"The best way to change the world, is to change yourself."

It's Father's Day, and though he's been gone for a few years now, Jack Ryan continues to live in my life.  I think about him often and how he would have loved this life I'm leading.  He'd be downright envious of being in the mountains, the idea of writing for a living, the books I'm reading, and mostly he would love the quiet, peaceful, and genuine existence I now have.

As Jack aged, his years of neglect took their toll on his body. I often wonder how he lived as long as he did for he became like an old car that falls apart more each year.  The smoking, the diet, the stress he created for himself - it all added up to disease after disease. 

As I've aged - I'm now fifty-one - I find myself considering his choices and it has helped me make better choices for myself.  His failing health was only one of the reasons I decided nearly ten weeks ago to change to a vegan, plant-based diet.  My main reason is my love of animals and my desire to stop eating them.  The switch was easier than I thought it would be and I found a new love of cooking lay in the details of this change in direction.  Once I started giving more thought to what I was eating I lost 27 pounds in that short time. It is interesting to note that I was never hungry after giving up meat, dairy, and processed foods.

Then I saw something that would change my life even more.  I watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, a documentary made by Joe Cross, an Australian who comes to the U.S. on a quest to reclaim his own life. 

Inspired by Cross, six days ago I started my own juice fast and the change has been incredible.  I now have a spring in my step I haven't had in years.  I feel healthier from the inside out.  And even though I'm ingesting 1,500 to 1,800 calories of fruits and vegetables a day, I've lost an additional 9.8 pounds.

Jack wouldn't have liked either decision. His manhood would have been threatened by the idea of going vegan.  "Men just don't eat that way.  You need red meat!" (Strangely, some friends in my life - both men and women - have been threatened by my switch - some have even seemed angry about it. Even stranger is that none of these same people really cared when my main diet consisted of McDonald's, Burger King, Coke, pizza, and Ben and Jerry's.)  The idea of a juice fast would have made no sense to him whatsoever and he would have had more negative things to say about that.  But in the end he would have noted the results, and more importantly, my resolve, and he would have respected what he saw. 

Of course, he wouldn't have said that.  But that's okay, some things don't need to be said to be understood in the dance between father and son. 

Anyway, here I am, inspired by my love of animals, my father's lessons of fading health, and my own determination to make the most of my life that I've started on a new journey of healthier living.  It's a grand adventure and I find the juice fast no different than climbing a mountain.  It's not easy, but most worthwhile changes in my life haven't been.  It's a marathon and I will be tested along the way. I'm only on day seven of sixty so the bulk of the quest lays ahead of me. 

I like the idea that the fast will take me right up to the week the paperback version of Following Atticus is released.  After all, much of following Atticus has led me to the same conclusion that Joe Cross came to in his movie, "And I learned that the best way to change the world, is to change yourself."