Full Day, Full Log, Full Plant-Based Living: Stents & Cardiovascular Disease

5.19.2020

I’m never sure which health topic is going to be the focus in these essays until I’ve done my nightly reading, and woken up with some fresh focus.

Today’s is a doozy, because I got to a section in Undo It about stents, it was something I never knew (<— and I’m over saturated with stent info because I have loved ones and past-clients with these), and it blew my mind right open.

How many of you have a stent or know someone with a stent? (If you answered “no one” to the second part of that, over 2 million people a year receive a stent, so you most assuredly do; I alone know close to a dozen folks, and those are just the souls whose medical histories I’m aware of.)

How many of you have —or love someone who has— cardiovascular disease? And I’m not just talking about heart attacks, I’m talking about all the way down to hypertension. Heart Disease is the #1 killer in America and it increases your risk of fatality if you catch COVID-19.

What are you doing to mitigate your risk and heal your cardiovascular system?

If instead, you’re still eating the same foods you did yesterday, and spinning in gossipy-shock and wasted brain-space about how I’d dare to illuminate that Ian received a planetary/health ultimatum re: meat consumption, I’d love for you to mull over this nugget of truth: that ultimatum protected him and my son from heart disease. (And both of them have never felt better in body or mind.)

My family is full of heart disease, Ian’s family isn’t fairing much better, and the list on Q’s pediatric chart re familial CVD was so prolific that he was assigned a pediatric cardiologist out of precaution. I could have sat back (like far too many souls I love) and said, “Well, I’d like to make these changes, but my partner isn’t on board… so I guess we’ll just continue eating ourselves to death and setting our offspring up for the same pain and disease.” (<—and participation-in-environmental-destruction and animal cruelty.)

I don’t have the capacity for that scope of standstill. There was a solution that was sustainable, ideal for health, and compassionate; so we pivoted forward.

If you care about the environment, other species, other souls, or yourself —especially in these pandemic times when you want a robust system to fight back against COVID— you may want to start looking into the doctor-lead research I’m posting.

Continue for: how that stents alone won’t save us from a heart attack, a family leading-by-example with the only lifestyle and diet clinically shown to reverse/prevent heart disease, plus full day’s worth of plant-based whole-food family feasting.

Live kindly, feast kindly, grow forward.

Q’s Morning Chalkboard

Plant-Based Whole-Food Kiddo Breakfast: cacao oatmeal, easy oatmilk, 1tb peanut-butter.

I simply made a big batch of oatmeal and added cacao powder and a little cinnamon. This whole meal is filled with fiber, plant-based protein, minerals, vitamins, has no sweeteners or added sugars, and it is completely zero-waste.

We buy everything needed to make this meal in bulk and are able to reuse the bags or compost them.

Mine was similar but with whole peanuts and unsweetened flaked coconut. (<—eat coconut with the fiber attached to those fats)

Q’s David Barber drawing for the day: “It’s an alien that has just arrived on earth and he’s trying to talk, but that villager can’t understand him and is shocked!”

This notebook was passed down from some friends, left over from their own son’s childhood, and I have no idea why “Trixie” was written on this sheet, but it brought a smile: that was what Malaprop’s owner had named her before she fell into our care.

Example of homeschooling with a pre-k kiddo: we draw things for him to count and practice writing the correct number.

While Q worked on schoolwork, I started prepping food for the week.

Here seen: oil-free/zero-waste hummus. We get the chickpeas in bulk (compostable bag), the tahini came in a reusable jar, the garlic is from the farm down the road, and we grew that cilantro from seed. Use the water from the chickpeas and a handful of nuts (we used pine nuts) to create the same creamy taste of unattached-to-fiber fats (ie pure oil).

Topped with paprika.

Zero-Waste, Whole-Food, Healthy Heart & Body Fuel.

Q prepping his lunch in style. <3

(Q is obsessed with mechanical arms and anything akin to tentacles, and Ian lovingly made him this little rig. It’s been kicking around since last summer and is one of Q’s favorite things.)

Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch

j- kale & quinoa salad, Ethiopian Style Red Lentils, easy avocado, quick-pickled red cabbage, and enchilada sauce.
Q- kale & quinoa salad, Ethiopian Style Red Lentils, quick-pickled red cabbage, and an oil-free pesto.

Tried making simple cashew cream and now see what all the fuss is about. We haven’t had raw cashews on hand (Aldi’s always only seemed to have roasted), but we finally got some in bulk and will now be making more variations on this deliciousness.

Soak for an hour+ the following: 1 cup cashews, 1/2 cup water, 1tsp lemon juice, pinch of salt, 1 date (or add maple-per-taste).
Blend. Enjoy. :-)

Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert: black bean brownies, cashew cream, and peanut butter.

This kid woke up with such a zeal to draw, that he went right to it. He’d usually immediately ask for breakfast and want to start his day like a hungry bear; and it was unique and heart-squeezing to see him so zapped up with creative energy that he wanted to get right to creating.
He did the same thing afternoon. He perched at this desk and drew comics for hours.

I spent the afternoon in the kitchen prepping up heart-healthy feasting, listening to him describe his drawings, and slipping in time to listen to this amazing podcast with gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (about our microbiome and how it affects our health) and his original one. Will post more about these tomorrow.

Q joined me to help with a bag of bananas to throw in the freezer for use in smoothies and nice cream.

The big dish is for filling with compost.

Wrapped by 4:30, with dishes out air-drying (thanks to Ian), and headed upstairs to do a pre-dinner cardio hour.

What was accomplished for plant-based whole-food family meal-prepping:

• peanut butter

• hummus

• cashew cream

• berry smoothies

• frozen bananas

• black rice

• roasted broccoli

• roasted cauliflower

• garlicky peas

• quick-pickled radish

• sliced radishes for the hummus

• diced bell peppers

• Loaded Baked Potato Soup (caramelize onions in water, add garlic and smoked paprika, cook the potatoes just how you would with our mashed potato recipe, but add more water. Seasoned additionally with a bay leaf and nutritional yeast. Recipe for this guy soon, it tastes just liked loaded potato soup but is heart-healthy and environmentally kind.)

Q working on some combos. <3

Our favorite time for cardio hour is right before a heart-healthy dinner.

Zero-Wasting and PBWF Cooking

To limit dishes and wasted resources (water, the time to clean them, the gas to heat the water), I love the efficiency of glass baking/storage dishes. I cooked the brassicas in there, scooted them over, added the rice, and then used the rice-pot to heat up rice for dinner.

How to “fry” without oil? Just let the rice cook in there as-is with seasonings and garlic. It gets a great texture akin to bibimbap.

Plant-Based Family Feasting: black rice, bell pepper, quick-pickled radish, garlicky peas, roasted broc and caul, hempeh, and Ian topped his with sunflower seeds.

Here’s another illuminating section from my nightly reading of Undo It (by Dr. Dean Ornish and Anne Ornish)

There is a better, healthier, kinder path that is full of just as much flavor.