How I Did It

What to Eat to Lose Weight and Feel Great
by Marc Kaplan

I transitioned to a primarily whole food, plant-based, non-dairy, raw diet in August of 2010 and lost 17 pounds in five weeks. This was the largest detoxification program that I have ever done. The biggest difference for me was that I was not looking for just a quick fix weight loss diet but I was ready to shift to a healthier diet for the rest of my life.

I was a compassionate vegetarian and I was still overweight with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hypertension, and borderline diabetes. There are so many varieties of diets from doctors, health practitioners, and other sources (South Beach, Atkin’s, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, various detoxifications like the super lemonade cleanse, etc.) that I found my self overwhelmed with the amount of options, and choices.

The real question to answer is what does your body really need to perform at
the best it can? The answer is you need to experiment a little, which is a fun and
rewarding experience. My shift to a non-dairy plant-based diet has made me
healthier, more athletic, more energetic, a steward to the environment, achieve
great happiness, and to become a true compassionist.

As humans we all are in the pursuit of happiness and comfort. I was raised on a
variety of meat products with every meal, so I experience a lot of joy in preparing
them and eating them. The problem is that they not only have virtually no
nutritional value but in fact adversely affect people’s health because of the work it
causes for your body to digest dead flesh and the fats associated with much of the
meats. Lastly, I realized that all animals experience pain and suffering at the time of
slaughter no matter how humanely they are killed. It is one thing to be part of the
killing process but it is all whole other thing to make that pain one with my body by
eating it. Metaphysically and spiritually it was causing me major problems to ingest
the dead flesh of an animal that incurred such great suffering during in its execution.
And like so many of us, I was doing this at least three times a day.

The basics to my weight loss program and spiritual growth program was achieved
by drinking lots of water, sticking to a 75% whole (raw) foods, avoiding all animal
flesh, no dairy products, exercise my body everyday, and to exercise to the point of
breaking a sweat at least every other day. I am also a advocate of daily meditation.
We have between 900 and 1,000 waking minutes, it only takes 10 of those minutes
to be able to establish a daily pattern of mindful meditation. I prefer Tai Chi and
Qigong but there are many simple sitting meditations for beginners.

The following dietary suggestions come from my life of trial and error as I experimented with various diets. My philosophy is simple as is my diet. Strive to eat whole foods and avoid animal flesh meats, dairy products, white sugar, white flour, and foods with high fats and artificial sweeteners. Sounds simple because it is.

I have made three suggestions for each main meal but you can visit the recipes area
of the Green Smoothie University website to see many more options.

Breakfast
Do not rush to get food and drink into your body because the clock on the wall says
its time for breakfast. Delay breaking your nightly fast and wait until your body
craves nourishment, it will tell you. You just have to be open to listen to it.

Try starting your day with some water, maybe one or two cups to quench your thirst and feed your dehydrated body. You may want heat up the water and possibly add some fresh squeezed lemon.

Make 16 to 32 ounces of a Green Smoothie. My favorite smoothie is made from two handfuls of spinach, one handful of strawberries, one ripe banana, and a cup of coconut water. I often add blueberries, mangos, pineapples, apples, and other seasonal fruits to the suggested baseline ingredients. Do not worry about buying an expensive blender. Basic blenders, which you probably own already, will work just fine.

Granola with bananas and a variety of other fruits with almond, rice, or soymilk.

Lunch
You will not be very hungry depending on how much smoothie you had for
breakfast. Again, I would encourage you to ignore the clock on the wall and wait
and eat when you are hungry. I often go until 2pm or 3pm before graving a 2nd
major meal if I had digested 32 ounces of smoothie that morning.

    •  Nori (seaweed) wraps made with sliced zucchini, bell peppers, sweet onions, avocado and tomatoes. I coat the roasted nori wrap with cashew, almond, or sunflower seed butter and simply lay the strips of vegetables down and roll it into a hand roll cone. The nori wraps can be made with sticky brown rice as well but also taste great without it.
    •  Avocado (guacamole) dip made with lots of added vegetables. I take two fresh avocados and like adding banana peppers, mangos, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and fresh cilantro.

  •  Green Salads (kale, spinach, mixed greens, romaine, etc.) with fruits and vegetables. Remember to go very light on the dressing.

Dinner
Many of the faux meats can be purchased at your local grocer. The faux meats help
to make me happy by reminding me of comfort meat foods I enjoyed while growing
up. I do much of my shopping at Trader Joe’s because they are reasonably priced
and reasonably healthy. I would caution everyone to make sure you limit you intake of processed soy products like the faux meats to just a couple time a week.

  •  Stir-fried vegetables will give you a little break from your raw foods intake and allow you to experiment with various seasonings and light marinades.
  • Meatless Meatballs with onions, sundried tomatoes, garlic, basil, and bell peppers mixed into a marinara sauce.
  • Thai Vegetable Gyozas are very simple to make and very tasty to eat. Eight of these vegetable pot stickers along with some accompanying vegetables can make for a very fulfilling meal.

Between Meal Snacks
Dehydrated kale chips
Roasted seaweed in bite sized containers
Raw almonds and other nuts
Fresh fruit
Salsa and with whole grain chips
Guacamole dip

I encourage everyone to please share this diet with your family, friends, and co-
workers if you have success with it in your own life. I did and that is why I want to
share it with you now.

 

Marc’s Story & Presentation

It is an amazing feeling to be able to share my story with you and by changing my
diet moved me into a new health and spiritual height, shifting my life into a more
positive space forever. It is a story about getting out of my own way and allowing
myself to evolve into the person I truly aspired to be. I am very hopeful that my
personal story will empower you to create a healthier lifestyle for yourselves.

It is up to us
You may not be aware of this today but you the people hearing, reading, or viewing
this will shape the future for my children, your children, and your childrens’
children, and all future generations. It is up to each one of us as individuals to take
responsibility today and commit to being stewards for the planet, to take active
steps to help coexist with our fellow man, and to begin to eat healthier and seriously
monitor the toxins we voluntarily allow into our bodies.

I am here today to let you know that the majority of the people that reign with
political and corporate power in this country are not being responsible. They send
mixed and deceptive messages and advertisements that promote unhealthy eating
habits, which are motivated by the pursuit of increasing corporate profits and trying
to fit into an outdated paradigm. There is no time like the present, in fact the only
time is the present. Today is the day we become the people we have always wanted
to be and create a positive change for us and the people in our lives.

Please by a show of hands, if anyone desires to lose ten to fifteen pounds in the next
month? Is there anyone here who wants to feel more energized? Anyone want
to relieve stress in his or her lives? How about losing weight and at the same time
helping to solve our healthcare crisis in the country. There is a simple way to do all
of this and still feel very satisfied and happy with what you eat.

There is a Solution
There is a solution to the downfalls of the healthcare system in this country and it is
not trying to figure out how to treat people more affordably, it is to address or what
I like to call “undress” the underlying problem. Most people including many of us
make bad choices in our daily diets and do not exercise with great regularity. The
healthcare issues go away as soon as people shift to a healthier diet and perform
simple basic exercises on a daily basis. Heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood
pressure and diabetes are major health issues for a majority of us. They can all be
avoided by making the right decisions about what we allow into the sacred temple
that is our body.

Your Sacred Temple
We are all blessed more than you might realize and extremely fortunate to be
granted another day on earth, to be able to carry ourselves with distinction, and
roam the planet in this sacred temple we call the body. We like the automobiles
people drive work function on fuel that we burn into energy in order to sustain
our existence and to keep moving forward. The problem is that we often forget
to treat this body temple as the sacred place it is. We allow and voluntarily digest
numerous varieties of toxins with almost every meal and especially sugary snacks
between meals. The name of this program that we at Golden Treasures Health and
Wellness have developed is called the Green Smoothie University with the motto
of “Monitoring and honoring what we eat.”

I picked up this metal poster at a flea market this summer. I can say that I
personally have enjoyed each one of those cereals. My poor eating habits began was
I was very young and my mother would sit me down at the breakfast table with a
bowl of Captain Crunch soaking in cow’s milk, a couple slices of bacon, sausage, or
fried salami, buttered Wonder white bread toast, tall glass of chocolate milk, and a
class of Minute Maid orange juice from a concentrate. And this is how I started my
day just like a many other children across the country. This is not so different from
how children are being fed today. The products have changed a little; Sugar Pops
bacame Corn Pops, Sugar Smacks became just Smacks but the breakfast is still filled
with loads of processed sugar, high fructose corn syrup, saturated fats, and empty
carbohydrates.

Many educated adults no about healthy food choices but still begins their day with
a pastry and cup of coffee from Starbuck’s. This may give them the feeling that they
are jump-starting their day with energy but once again like my childhood breakfast,
which tasted great but did not properly fuel my body with the needed nutrients to
live a truly healthy life.

We must realize what motivates our food choices and I have found that happiness is
the key-motivating factor. Yes, our food choices are direct reflection of that which
brings us happiness. The real question becomes can we get as much pleasure by
eating fruits and vegetables as we get from eating meats and sugary foods.

Currently more than 65% of Americans are overweight and 30% obese. The obesity
rates are similar in children as well. You have heard this solution before but here
it is again, eat right and exercise. Today the main focus of this presentation is to
discuss the first subject, which is eating right.

Revolution
I am here today to start a revolution. To start a revolt against a programmed system
that relies on the torture of innocent animals, miscommunication, and deception in
order to put profits over health. I am looking to inspire you to stand up and fight
this injustice with me. We hold the power with us to dictate what we will accept
and what we will stand up against and not accept. What we need is to create a
revolution of health centric activists that are not going to allow the toxins into our
bodies anymore. We can start the shift to healthy eating habits and start it now.

Who am I?
My parents served my sister and I meat, cow’s milk, and processed sugars with
almost every meal. I am not going to bash and bad-talk my parents for doing what
they thought was right. They were simply doing what their parents trained them
to do and their parents’ parents before them. I cannot blame them, just as I do not
blame you because you simply do not know. Poor eating habits and unhealthy
food choices start very early in our lives and many people never change what they
eat even after being presented with undeniable facts of the harm that might be
happening to one’s health.

My breakfast often included eggs, sausage, bacon, and pork roll, lunch was a number
of different lunch meats, salami, ham, turkey, tuna fish, hamburgers, hotdogs,
sausage pizza, etc. dinner was steak, chicken, brisket, lamb chops, pork loins and
so on. The only meal I remember eating without meat was my occasional peanut
butter and jelly sandwich, which was always accompanied with cow’s milk and
served on very processed white bread.

Yes, I was raised ingesting huge quantities of saturated fats, processed sugars,
carbohydrates, and lots of dead flesh. I became a vegetarian a little over a decade
ago and my world began to make a dramatic shift.

Even as a compassionate vegetarian my health continued to have issues. I had
high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypertension, and borderline diabetes. Last
September a small miracle happened. I began drinking a green smoothie everyday
and transitioned to a primarily whole food, non-dairy diet.

The result was I lost seventeen pounds in one month and I proud to say that I kept
off 15 pounds of that off. More importantly my energy level grew, my cholesterol

level became normal so I got off the Lipitor, my blood pressure came down so I
was able to get off the blood pressure medicine, my sugar levels adjusted down
and no longer experience hypertension headaches. It sounds kind of miraculous,
well it was and that it why I am here today to show you that there are many viable
alternatives to healthy eating. All of this started by committing to having a green
smoothie everyday.

Health Benefits of a Green Smoothie
There are a number of health benefits related to drinking green smoothies.
Natural weight loss, increased consumption of whole fruits and vegetables,
easier digestibility and nutrient assimilation, antioxidants, increased energy,
mental clarity and focus, increases fiber intake, clearer skin, enhanced immune
system, alkalizing, and reduced cravings just to name a few. The program website
www.greensmoothieuniversity.org will have a more detailed description of these
benefits that I mentioned and more.

Where do I get my Protein?
Where do I get my protein is by far my favorite line. By a show of hands, does
anyone know anyone who has been diagnosed as protein deficient? The pigeons
are made out to be the rats of the bird world. Have you heard that pigeons carry
disease? Once again, by a show of hands, how many know someone who was
diagnosed with pigeon disease? Why, because it does not exist.

Protein deficiency is extremely rare and almost totally non-existent in this country.

Many people will say they eat meat products for protein. Let’s think for just a
minute where the herding cow or sheep gets its protein? Does anyone here know
what a cow eats? And they always look pretty full and healthy just by eating grass
greens and drinking water. Yes, a cow is a very robust vegan.

There is no danger of protein deficiency as long as you eat calories that contain
nutrition. The World Health Organization states that we only need 10% of our
calories from protein. Protein rich plant sources are abundant and include green
leaves as well as seed grains like quinoa, sprouts like alfalfa and lentils, nuts and
seeds like almond and sesame, and legumes like chickpeas.

Surprisingly spinach has 30% of its calories as protein compared to cheese, milk,
and cooked meat, which have only 25%. Yes more food for thought.

Almost all nutritious foods can be broken down into three main groups;
carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Carbohydrates are what we primarily need for
energy, Fats are what we primarily need for our brain and endocrine system, and
Proteins are what we primarily need for growth and repair.

Programmed
We are programmed by our parents just like their parents before them and their
parents before them and so on and so forth all the way back along our ancestral line,
possibly back when early humanoids created fire and decided to trade livestock as a
commodity.

We bombarded with Internet advertisement, television commercials, magazine ads,
billboards, that all tell us to eat processed foods and animal products. We live in
a society where convenience is king and it is this mentality that propagates health
issues, which all lead back to our dietary choices.

Health is your Greatest Wealth
Another simple fact is that your body is a sacred temple and we are primarily what
we eat. It is important to look at what is best for our nutritional needs as humans
and begin to question the true advantages of shifting away from a meat, fish, and
dairy based diet to that of a plant based diet. The truth is that we overwork our
bodies by forcing it to breakdown dead flesh of animals and cow’s milk. And to what
end? The end more often than not results in the intake of too many bad fats, which
lead to clogging the canals that carry over blood through the body and the heart that
keeps us alive.

Reduction of our Carbon Footprint
We can absolutely reduce our carbon footprint by shifting to a plant-based diet.
It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of meat. Inevitably,
intensive animal agriculture depletes valuable limited natural resources. Instead of
being eaten by people, the vast majority of grain harvested in the U.S. is fed to farm
animals. This wasteful and inefficient practice has forced agribusiness to exploit
vast stretches of land. Forests, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems and wildlife
habitats have been decimated and turned into crop and grazing land. Scarce fossil
fuels, groundwater, and topsoil resources, which took a millennium to develop, are
now disappearing.

Meanwhile, the quantity of waste produced by farm animals in the U.S. is more than
130 times greater than that produced by humans. Agricultural runoff has killed
millions of fish, and is the main reason why 60% of America’s rivers and streams
are “impaired”. In states with concentrated animal agriculture, the waterways have
become rife with pfiesteria bacteria. In addition to killing fish, pfiesteria causes
open sores, nausea, memory loss, fatigue and disorientation in humans. Even
groundwater, which takes thousands of years to restore, is being contaminated.

Be the Change
Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I see a world based in mutual respect for all living creatures. That is the change I work for and promote on a daily basis. It is a message of compassion and I am asking you for your help in creating this world with me.

Call to Action
I created the Green Smoothie University program and have taken on the role as a
promoter of healthy eating because I believe that we must stop voluntarily ingesting
toxins today. I am asking you to join me and to take a stand today and begin to feed
your body with the whole foods, vegetables, fruits and grains needed to properly
fuel our bodies.

Green Smoothie University has a special outreach division called Compassion
Campus Club. These clubs are being created to help to continue to promote our
mission and to educate fellow students and people about viable and logical choices
when fueling the sacred temple that is our body.

Closing
I want to thank you for your time and invite up to try a sample of a green smoothie
and I will answer any questions the best I can or point to a good resource.

Peace be with you.

 

 

 

 

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