Bob Litwin and Novak Djokovic playing doubles
World champion tennis player, coach and author of the popular book and audio book Live The Best Story of Your Life: A World Champion's Guide to Lasting Change, Bob Litwin exemplifies the power to change your life by changing your story.
After the tragic loss of wife, several invasive surgeries and told he would never play tennis again, filed with despair Bob Litwin dug deep and discovered that change, real change, doesn't have to be hard, it is as simple as changing your story.
True to form, Bob embraced the change and agreed to chronicle his path for MamaSezz.
One month in and after a positive start, Bob details the surprising and unexpected benefits of his new eating style.
Jo Ann and I have completed our first full month on our MamaSezz supported whole plant food diet. We are having a ball. Loving the whole experience.
As I mentioned in my first blog, I am a performance coach and it is so important that I am always walking my talk. I mean, after all, who is going to listen to my coaching if I am not doing every possible thing in my life to be the best that I can be. So this motivates me to search for those ways of thinking, feeling, believing, saying, doing and being that raise my game of life in every way. Whole plant based has been an amazing addition to my training.
I love talking with friends and clients about whole plant based. People have a wow reaction and are kind of envious that we are “able to do it.” Many comment that they never could and some say they are too old to make the change. I tell them that they are likely to have a lot more years on earth to make the change if they simply start.
Three of the exciting outcomes of eating WFPB for me
- My blood pressure has been dropping down week by week and is approaching normal. I have already halved my medication and I am keeping an eye on my numbers because I may have to stop the meds completely so that I don’t drop too low. This alone would make my diet change a total win.
- My strength has gone up by more than 25%. I can quantify this by pushups and sit ups.I was doing around pushups 50 daily. Okay, you may think because I am a competitive tennis player that it’s not such a big number, but my shoulder has been through a lot and I have never pushed it too much. Regardless, this morning I did 90. I do sit ups on an exercise ball and could usually crank out about 100-125 in three sets. Last week I got to 150 and had plenty left in the tank. I figured I miscounted and stopped for fear of ab pain the next day. Next day. No pain and repeated 150.
Well, this morning I did 300! And still had plenty left in my tank. Crazy, right? Now I really believe some of the stuff that I doubted when I watched GameChangers. - Overall my physical, mental, emotional and spirit energy is off the charts.
The whole experience of eating differently has been fun for Jo Ann and me. First I will say that I don’t think that either of us could be doing this without the other so I am so glad that we are both all in. We are sharing ideas, commentary on our meals, patting each other on the back and cooking together more than ever before.
I used to be relegated to emptying the dishwasher and taking out the garbage but now am slowly becoming the sous chef, cutting up veggies, making the salads and making suggestions. Dinners especially are always exciting. What will dinner be tonight? Will I like it? Will I discover tastes and foods that I never thought I would eat? Jo Ann is a terrific, creative cook and she is building out new and interesting meals using a variety of products that our Mama Sezz we should be using.
One of our challenges is that we want to get more crunchiness into the dishes and we have found success with garbanzo beans and the wonderful walnut taco meat. Please send us suggestions because sometimes our meals feel too mushy. Tasty but not the texture we would like more of.
We went away to Colorado Springs for a few days and discovered a restaurant that served only plant based and, over two days, had three meals there. We had to drive through the Garden of the Gods park (a heavenly place) to get there and even went in the exact opposite direction from heading home to get take out for our dinner.
Who would have thought that an all plant based restaurant would be a highlight of our trip. It used to be that feeling stuffed and uncomfortable from a dinner at a beautiful restaurant would be a high point.
Lastly, on the way home, we wondered if ice cream could possibly be plant based. We found a treasure trove of options online and even fantasized a whole diet of plant based ice cream. We did manage to calm down and decided that we weren’t going to eat only ice cream but it was nice to know that we had found a great desert option.
All in all, we could not be happier with how we feel physically and mentally look forward to more wonderful experiences.
Bob Litwin