Sunday Song Day: "The Luckiest" and Plant-Based Pollyanna Perspectives

I am a stickler for a responsibility, even if it is self-assigned, yet this’ll be the briefest of Sunday Song Days as I am still recovering from Friday’s 5-year-delayed hernia surgery.

Continue for: 4 days of Plant-Based-&-Whole-Food/Life Style Medicine living-by-example, including pre and *post* surgery (fiber-filled) foods; why I avoided the take-home opiates (and have continued without them even with an added wrench thrown into recovery); Ben Folds, gratitude, and the perspective heart-lift of laughter pain.

Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: sweet cinnamon overnight oats, banana, berry sauce, and peanut butter oatmilk sauce.

Morning Cardio Dancing <3

Q drew a family portrait of all of us on sandworms, so I rearranged the fridge door.

There are a lot of photos that come and go on this fridge, but there are a few staples that remain because just looking at them makes me smile: my dad and that absurdly large pretzel, every picture with Ian and Q, Richard Zakin interacting with Q via only his toe (he's also in that burst of light in the top right, and that triad photo -dearly loved mentor, soulmate, son-- is one of my favorite photos ever), the polar bearing series (that pic of Q in the water is during one of my birthday polar dips and it's in the 40's, but he insisted on getting in the water and is beaming from ear to ear), Q spontaneously hugging Cayden in his birthday group shot <3 (the LOVE he has for those Smorol boys! <3 ), and Bedirhan and Dan making Ian do that DEEP belly laugh of his that makes my heart flip: just looking at it makes me hear the sound, and I love it with my whole heart. <3

“Papa’s on a shai-hulud, and you’re on a Beetlejuice Sandworm, and I’m on a catterpillar or a graboid, I haven’t decided yet.”

Plant-Based Lunch: leftover arepa pizzas (green bell peppers, garlicky lentil sauce, cashew cheese), homemade heirloom sauce, and side salads with kale, pickled peppers, and balsamic tomatoes.

Blueberry, mango, and oatmilk smoothie.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Family Feasting: Nacho bowls (with chips on the side for Q and I, for easier scooping and less soggy chips)> Inside the bowl: lentil loaf (diced up, seared, and seasoned like a taco), cashew queso, greens, tomato, pickled peppers, green onions,

Nightly Readings

Thursday’s Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: oats, apple sauce, berry sauce, and chia seeds.

Rand Tract Thursday morning: leaf boats.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: zucchini and yellow squash bisque, kale, green onions, and (homemade) whole oat bread.

I spent Thursday afternoon cooking up a bunch of food (making a big black rice and roasted brassica casserole mixed with Crystal’s PBWF cheese sauce, several jars of soup, a big batch of overnight oats, Etc).

Why a fridge full of plant-based foods? Aside from the compassionate reasons, PBWFs are tied to robust human health (<--- faster recovery; decreased chance of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, autoimmune disorders; and a more diverse microbiome which influences overall health), and most importantly: shifting toward Plant-Based feasting reduces our calamitous/destructive animal agriculture footprint (and the millions of species we're at risk of losing as a result) and is essential in any sustainable future for humanity.

Plant-Based Feasting: kale salad with balsamic tomatoes, black brassica casserole, (black rice, with roasted cauliflower and broccoli, and Crystal’s wondrous PBWF cheese sauce <—-made with potatoes, carrots, celery, cashew, nutritional yeast, and garlic <3), and fresh corn on the cob.

Friday morning views. <3

Q’s breakfast: crust bar, cashew cream, and cantaloupe (with mango, mint, and lime juice)

Prepping lunch for Q to bring over to Tara’s (<—she’d be watching him while I was in this hospital and ian would be transporting): homemade oat bread, peanut butter, berry sauce, and cashew cream.

Realized where Q got his encouraging-nurses-even-through-bloodwork lovelight from, because it took them 3 tries for the IV on my left arm (despite bobybuilder-big veins and an absurd amount of previous-night hydration) and through it all I kept trying to ease the nerves of the apologetic nurse and tell her they have a hard job and my heart is with them.

So this surgery was supposed to be a repair for a 5-year-delayed umbilical hernia (previously explained here), and the surgeon was convinced it was going to take a few stitches and I’d be out in a jiffy, but it turned out the damage was worse than they thought and I ended up needing 2 pieces of mesh.

I had explained to them pre-surgery that I wanted as little opiates during (and none after) because I had these for the first time during my emergency c-section with Q, and the subsequent GI discomfort was FAR worse than the 20+ hours of active labor (<—which had been done without pain meds and without a tear). Opiates slow down your digestive tract, and if you have a lot of stitching and slicing over an area that is about to get a swollen: I’d rather avoid the cycle and err for ibuprofen.

I shuffled on out of the bed as quick as I could after the surgery, so I could get an all-clear for Ian to come and get me, and I could get home to that fridge of food.

Was picked up by a considerate Ian who had the wherewithal to bring black rice & brassica casserole, and diced up fruit. <3

Ian and I have had a lot of years of taking care of eachother, and I’m eternally grateful that he’s a caring partner. Post-Q’s arrival I was down for the count (healing in a similar fashion) and he was a whirl of action and tending; and in a clang that is identical to that same healing path: the “worst” part post-surgery is learning how many times we laugh in a day and how hard it is to train myself with breathing to NOT laugh and disrupt abdominal pain/healing.

That the “worst” part is trying not to laugh with my sweet family is a heartlift I do not take lightly.

We almost chose Ben Folds “The Luckiest” as our wedding song, but feared it too twee and went with an edited version of the Avett Brother’s “Swept Away” instead. I had this in my head a lot on Friday and Saturday, however: thinking about the blessing in coming home to love.

Had enough energy to prep dinner with some of the pre-made bounty: big salads and brassica casserole for them, and overnight oats (with banana, almond butter, flax meal, berry sauce) and some oat bread.

Ian making us popcorn.

Ian reading us Harry Potter to bed.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: Homemade oat bread sandwich for Q with bananas and apple; and overnight oats with mixed fruit for me.

<3

Ian picked up our CSA haul and prepped it all day.

Crystal dropped us off a great scalloped potato casserole made with her same amazing PBWF cheese sauce. Here seen: topped with marinara and side kale salad.

Recovering from surgery wasn’t enough fun, and the fates decided to throw in cramps too, so I added chocolate, dark berries, and almond butter to my afternoon oats to up my iron intake along with fiber.

Managed to get up and walk around a bit, but mostly rested this day.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Feasting: casseroles, roasted potatoes, kale salads, balsamic tomatoes, heirloom marinara.

Tiny Caretaker <3

Realized that I failed to put in that bisque and those ingredients (yellow squash, zucchini, kaffir lime, red chile, coconut) would bring this up to 70.

How y’all doing on that goal to get at least 30 plants in you within a week? The best nutritionally-focused docs recommend that you get at least 30 different plants into you within the week. Why? Your microbiome is bettered by plant diversity and your microbiome is dependent on all the fiber found within those plants.

Is your diet a rotation of meat and grains? That’s what mine used to be, and the amount of plants I consumed was laughably limited… and then I grew forward.

You only make what you measure, and America is sadly known to be severely deficient in fiber. Gut health = whole health, so it is worth focusing on and measuring how you can do better. (We use this list to see which color we need to increase.)

What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️

Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕  

Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥

Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎

Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️‍🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️

What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health,  Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health,  American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.

We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️

Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️

If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕

We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖