I’m Just Adding Some Good Stuff! A real life story from one of our followers…

Lee Johnson is a #1 best-selling author, ghostwriter and ‘book enabler’ who lives in West Vancouver, Canada.  Lee’s one of our most avid followers since the inception of Just Add Good Stuff and so we thought we would ask him to write a personal story about how he has transformed his life through better health, diet and exercise.  Here is Lee’s real life story (thanks Lee for your ongoing support!):
 

I’m Just Adding Some Good Stuff!

 
I think many people these days are realizing that the computer principle of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) also applies to what we put into our bodies. If we continue to feed ourselves junk food with low nutritional value and laced with a cocktail of dubious chemicals, we should not be surprised by the inevitable results: obesity, malnutrition, deficiencies, and diseases.

In recent years some of my friends have opted for a healthier lifestyle, with increased levels of exercise and wiser food choices. Some have gone further, becoming vegetarians and vegans, and one of them also runs a company producing hemp seed products.

Mmmmm, I think to myself; do I really want to do that? On the one hand I totally get it: if I want to live longer and enjoy a good quality of life, I need to watch what I eat.  And increasingly over the past few years, I have done that. Plus, I need exercise… particularly because as a writer i spend most of my day sitting at a computer… and so I made a commitment to walk at least 5 km every day. And I do that.

On the other hand, I’m not yet ready to discard all remnants of my old lifestyle. I still love boerewors and biltong (traditional South African spicy sausage and jerky-type dried meat), although now I probably eat them only every couple of months. I love taking my partner to De Dutch for a pancake breakfast, but again, that doesn’t happen more than two or three times a year. And I must even admit that a couple of times a year I will buy a small box of Timbits or a sausage and egg McMuffin.

So, yes – I have definitely made some good, positive changes to my diet and lifestyle. And, while I am still reluctant to make the transition to vegan or vegetarian, I have taken the advice of my friend Mike to heart. I am ‘just adding good stuff’.

Here’s what I do: instead of making a dramatic swing to ‘the other side’, I just try to make small changes, one baby step at a time. For instance:

– I still have cereal in the morning, but now I use almond milk. I used to LOVE dairy, but now I’ve cut that out completely.

– On top of my cereal I slice up a banana and sprinkle a mixture of nuts and seeds: flax, chia, sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

– I have stopped using sugar altogether (after years of taking 3 spoons of sugar in my coffee). Now, coffee tastes even better.

– I don’t drink pop (except an ice cold Coke once or twice a year when I have a real craving — I was once Creative Director for an ad agency handling the Coca-Cola account!) and now only drink fruit juice diluted in 70% water.

– In my wallet I carry a list of superfoods, and each time I go shopping, I cross off one ‘bad’ thing and make sure I buy one ‘good’ thing. Quite literally, I am ‘just adding good stuff’.

There are more things I could add, but I think you get the picture. I still give in to the occasional craving for a slice of pizza or a choc-dipped ice cream cone, but in small baby steps, I know my diet and my lifestyle is becoming healthier all the time.
 
And right now, that’s good enough for me.

Lee Johnson

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“Lee Johnson is a #1 best-selling author, ghostwriter and ‘book enabler’ who guarantees you a published book in 4 months or less.”

My Story

My name is Mike and I’m vegan.

I must admit that even a year ago, the words ‘vegan’ or ‘vegetarian’ or ‘gluten-free’ or ‘nutrition’ were so foreign to me.  They were words that I didn’t understand, didn’t want to understand and couldn’t understand … mostly because I was brainwashed and addicted to eating processed foods and more so, because I was too lazy to become ‘aware’ of what was healthy versus what was detrimental to my health.  I was too scared to venture out of my eating routine that I was paralyzed by change.

I’ve been playing sports and exercising since I was in high school.  Hockey, tennis, snowboarding were some of my biggest interests and weight training and core/stability exercises became an obsession.

I looked physically fit, but mentally and physiologically, I was not.

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Being physically fit doesn’t mean you’re healthy. I was the perfect body weight for my height. I had less than 6% body fat. I was lifting heavier weights then some athletes and a lot more weight than people in my size group. I was physically at the top of my game. I was physically fit. HOWEVER, I was not mentally or physiologically fit whatsoever. I may have looked healthy, but I was slowly eating and drinking my way to an unhealthy future.

I ate fast food at least 4 to 5 times a week (McDonald’s and Panago were my favourite), loved sugar and chocolate and even had a severe anti-vegetable mindset.  I never touched salads and didn’t finish vegetables on my plate.  To me, they were bland, mushy, dirty and hard to look at.  I convinced myself that they were unhealthy for me, and so I continued eating just protein, carbohydrates and the occasional fruit for many years.

In 2012, I went through several health complications and became sick often.  I felt lethargic and depressed all the time.  I couldn’t sleep and fell into a routine of popping caffeine in the morning to wake-up and taking afternoon naps because I couldn’t keep my eyes open during the day.

In addition, I found out that I have a long family history of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  Part of it is genetic … but I also found out that much of it had to do with our diet.

I knew something had to change so I started out by watching several food documentaries including: Hungry for Change, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead & Forks over Knives.

There were life-changing.

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I’ve had 3 life changing moments. The first was when I bucked the family tradition of going through medicine to start my own business. The second was when I learned about positive cash flow and investing (which was when I started another business for JV property investments). The third life changing moment was when I decided to be AWARE of the food that I consume and to follow a clean eating diet.

I finally took action and turned vegan.

I educated myself about nutrition, diet and health.  I watched more food documentaries and films and I learned more about how many health issues are directly linked to what we eat.  In many cases, ‘we are what we eat’ … and that is true!

The act of eating and drinking take 2 conscious decisions.  The first decision is what foods to buy.  The second decision is to physically feed ourselves with that food.  These are 2 very conscious decisions that we need to make every time we nourish yourself.  Unfortunately, most people have left these decisions to marketers and big companies to determine what goes in our body.  To me, that is just pure laziness.  Since turning vegan, I consciously make the effort to buy healthy raw products and to consciously prepare these nutritional foods in a healthy manner.

The words ‘vegan’ and ‘vegetarian’ and ‘gluten-free’ are no longer scary words.  I’ve completely embraced the lifestyle and the commitment required to be vegan.  There are many myths about these diets and nutrition in general and I’ve come to realize that you need to do your own research and self-educate.  It’s still a learning process but I feel that I have the building blocks to improve even more.

I woke up one morning and told myself … wow … I’m actually a vegan.

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The word ‘vegan’ has such a negative connotation because of so much misinformation and myths surrounding this type of lifestyle. I know first hand, because I was one of those people who thought all vegans were unhealthy, skinny, and dying a slow death. On the contrary, vegans are healthy and happy and do their part in saving the planet.

I was determined to transform my life overnight … and I’m happy to say that I’ve never looked back.  I feel healthier both physically and mentally and I want to inspire other people to educate themselves on the most important thing in life: our health.

I’m AWARE now.

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For me, being AWARE doesn’t just mean knowing the facts or educating myself. Being AWARE means TAKING RESPONSIBILITY and TAKING ACTION on things that I’ve learned. This holds true in every facet of my life.