My Wellness Experiment

Remember Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” movie and his experiment to see what would happen if he only ate food from McDonalds? At the end of 30 days, he was so sick he was advised to stop the experiment.

I pretty much stopped eating fast food after seeing that movie.

But, I wondered, what would happen if, instead of eating fast food, he ate only good-for-you food? Nutritious food, organic fruits and vegetables supplemented, when needed, by the right vitamins and minerals. I’m after wellness here. Total wellness.

I have since watched several other documentary films on the food industry – Food Inc., King Corn and, more recently, Food Matters.

As much as Super Size Me got me to shun fast food restaurants, these more recent movies convinced me that the majority of food we buy in the supermarket and sold at most restaurants is simply not very good for us. Chickens raised in windowless warehouses. Cows fed corn instead of grasses and then infused with massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. Commercially grown fruits and vegetables sprayed with insecticides, fungicides and poisons that contaminate the very ground they are planted in.

Add to that a slew of personal reasons such as the relentless advance of the years, a lifelong battle with obesity, a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure and a rebellious cynicism about being manipulated and taken advantage of and you can understand my motivation to fight back by eating right.

Thus, this wellness website, Super Healthy Me.

My Wellness Test

What will happen to me if I eat only what is good for me? What happens if I follow a disciplined fitness program?

That’s what I want to find out. As I begin,  I’m on blood pressure medicine and have been for decades. I take generic Prilosec for an acid reflux condition called Barretts Syndrome. I also need to lose weight. I lost about 50 pounds 18 months ago and have started to see it start to come back on again. I don’t want that to happen. But overall, I feel pretty good right now. I’m pretty fit. I do lots of exercise. I have no aches or pains, no out-of-the-ordinary lethargy, no chronic conditions that I am aware of.

So, what will happen if I only eat food that is good for me and make fitness and wellness a daily part of my lifestyle?

That’s what I’m going to do. I will commit to this plan for the next year. I promise. But I need your help. Please, hold me accountable! You can monitor my progress, see my regularly updated medical charts and test results, progress, even X-Rays of my body composition through the “My Stats and Tests” tab up on the very top menubar.

I’ll share all my wellness efforts – Full Accountability

I will lay it all out here. In posts, pictures and videos. Full disclosure is my rule. Transparency and sharing just how this experiment goes. For the next year, through November 2012.

Follow my Blog for daily reports. Scroll down and look at the sidebar to the right. Social media really makes me able to share everything. There is, gulp, no hiding. Right there, in full accountability, I am Tweeting what I’m doing, struggling with, learning. I’ll tweet what I eat, how I exercise and submit a daily summary of my meals and fitness.  And right below that is a FourSquare map of my whereabouts and activities. There’s also a Facebook Page. To get to that, put your mouse on the social icon sliders over on the far right and it will open or head over and “like” it by clicking it’s title.

And there’s a place on the sidebar for Super Healthy Me Videos, too, that will document this experiment.

If you want to learn more about the gizmos, gadgets and technology behind this, I’ve created a Page about the Tech Tools that I use for all this transparency.

The point is I will make my year-long experience with this wellness experiment very open, through the pages of this site and as much social media as I can find. There will be no escaping. And your scrutiny and accountability will keep me motivated.

I’m watched by wellness experts

I am being monitored and supported in this project by a multidisciplinary team of medical, nutritional, exercise physiology and psychology experts from the world-renowned Beaumont Health System, it’s Weight Control Center and the brand new state-of-the-art Sola Life and Fitness center in the Beaumont Health and Wellness complex in Rochester Hills, MI. I am also working with holistic therapy coach Anne Baker. I will video many of my sessions with my team and you will meet them all as the project unfolds. Over the next year, as I switch my diet to natural, whole foods and work to achieve a new level of fitness and wellness, they will be providing regular help, evaluation, testing and expertise. You can follow along and see just what is happening to me.

With the wellness-related tips I am learning from them and others, I am following an eating, nutrition and fitness plan that counters the toxic culture of garbage that often passes for food today by eating whole, natural, organic, unprocessed diet with God-made food, rather than mad-made fake food.

You can, too. That’s another big reason for this site. To encourage others to join me on this journey to becoming Super Healthy Me. I believe that following such a plan will literally save lives. And perhaps that is why you are providentially reading this now. Like me, you know you truly are what you eat. So let’s change what we eat and start taking care of and training these amazing bodies God has given us.

It’s not easy. But it is essential

I know this will not be easy. We’re conditioned to like junk. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup is in everything. We are all addicted to sugar and caffeine highs. I am sure I will go through a withdrawal phase. Even the thought about limiting my super strong two big cups of Starbucks brought on an anxiety headache.

There is also be a big pocketbook hit. Because bad food is cheap food. Good whole, organic and natural food costs more. That’s because it’s not mass produced, processed, packaged and injected with chemicals to give it a long shelf life as it is transported thousands of miles. Natural vitamins and supplements are costly, too. Maybe as much as prescription drugs. Wellness costs more than illness in the short term. In the long term, though, wellness always wins. Always.

Again, instinctively I know all this. As you do, too, I’m sure. But knowing and experiencing it, making the choices to live counter-the-junk-food culture and then developing the discipline to eat and live healthy is different than head knowledge. I’m bringing you along with me on every step of this wellness quest. If you see me starting to lag, post a comment and kick my virtual behind. If you have a better idea or a tip or are joining me on this experiment (as many already said they would be), share that, too. Let’s all be Super Healthy Me!

I hope you’ll come back here, follow my blog, tweets, Facebook Posts, videos and photos and then offer your comments, ask questions and, again, hold me accountable. I really need you for that part. Challenge me to be strong and do this. I promise no holds barred, with complete disclosure and honest reports about what I experience, how I feel, my medical tests and exactly what happens if I only eat food that is good for me.

Wish me success… in sticking to it and having some fun along the way.

Since this is an unfolding saga, I’m not sure where it will take me. I’m sure there will be pitfalls, setbacks, challenges. I also bet there will be some exciting new breakthroughs, opportunities and neat discoveries. And at the heart of all this, besides the motivation chronicling all this publicly will give me in sticking to the plan, I suspect that what I am embarking upon is something a lot of other people would also like to do.

I believe obesity is the plague of the 21st century!

Obesity is a national tragedy and scandal. Millions of lives are ruined because of it, lives are cut short by the hundreds of thousands because of it.

Look around you! Obesity has now reached epidemic proportions. According to the most recent data by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, about one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese. Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese. No state has a prevalence of obesity less than 20%! Thirty-six states have a prevalence of 25% or more! I believe obesity it is the plague of the 21st century. So many are now so fat that you’d almost think it was a conspiracy, an insidious attack that is coordinated by a cabal of powerful food, pharmaceutical and medical industry interests to addict us to junk food and then exploit us for the health care our obesity then requires.

I’m fighting back. I’m going out every morning and will blaze a wellness trail for me… and you. I’ll try to come back every night and tell you what I’m discovering. If you’re on a similar adventure, let’s compare routes. I’d love to hear from you.

Feel free to e-mail me your comments and questions.

The journey has begun to a new, Super Healthy Me. It can be your journey, too.

Follow me as I go see what’s out there.

Here’s a video that goes into some personal detail about me, and why I’m doing this: