UWL Live in Las Vegas

I was at Chef AJ’s UWL Live Event in Las Vegas last week, and it was fun, festive and inspiring, as expected.   The speakers were Chef AJ, John Pierre (JP), Alan Goldhamer, Doug Lisle and Kerrie Saunders.  I’m a big fan of Alan Goldhamer and Doug Lisle so that was great fun hearing them speak.  I also learned a lot from JP.  I already knew AJ's material but she's very fun to listen to.  And Kerry Saunders is very nice.  I'm not as interested in her material since I'm not worried about my body numbers.   I’ve been following UWL since January 2017.  Actually I joined back in Jan or Feb 2015 but then I joined Bright Line Eating a month later and ignored UWL for a few years.  Then I came back to it after getting tired of the BLE food plan and the weighing and measuring.  I like to eat with the seasons and not measure out the same quantities of starches, protein (too much), fruit, and fat every day.

So I came back to UWL in Jan 2017.  Why?  Two reasons:  1) I wanted a healthy vegan program that doesn’t include flour and sugar, and this is the only one;  and 2) I wanted to try out the calorie density approach.    Well, I didn’t realize how great reason #2 would be.  I followed AJ’s advice to eat “Left of the Red Line” (LOTRL) or calorie density less than 700 calories/lb.  This means no nuts, seeds, or avocados.  This was hard at first because I had it drummed into me by almost all the Whole Plant Food experts that you need these high fat foods for your health; and because I was kind of addicted to them.  Well, I learned that I tend to overeat anything ROTRL (right of the red line, calorie density greater than 700 calories/lb).  So it’s not food addiction so much as it’s the pleasure trap of high calorie foods.  I really like to overeat them a lot.  So eating LOTRL has made eating a lot easier.  I just eat until I’m full, stuffed even (I'm a ways away from mastering the “Hara Hachi Bu” technique) and then I stop.  I don’t binge and I’m fine until I get hungry again.   I’m combining this with Intermittent Fasting--that is, eating an early dinner and not eating again until breakfast, and that seems to work really well, giving me a break from eating and thinking about food, and resetting my appetite it seems.  I'm at my goal weight.  Here's an interesting effect of not eating any overt fats: no effects at all.  My skin isn't dryer, my nails are fine, my hair is fine.  Honestly I'm surprised.  I thought at least I'd need more lotion.  Most people around me seem to have dryer skin and nails than me.  I suspect that's from poor circulation from heart disease, and dryness from excessive salt intake.  I'm sure results vary, but I sure don't have any problems from not consuming overt fats.The real test of UWL will be this holiday season.  Will I make it through without falling off the deep end of processed eating?   I'll report back in January!

Here are some pictures from Vegas.  The program was video streamed and you can purchase it here.

Early Friday morning walk in Las Vegas with Colleen, before it got hot:

We walked for about 3 hours and probably covered 6 miles (didn't walk fast).  After that, I was thrilled to find out there was a lap pool at the hotel.  I swam 40 laps, (I'm guessing it was a 25-yard pool, so 36 laps is a mile).   Then in the afternoon I spent about 30 minutes the fitness room.  That's how you spend a fun day in Vegas when you don't consume sugar, oil, salt, flour, caffeine, or alcohol, LOL.  And then we went to the "Meet and Greet" later than afternoon:

AJ making an announcement:

had to get a picture with AJ!

AJ and JP

There were a few Q&A's and these were quite informative and hilarious.  Dr. G always usually held up the "NO" sign and Dr. L the "Maybe".   I think they agreed once at the end, I forget what it was about.

Lovely dinner at Panevino with wonderful companions.

The testimonials were incredible, just incredible.  I am still humbled and floored by them.  Here is the amazing Scott family

Another enjoyable Q&A.  I submitted several questions, all of which were answered.

A summary of the difficulties following this path by Dr. Lisle.  He introduced a few new concepts, the Conditioned Cram Circuit, and the Extinction curve for cravings, which includes a burst at the beginning and various spontaneous spikes throughout.  He just did a webinar on this which hopefully will be on Youtube soon.

 and of course, slot machines in the terminal at the Las Vegas airport.