This is a bit of an introduction to my health and dietary life because, well, that's what this blog is about anyway.
I'm a 27-year-old, 230-pound transsexual food addict. There are several foods that will make me an insatiable, hungry beast when I eat them--sugar and flour, mostly. At my peak I could down a twelve-pack of soda a day. In fact, for many years I drank soda every hour of my waking existence.
Did you know you can gain weight pretty easily on a vegan diet? I do. That's because when I went vegan in 2004 I didn't know yet that most of the foods that make me a ravenous beast are vegan. I spent a big chunk of my life devouring vegan bagels and fake meats before realizing I had ballooned to a morbidly-obese 269 pounds. I tried repeatedly to give up the things that I expected were doing this. I switched to whole grains and diet soda, went long periods without soda before caving and drinking it, avoided meat substitutes, with no improvement. I went ovo-lacto vegetarian four years later after repeatedly going to bed with excruciating hunger pains from trying to lose the weight I had gained. It took away the hunger, but not the weight, although it stabilized around that time.
I went to a new doctor for my yearly check-up, like many people feeling embarrassed by the scale. I said that I was more worried about diabetes and high blood pressure than my weight, but that I understood my obesity wasn't helping. My doctor brushed off the number, saying that if I ate fewer carbs it would help reduce that risk.
I had a friend who had gone paleo and wouldn't shut up about it (I'm not knocking her, it's not like I shut up about being a vegetarian). Due to my familiarity with her and holes being poked in my animal rights philosophy from all directions, I decided it was time to give up vegetarianism.
That summer I went mostly-primal. I was working at a summer camp and had to deal with the food they gave me, so to ensure I wouldn't get total crap I was lenient. I lost fifty pounds that summer and
Social graces got to me and after the millionth time my dad tried giving me fried chicken I gave in. Bam, weight gain; not as much as when I was a vegan, but ten pounds isn't a small thing when you still weigh fifty pounds more than you should. To make matters worse, I had just started testosterone therapy to transition from female-to-male, which ramped up my appetite as well as my blood pressure.
As I write this I've been on testosterone for five months. I have a blood-work appointment in roughly one month, during which time I hope to have my blood pressure at a level that will not prompt my doctor to prescribe me medication. My target weight right now is 180 pounds, which is roughly fifty pounds lighter than my current weight. The last time I checked my blood pressure it was 138/89, which is lower than it was, but I'd like to control it further.
This is the initial purpose for this blog, but I do intend for this to be an overall lifestyle change and not just a thirty-day shindig.
