Hi there! We’re Sheri and Jim Horrell. And, we’re thrilled that you have decided to spend some time with us. Our story began in 2006 when we met while playing a game online. We wound up in the same guild and found that we had a great deal in common. Through total honesty with one another and a focus on the inner workings of one another’s minds, we fell in love before we even really knew what was happening and never having actually seen one another. All these years later, we’re still deeply in love and happily married.
We would love to tell you a little about us. It may not be the best story in the world, but it’s ours. We’re working to be sure that it gets better and better. And, we hope you’ll join us for the journey, get some ideas from us, and share some of yours!
Sheri:
I was raised in a family where all our gatherings were centered around food. Our Thanksgiving table was always so laden, my younger daughter called it the “Thanksgiving Feast.” And, we were huge meat eaters. A family cookout was about the meat on the grill with the rest of the fare being just sides. That’s not to say that there weren’t favorites. On the contrary, if potato salad, coleslaw, or deviled eggs were not there for some reason, it just wasn’t the same. We ate it all, but there was definitely an emphasis put on the meat. This was true regardless of the situation. When the ladies of the family went on shopping trips; the first, and most important question, was always, “Where are we going to be eating lunch and supper?” The reason for going to begin with, shopping for school clothes or Christmas for example, was more of a sidebar to the opportunity to eat together. This was so ingrained in me by the time I was an adult that it was unthinkable to have an outing of any type without “going out to eat.” I felt cheated if we went anywhere and didn’t grab a bite. Food was intrinsic to every event, be it celebratory or mournful. It was our family’s way of bonding. In this atmosphere, I developed a love for food and cooking in general. And, according to everyone that has eaten my food, I am a very good cook. My children were raised most of their lives in the same manner.
As of 2009 I had been a smoker for 17 years. My breathing was affected as was my pocketbook. I quit smoking January 1st and have never picked up another cigarette since. Later that same year, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and was told I was morbidly obese at the age of 32. All the typical comorbidities were present as well. Hypertension, compromised immunity, etc. I was about to have to learn a whole new way of doing things. My blood sugar levels were very high. It was something that ran in the family and yet, we really didn’t know very much about it. If I’m anything, I’m a researcher. So, I got to work and found out that “carbs are not good for diabetics.” This was especially true when it came to refined carbohydrates and processed foods. Thus began my odyssey to find a way to turn things around.
By 2019, I had found many ways to make my blood sugar levels and weight drop. None of them had been sustainable. The calorie counting, carbohydrate limitations, brutal workouts, and unrelenting hunger were simply overwhelming. Every time, I caved and went back to my ingrained habits. I have lost and regained so many times that the total amount comes to over 100 pounds. Lose 30 pounds here, gain 20. Lose another 10, gain 15. Lose 40, gain 50. Lose 25, gain 20. Every so often, I’d try again.
I met with a great deal of success through journaling and tracking. This was an interminable time sink however. I spent so much time planning and prepping that I had very little time for anything, including my children, outside of that. It was simply unsustainable. I did learn a great deal about how my body worked through it. As I had always had the inclination for organization, journaling made sense to me. The problem was that I was simply trying to track too much and got too granular with it.
All this yo-yoing had wreaked havoc on my body. I was suffering with complications as early as 2017. Just eight years after my initial diagnosis, I found out I had Diabetic Retinopathy and Macular Edema. I was nearly blind. They told me that if I hadn’t come in when I did and gotten treatment, I would have been blind in another couple of months. They weren’t sure if they could stop it even then. But, they might be able to slow it progression down. And, certainly, there was no hope of reversal. The fear that coursed through me in that moment was an almost physical, palpable thing. Tears stung my eyes, the blood drained from my face, I felt nauseous, and my body weakened to the point that had I been standing, I’d have fallen to the ground. Treatment over the next few months would tell the tale. Those treatments consisted of a shot in both eyes every four weeks. Once a month, I went in for surgery on my eyes!
Time moved on. I tried again in 2018 and was actually able to pull my A1c down to 5.4. My blood sugar levels were regularly around 100 or below. My doctor had taken me off my blood pressure medication, one of the diabetic meds, and lowered another diabetes medication. My eyes were doing better. I had even managed to gain some ground, which was unheard of!
Again, old habits die super hard, the pace with which I was exercising was brutal for me, and hunger was an ever-present companion. The holidays came around. I made it through Thanksgiving relatively well. Christmas, however, was the death knell. At this point, there were two times in my life when I had seen, with perfect clarity, how to change my life. At those times, I knew I was successful because my mind and heart had made the transition. The way I saw my body and the treatment I had subjected it to had changed. When my “why” failed for a second time, it took the wind out of my sails. Once knocked off the horse, I simply was unable to find the hope and drive to get back up again. I truly thought I was down for the count. At this point, things were bleak; hopeless.
This brings us to August 2019. Jim and I were watching some shows on Netflix and Amazon. We stumbled across a few documentaries. “Plant Pure Nation,” “Foods That Cure Diseases,” and “What the Health.” Years earlier I had seen the film “Forks over Knives.” So, a lot of what was in PPN was not new to me. As we watched these shows, we gave some serious thought to the facts that were presented in them. Finally, we watched “What the Health.” During the last parts of that one, I decided I would never again put another piece of pork in my mouth – EVER. Further, we were convinced, animal products, at least in the way they are produced and consumed today, are a primary contributing factor to diseases of all types.
I have not had a piece of meat since August 22, 2019. Additionally, this appeared to be easy in comparison to the strict regimen of all the other times we’d tried to conquer this weight and disease issue. No calorie counting. Just stay away from meat, dairy, and super processed foods. Oreos are vegan… But, they’re not whole food plant based vegan!
I have to admit that I am not a militant vegan and there have been times that we have consumed dairy. Those have been few and far between. And, as we grow stronger, learn more tricks of the trade, and adjust; it becomes less and less of an issue.
So, here we are. Certainly not perfect, certainly not experts. But, living the life, trying to learn and share as we go. A few random facts:
- I have 5 children total. (Combined Family)
- Grandmother to two precious little boys.
- Graduated from Western Governors University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.
- Business Owner
- My heart is called to do charity work for the abused.
Jim:
I grew up in a very, VERY small town in Pennsylvania. The kind of town about which Norman Rockwell painted pictures. My brother and I were picky eaters, and would not touch any dish that had “green things” in it. My mother had to use the same “sauce” for spaghetti, chili, sloppy joes, and tacos. This consisted basically of tomato paste, tomato sauce, and ground beef. In 1982, we took a trip across country to see an uncle who lived in Idaho. During that trip, which took about a week (we did a bunch of site-seeing along the way), I ate nothing but fried chicken. One of my other favorites was french fries with beef gravy. Some of you may think that is a weird combination. I know the one waitress in Iowa certainly did!
Going off to college, I ate what I could afford. In this country, that means fatty, processed, and generally unhealthy foods. I really didn’t think twice about it, since I was young and invincible 😉. I started smoking and drinking, and really gave no thought to issues regarding health. After two years, I couldn’t decide on a major, was tired of school and it was more fun to stay home with the girl with whom I was living than to go to class, so I dropped out. Not the smartest decision of my life. I soon realized that without school cafeterias and student loans, I would actually have to work in order to eat. With no real experience and little in the way of marketable skills, I got a part time job as an assistant donut baker at a local grocery store, bringing home about $140 every two weeks. This meant that my girlfriend and I would often eat one box of macaroni and cheese, split between us, per day. I realized this situation could not continue; also, I really hated that job.
I looked into applying for the state police. Their response was, essentially, wait a couple of months until there’s an entrance exam, then wait for the results, and then I’d be placed on a list in accordance with my score on the test to wait some more. I’m very much like Inigo Montoya from the movie The Princess Bride: “I hate waiting.” My next stop was the recruiting office for the U.S. Army. Their response that I could be leaving for basic training within a month was more aligned with my wishes at the time, as I was desperate to make a living.
When I arrived at basic training, I weighed 151 pounds, at 6’1”. I was so thin, and my vertebrae stuck out so far, that I developed open sores along my spine from doing sit-ups in the wood chips. With the exercise, and eating three meals a day, I emerged eight weeks later weighing 176 pounds. In addition to gaining 25 pounds of nearly solid muscle, I had quit smoking with relative ease, considering it was forbidden in all Army Training Commands, and drill sergeants can be very convincing coaches. After graduating from basic, and going off to my permanent duty station, that old habit crept right back in.
I was very active during my term in the Army, as you might expect, and that gave me a false sense of how healthy I was. I was, to use the current terminology, “skinny fat.” I had hypertension and reduced lung capacity, but as long as I could do well on the physical fitness tests, I thought I was healthy enough. I used to think that if eating sprouts and tofu helped you live another 20 years, then that’d be another 20 years of eating sprouts and tofu! I still had a very restricted palate, and did not enjoy a diverse selection of foods. That wouldn’t change until I married Sheri almost ten years later.
One of our favorite stories is about the time I was convincing my daughter to try one of Sheri’s signature dishes: summer squash and onions. I told my daughter, “I don’t like squash. I don’t like onions. I don’t expect that I will like this, but I’m going to give it an honest try.” I took the first bite. It was almost like I had never tasted food before. It was so good, I exclaimed, “This is really good! And I’m not just saying that to get her to try it!” Her cooking enabled me to broaden my palate like I never thought it would. I learned to like veggies of all types, including brussels sprouts, and asparagus.
Through this broadening of my palate, and the inclusion of things like “meatless Mondays,” when we finally started really researching and implementing a whole food, plant-based diet, the transition wasn’t nearly as difficult as previous lifestyle changes we had attempted. I detest tedium, so the constant spreadsheets, weighing portions, calorie counting, exercise tracking, etc. we had tried before wore me down quickly, and I couldn’t stick with those changes. With this dietary adjustment, however, there was none of that boring work, and few of the feelings of deprivation. We are generally stuffed full after every meal, still enjoy snacks, and don’t spend all of our time tracking stuff! We really haven’t missed meat. It’s been the butter and cheese that have been hardest to let go of.
I’m still battling the smoking demon. I think a lot about the quote from Mark Twain, “quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it hundreds of times.” I have “successfully” quit a couple of times in my life (for longer than 4 months), but I cannot seem to make it stick. I’m not giving up on the process, and vow that one day I can kick this monkey off my back for good.
So, as Sheri said, that’s where we are. We are far from perfect; we are far from experts. We hope that our journey will bring you some useful information, maybe some laughs, and perhaps some comfort. If you’re like we are, it can be intimidating looking at all the shredded guys, and women with flat midriffs. We’re just ordinary folk, trying our best to be healthy, and we invite you to come along with us as we learn and grow.
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