(From January 2016)

While it isn’t even close to universal, a lot of people choose a vegan diet and lifestyle because of their health.

Meat and cheese are calorie dense and often contain quite a bit of fat, not to mention hormones, antibiotics, and/or preservatives.

Nutritionist Beverly Glaze told me, once I spent a few weeks without meat, I’d feel so good I wouldn’t want to go back.

“After a month, you’re not even going to crave it,” she said. “I’d be surprised if you went back.”

Glaze thought my cholesterol levels would go down and my overall health would improve, partly because she’s a vegetarian and very healthy.

She encouraged me to check in with a doctor, figure out where I was on the spectrum of health, and set a base line. Toward the end of the month, I could check back and compare numbers.

So, before I ate my first carrot for the New Year, I made an appointment with Dr. Joshua Bradford at Spring Hill Primary Care in South Charleston.

It was the first time we’d ever met.

Like a lot of people, I typically don’t see a doctor unless I think I have to. The last time I remember going to a physician for treatment was for a bad case of bronchitis about 10 years ago.

This would tend to indicate I’ve lived a fairly charmed life if the worst thing that’s happened to me in the last decade has been a few colds here and there.

At Spring Hill Primary Care they checked my weight, blood pressure, and ran tests on my blood and urine.

We skipped the prostate exam.

Like two-thirds of the country, I’m overweight, but I knew that going in. I just didn’t know how bad it had gotten.

I was 266 pounds, the heaviest I’ve ever been, ever.

I’m 5’7.” That’s way too much.

According to most charts, I’m right around 100 pounds overweight, which is likely obese.

That stung.

Also, my blood pressure was 142/98. According to the American Heart Association, that put me squarely in hypertension territory.

Hypertension can lead to stroke, an aneurism, heart disease, all of which can be deadly.

At first, I tried to laugh off the results and rapid-fire, listed half a dozen reasons why my blood pressure was so high.

In preparation for “Veganuary,” I’d spent the last week on a fairly irresponsible food binge. I’d tackled a Chinese buffet Christmas Day, eaten half a dozen meals out, most of them at fast food places which are notorious for loading everything down with salt.

I’d had the meat, eggs, cheese, milk and a couple of heaping bowls of Turkey Hill Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.

I hadn’t been exercising like I used to, either, and there was the holidays and all sorts of stress.

I blamed everything but the dog.

Meanwhile, the nurse just nodded patiently while I settled into the uncompromising numbers before me.

Then Dr. Bradford asked how I was, if I’d had any headaches, nausea, or blurred vision?

“I woke up with a headache this morning,” I told him.

It was unusual, but it hadn’t been the first time.

Results from the blood test took a few days to come back, but it was more bad news. My Cholesterol was 208, which is bad, and my triglycerides were 330, which is even worse.

To be honest, I had no idea what triglycerides were. So, I looked it up.

According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, triglycerides are a type of fat found in the blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn’t need right away into triglycerides, which are stored in fat cells.

You need some of them to use later as energy, but not a lot of them, and certainly not 330 of them. A normal level is considered below 150 milligrams per deciliter. I was somewhere in the middle of the high range, but not quite as high as blood made from sweet cream butter.

High triglyceride levels may cause hardening of the arteries, and can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.

The doctor wasn’t entirely sure what to make of my 30 day plan. A vegan diet seemed like a tough path to take. He thought a vegetarian diet was good for someone like me, and probably easier to sustain, but suggested that what I was doing was a step in the right direction, if I could keep it up.

“And get some exercise,” he said. “You need cardio.”

I told him I used to lift weights and swim.

“Swimming is about the best thing for you,” he said. “Do that.”

About the vegan diet, he said most people tend to worry about getting enough protein, but usually that’s easier than it sounds, even if you’re not eating meat.

“You need .86 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight,” he said and did the math for me.

At my current weight, that came to 96 grams of protein per day.

To put that in perspective, these days, breakfast for me is a half cup of oats with some walnuts and flax seeds. Together, that comes to about 18 grams of protein.

Breakfast is typically my smallest meal of the day.

Dr. Bradford was more concerned about variety of food and getting all the right nutrients to avoid complications.

I told him I didn’t want to get scurvy or rickets.

He said that was unlikely, but added, “I’d recommend a multivitamin.” 

And salads. He thought I should eat a lot of salad.