and my buddy Glen came by all excited and stopped to question WHY was I not headed to the Football Field for the first day of Spring Training for FOOTBALL SEASON!?!?!?!

I mumbled something like I didn’t think I would play that season……

Glen looked at me like I was a freak and off he went!

A moment later Mom asked me why I didn’t want to play, or something like that, and I mumbled something to her…

Then something happened that has affected me ever since….

She said, “Ray, I think you could do good at it.  If you do play, just play the best you can…”.

With those words I heard my Momma say she believed I was good at something, and she blessed me to go and do well at it.

Proud that there was something like that from this very honored persons opinion of me, I burst out of that front yard, and thus began a part of my growing up that still touches me to this day.

More than marking my physical body in my right knee (even to this moment) [yep, I can still tell the weather with that knee injury from the next to the last game of the High School Career against Cooper Pirates…. gerrrr) Mom marked my life by believing in ME, and speaking the words of encouragement to go with that.

Our words are powerful.

They can change the course of a life.

They can change the course of many lives.

My Mom heard me tell her a big THANKS for saying those words.  I told her more than once.  If she were still here, I would tell her again.

She spoke possibility into reality.

Possibility of success, joy, happiness….good stuff.

I try to measure each word I speak.

I would like to be known as a WORDSMITH.

I have to admit though that I have discovered that there are times I may be Wordsmithing with less than positive words.

If I have spoken less than positive, then that may not be serving the possibilities of this BLOG fully, nor my life.

But in the Spirit of Momma that day by the Wisteria Bush, I do want to tell you….

I do not count calories, because I have found freedom from the chains of uselessly wasting time and effort focusing on trivia… focus on the healthy food, and calories are your friends…

I do not measure protein because it is just silly to be convinced you need the amount the producers of ‘protein’ need you to buy, just so they can line their pockets with more money while they endanger your health doing so…

I do not fear CARBS, because eating the Whole Food Plant Based Lifestyle does away with the FEAR you have been forced to live with, because some marketing genius found a way to place your ever moment in fear, or guilt…. or BOTH.

Friend, YOU CAN BE FREE!  YOU CAN DO IT!! Eat healthy, be strong, BE FULL and do not pass hungry nor cutting calories or shackled by portion control.

I know you can do it!

I think you can do it very well.

There is no need to doubt yourself.

I know you can do it!

oldmanskinandbones.com

So far, I have one Hibiscus Flower that actually grows here at my home.  I am saving the matured flowers to use for consumption.

This is an actual picture of Hibiscus Tea on top and Gunpowder Green Tea on the bottom.

I grind these with Flax Seed every morning….

… and throw them in a tub of UNCOOKED Old Fashion Oats covered in Almond Milk, and let them soak and eat them.

Why do I do that instead of making tea?

I am lazy.

I can eat the tea leaves/flower, and get fiber from another WHOLE FOOD ( the leaves or the flower or the seed).

The Hibiscus ‘stains’ every thing it touches when it gets wet, and this reminds me that my insides are getting stained with these POWERFUL antioxidants, and the fiber is feeding the lower intestines life forms living there…

Although this picture above is BLUE BERRIES staining a white cloth, it is the same principle as the Stain of Hibiscus … POWERFUL STAINS PROCLAIM POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANTS!!

(After Breakfast, I want my insides red, and or purple!)

(After lunch and supper, a glow of Golden Turmeric Gold ain’t bad !!)

But why I eat the Teas in ground Flower or Leaf form….

Nothing goes to waste, I eat it all….

AND finally and most of all….

It is easier than making tea…

Some say I am lazy….

Others say I am ‘Crafty’, Creative, a genius as it were….

(you decide!)

oldmanskinandbones.com

I never count calories, I never measure protein, I FEAR NOR CARBS!!

( What I do fear is these stains getting on counter tops, wash towels, my shirts … “some one” gets upset ya know?)

While preparing potato wedges for cooking in the oven, I decided to make some oven baked no oil onion rings.

I realized the recipe called for 1 cup of almond (or plant) milk…. and I had used the last that morning.

I remembered something about making your own plant milk so I looked up oat milk, and easy peasy…. I had a jar full!

I just added the strained out part to the batter…NOTHING LOST!

This was too simple!

The batter turned out just great and all the baked stuff including potatoes, cauliflower, and onions were so good, and I missed taking more than this picture…

Yum!

Big bonus, NO GREASE LIPS!

The next morning I had some soaked oats.

It tasted great.

Yes, I know, I am leaving something ‘on the table’ here, soaking your oats in homemade oat milk…. But I am tired today and just have ‘nothing in me’….

sorry ….

So there you are.

Someday I will attempt to make almond milk, and cashew milk…..

Maybe after I finally break down and get one of the fancy HIGH SPEED blenders…

And as always, do not think you need to count calories, measure protein, nor fear carbs.

Unless you just want to be ‘mean’ to yourself.

oldmanskinandbones.com

No.

oldmanskinandbones.com

Yep I did a ‘sit up’ this week and I am celebrating!

When I started getting serious about working out a few weeks ago, my youngest son said in amazement… “What do you mean you can’t do a sit up!?”

That is right!

I could not remember the last time since 1972 I even tried.

BUT there had been a big GOOSE EGG attempt when I confessed to Josh.

I was SO OUT OF ‘SHAPE’ !!

So among a number of routines I gathered from you tube and other places, I came up with a routine which included Safe Leg Lifts for 63 Year Old Men Who Has Had Gallbladder Surgery as well as A TRIPLE BY PASS Surgery therefore offering numerous Hernia Tear locations ( I already have a hernia at the Navel) and basically has Sissy Muscles in place of a SIX PACK AB.

(Wow, I am amazed at how well I cleaned up my language on that description …. wow)

You know what else?

I began to notice how I walked slumped over like a little old man…(shuffle along old man, shuffle along…. nothing to see here)

It looked horrible.

When I am running? on the Treadmill I looked horrible too.  I LOOKED LIKE A OLD MAN RUNNING.

Then I remembered …. I was.

So, in order to improve that appearance, I decided to just keep getting better at all that. (Including the Leg Lifts and finally, the SIT UPS)

March 7, 2018, while warming up for what was to be a record breaking day on the treadmill of 6.81 miles! …. I did a sit up !  Right in the middle of the Leg Lifts!

I was so happy!  I ran in and flopped down in the middle of the Dinning Area Floor, and showed Betty!

She was so impressed!!

Yesterday, as I warmed up for another record breaking day of distance on the treadmill, ( !! 7.08 mi *** 01:37:04 mins ***155 bpm ***1178 cals burned)…

… and  I did 5 sit ups!

Wow!

Folks, that is a BIG THING in my life!

A BIG Celebration.

You should see the new wrinkles on my shrinking tummy!

THEY ARE AWESOME!

I will photograph that BADGE OF HONOR soon….( yeah, my tummy! with wonderful shrinkage wrinkles)

So, in my first week of wearing the FitBit, Josh gave me for my birthday, I have run almost 25 miles.

…burned during exercise, 5649 calories…

( I will count calories BURNED DURING WORK OUT, BUT THERE IS no reason for me to count calories I eat.   When you eat WFPB, you can eat all you want!!!) EAT ALL YOU WANT!

This is another CELEBRATION !

The results of a ”Friendly”(?) Competition with Taylor W. and Josh to see who wins the Workout Contest (Monday – Friday).

Of course, I admit this oldmanskinandbones IS RETIRED (somewhat), and I am not eating meat, no animals, and no dairy, I take no protein supplements, I have no coach nor sponsor, and I have lots of time to do these things where as the young 25 ish year old competitors ( ie 2nd and 3rd places) have full time or more jobs … …

After the results of week 2 of the competition, I will post pictures of a new secret weapon I am constructing in my backyard… ( this will be a game changer!)

I do not need to count CALORIES I eat.  There is NO REASON to do so.

I do not need to measure PROTEIN.  There is NO REASON to do so.

I do not need to FEAR CARBS.  There is NO REASON to do so.

But I do have a reason to celebrate Sit Ups and Handing the ass to 2nd and 3rd place…..

oldmanskinandbones.com

WAIT!!!!!

DID YOU HEAR THAT????

LISTEN!

oldmanskinandbones.com

YES!

There IT GOES AGAIN!!

LOL!!!

oldmanskinandbones.com

Folks, Whole Food Plant Based Living is POWERFUL.

We are just beginning to understand the POWER OF PLANTS!

We learn MORE everyday, and are just ‘scratching the surface’ .

This is one of the reasons I am planning that 110th Birthday Party FOR ME! in the year 2065.

This is your invitation to be there!!

If you just HAVE to bring me a gift, but don’t know what to buy a GUY WHO HAS EVERYTHING… then bring FRUIT!

OR !!!!

A special plate where you have used Terri Edwards EASY BLACK BEAN DIP  (click this link to see the recipe!)

I made it for Breakfast and poured it over my Breakfast Salad…. it was fantastic!

I need to be careful , because I think I could just eat it with a spoon.

I do make a humble suggestion to Terri Edwards though, I think the recipe would be just fine if it were doubled in size… but that is just me …

There is not much of the original batch remaining after my breakfast and I DID get a concerning look from my wife when she heard how little was remaining after my first pass….

Oh well…. I consume huge volumes of food since going WFPB.

Here is my BREAKFAST!

After I took the picture, I mixed it together and ate like a oldman who had just been on the treadmill for 90 minutes, and gone 6.81 miles in 90 minutes.

Because I had been, and this was sooo good!  I was hungry.

A new record for oldmanskinandbones for distance, and time, and a NEW RECIPE from EatPlant-Based.com , and Terri Edwards from North Carolina!

It is in my recipe book, and on my menus!! It is so easy to make!

What else can I use it for!!??

Look out! Here I come!

Never counting Calories, Never measuring Proteins, NEVER FEARING CARBS!

oldmanskinandbones.com

( hummm, Vegan Nachos…. or use it like a spread for a veggie burger in place of mustard or ‘mayo’… or just eat with a spoon…. hummmm ???)

OH YEAH!  Did you see the green bowl in the picture?   See that crack on the left side?

I am making a blog soon about that bowl and that cracked/repaired place…. that is my favorite bowl!

More later!