The Beginning

I'm not quite sure where, or when exactly, it all began. This story of my evolution from mindless eater to health fanatic could have simply begun a few weeks ago when I watched a documentary or three on where our food truly originates (More on those documentaries later) and how it's produced.

Perhaps the beginning was earlier than that when I realized my blood pressure, cholesterol and body fat percentage were sky rocketing and I needed an overhaul.

And perhaps I was truly born, like all other humans, with a predisposed taste for good food, and my behaviour was adapted to the culinary catastrophes I was conditioned to. In truth, one of my earliest memories about food was steak. Good, high quality and expensive cuts of beef hand were chosen by the local butcher for my grandmother, a valued customer, whose extensive experience in selecting prime beef for her doctor husband and live-at-home son riveled even the most detailed and prestigious cattle judge. Red meat has been a staple of my family's homes in past, with Prime standing rib roasts being typical Sunday fare. Yet, I can remember early on the taste of beef being accompanied with salad dressing, and specifically Creamy Cucumber, to bribe my taste buds into passing each bite along the stomach, almost as a culinary bribe.

Years later, I still found the same reluctance to a cut of steak unless it was heavy burdened by a thick sauce, seasoning or accompaniment that masked the texture and flavor. A heavy blanket of buttery, creamy mashed potatoes always went a long ways.

Which brings me back to the present: The beginning of the end of meat consumption. It took very little reading and documentary viewing to understanding the less than desirable source of our commercially produced sausage, steaks and ground meats.

Further to the farming standards and practices, there was the environmental implications of the production of mass quantities of beef. However, the point is not the outcome, but rather the catalyst: What caused me to want to get away from it all?

Ultimately, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back took place in early December of this year when, after watching two specific documentaries, I had a sudden epiphany as if I had been walking around in the dark my entire life and suddenly the lights were turned on. I had been asleep at the wheel my entire adult life; stuck in a rut of high calorie meals eaten out of convenience, with poor dietary habits, lousy meal preparation skills and simply a complete disregard for my own personal health.

I would never, ever put low quality fuel, laden with impurities, into the gas tank of my expensive vehicle and yet here I was with the most important machine of my life (literally) and I wasn't paying attention at all to the junk going in, the warning lights going off, and what was coming out.

 Just as the Book Of Genesis says, God said, "Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

On Planet Carl, light had been created, and the light separated from the darkness. The trick is to stay lit up.