His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Skip Guidry Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular, and the Uncrowned King of Scotland

If I was in charge, like really in charge, like emperor of the world, king, supreme commander with special emergency powers that bestowed upon me hegemonic control..... I could fix a bunch of shit right away.  I would be a true philosopher king. There would however, be blood.  Shit would get real and right quick.

Fix number 1:  Health care

Ready?.....

Health Care for things you do to yourself is NOT a right, it's a privilege.

Self inflicted illnesses and conditions are not covered until the behaviour that caused them is stopped.

Or in laymans terms: if you did it to yourself, fuck you, you're on your own.

The majority of the illnesses plaguing America can be CURED by diet, exercise and hydration.  Eating right (vegan), walking, running or biking daily, and drinking enough water.  Those three things, diet, exercise and hydration will CURE most of the health issues in America.  DIET, EXERCISE AND HYDRATION WILL CURE MOST HEALTH ISSUES.... IT FUCKIN' CURES MOST ILLNESSES. HELLO IS THIS THING ON?  CURES ALMOST EVERYTHING!!!!!

The cure for everything, who knew?

Let me break it down further.  If you are a fat fuck (like me) and you have congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, joint pain etc.... until you lose the weight and modify your diet no meds or treatments are covered.  Health care for self inflicted shit is a privilege not a right.

It has to be this way.  Tough love is the only love.  I know that I wont change until I absolutely have to.  It's human nature.  We have to be forced to take care of our selves.  If forced... we will, if not forced... we wont.  As supreme ruler I'm here to bring the tough love.

I've been to the doctor for lots of self inflicted conditions and they don't even bother to suggest behaviour modification.  I asked my doctor why and he said.  "No one will do it so why waste my breath."

Well now that I'm in charge you have to change or die.  If you're obese and diabetic your meds are no longer free or covered until you lose weight.  Is this sinking in?  If you can make it better with diet and exercise and hydration you have to or you must pay for your own treatment and meds. Until you lose the weight, change the diet, drink some fuckin water..... no meds or treatment.  Get it? Lets move on shall we?

If you are a drunk and need a liver too fuckin bad.  If you can pay for it fine, if not, fuck you.

Smokers with COPD?  You guessed it, fuck you, you'll get nothing and like it.

I'm not saying you can't smoke or drink or be fat.  Do what you want but now YOU take the risk not the rest of us.  You have to pay your own way.

If you drink and drive and get hurt, no coverage.

If you injure yourself while pursuing a dangerous hobby, no coverage. You don't get to jack up my insurance premiums because you "just had to go parasailing in Cancun" and now you need 4 operations and 6 months of rehab to learn to walk again.

Obesity alone costs America $200 BILLION every year.  Add to that accidents from motorcycles, jet skiing, parasailing, heli-skiing, wilderness hiking ($3 million every time one of those assholes get's lost and the park service has to rescue them).  Smoking and drinking contribute to multiple health problems.  The CDC reports that smokers cost the country $96 billion a year in direct health care costs.  Alcohol costs us about $223 Billion.  I've just saved us a half a trillion dollars in ONE FUCKIN YEAR!  

With the money saved by not covering self inflicted shit we could fix this broken system.  Money enough to cure cancer, Spina Bifida, MD, MS and other horrible shit that afflicts people thru no fault of their own.

There is precedent for this.  I have a motorcycle license and I took the safety course so I can ride without a helmet in states that allow it.  But if I choose to not wear a helmet and I get into a wreck I am responsible for head injuries, not the state, not my insurance, me.

So forced personal responsibility is my fix for health care.  Tune in each week for fixes for over population, crime, abortion, the war on drugs and immigration reform.  

Oh and one last thing about health care.  We're going back to the old school nursing uniforms.  I've been married 3 times, all nurses.  Its clear I have a problem.  But what's the use if being in complete control if you can't abuse it just a little.

So...you don''t smoke Crack, like at ALL? I mean can you do that? Is it safe? I would be worried.

I am a survivor of a life threatening addiction.  I have many friends who are survivors as well.   Me and my krewe cover the gamut, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, eating disorders and food.  I and my pals have managed to stop acting out (for the most part) on these addictions.   Our friends and family are generally supportive.  But none of them would suggest to us that drinking or using drugs or gambling or anonymous sex with a stranger in a bus stop bathroom is a good idea.  Even though most of what I know about life I learned in a mens room on the turnpike, but I digress.

Now that I'm trying to stop eating addictive,  processed foods and go vegan, friends and relatives are actively encouraging me to stop.  They seem truly worried that I'll get sick. Worried that it's dangerous.  People who have seen me eat three double Quarter Pounders w/cheese are worried that my quinoa, kale, onion, pepper stir fry is going to leave me anemic, weak and ill.  Now that's a triumph of marketing.

A cousin who is a college administrator and former professor sent me a recent study about vegetarians and increased risk of certain diseases*.   My family and friends often cite imagined statistics about the need for meat, the dangers of veganism, how I'm going to hurt myself by quitting "real" food.

The processed food loddy juggernaut has truly changed reality.  We even joke about rewarding ourselves with food we KNOW to be awful for us.  "I deserve to eat something bad, I've been good all week"

The food industry has hit on the perfect drug.  And that's really what it is, a drug.  The drug that addicts EVERYONE who uses it.   Basically combinations of processed sugar, flour, animal fat and salt. Each food company hopes to tweak the formulae to achieve the perfect combination and produce a product that is universally addictive.  McDonalds is the Cali-Cartel of the food industry drug pushers.  They have it down to a science and believe me there are guys in lab coats who work for McDonalds.

In fact every big food company has guys in lab coats researching their food.  Not to make it better for you but to make it more addictive.

Even the diet food, no ESPECIALLY the diet food.  Diet food is a trap.  Oh, let me tell you about "Diet" food.

The 12 step group for this addiction is Food Addicts Anonymous.  Their program is strict and rightly so.   Here is where it ties into diet food.  FAA was founded by a woman, lets call her Linda, who was briefly an executive with a international diet food company that bears a womans name.  Linda a dietitian with an MBA who struggled with her weight all her life had just joined the company with high hopes and a sense of real purpose.  Linda dutifully reviewed the food plans and recipes of the company and discovered some problems. Linda worked up some fixes that would make the program MORE successful.  Really help clients lose weight, get healthy and keep the weight off for life.

Linda brought these fixes to the big diet food company founder and president, let's call her "Jenny".  Linda made her presentation.  Jenny looked at Linda, shook her head, then explained as though to a child "We can't make those changes."  "Why?" asked Linda.  "Because that would kill our repeat business.  And repeat business is ALL of our business".  The diet foods are DESIGNED to fail.  To work short term and then have you fall right back into your addiction.  A stunned Linda quit and founded FAA.

Look I'm not saying everyone has to do what I'm doing.  Just as there are people who can drink a little and not ruin their lives, there are people who can eat addictive foods and remain healthy.  People who can hang out in the mens room, at the park, at night and play "just the tip".  I'm not one of them.

So while I appreciate the concern if you come at me with your uninformed bullshit I will respond.  If you suggest to me my diet is unhealthy, you will get the vegan rant in full force.  But hey if you adopt my philosophy of "eat and let eat" we can all just get along.

* An Austrian study (click here to read the study) of vegetarians not vegans.  Vegetarians tend to consume more dairy which is the likely culprit in the increase in some health problems.

You don't need 2 feet to put one foot in front of the other.

I love this scene in Dodgeball.  Sadly it is appropriate for this post.  And of course I too love "The Ocho" 

Here is my tale of shame, turned around by a friend.

I had planned to walk/jog the Crescent City Classic 10k this year but was busy talking myself out of it.  I didn't need to spend the money, I'm injured, I have a blister, my knees are bad, I need new running shoes,Blah blah blah wah wah wah.  Then my friend and fellow comic, Jake Potter asked me if I'd walk it with him.  That put all my excuses into perspective, 'cause Jake in on crutches after a recent amputation taking 8 inches MORE of his left leg.  

A tale of 2 egg rolls or Food is better than Sex

When I tell people food is better than sex they often say "Well you must be doing it wrong".  I say to them, you're the one doing it wrong, the food part.  A good meal lasts longer, often feels better and is as satisfying when you're alone as when you're with others.  

You can do it 6 or 7 times a day EVERY day.  In the car while driving, at work, really anywhere, anytime with anyone or alone.  An entire industry is in place to provide you with food in all its forms day or night.  If you're poor the government will give you money to buy food.  Churches offer free food.  In Vegas you can get sushi delivered on a naked woman.  Who's the star of that show?  The food!

I'm too sexy for my weight

Obesity is NOT attractive.  Not to say that one cannot find an overweight person attractive.  I am living proof that the generosity of women in that regard never ceases to amaze.  I'm saying that we are biologically, instinctively attracted to people who are NOT obese.  And I can prove it.

I blame Al Copeland

My drift into morbid obesity, my first 100 extra pounds is all because of chicken magnate, serial bridegroom, and larger than life self promoter, Al Copeland.  Allow me to expand.

When I got out of the army in 1986 I had already pushed my weight from 164 to 180.  My first real job was managing a Popeyes restaurant for the Marriott Corporation, Marriott considered acquiring the chain.  After training I went to work in Rockville Maryland the area where I grew up.  This was the busiest store in the region.  Lines out the door every lunch.

Your table is ready Mr. Guidry, would you prefer cymbals or non cymbals?

I close my eyes and I can see it: I was in a suit, starched shirt, cuff links, fiddling with my Dunhill lighter on the perfect white table cloth.  There was food, wine, jazz, the clinking of ice in crystal and the laughter of beautiful women.  There was staff standing by to fulfill my every need. Heaven.  I was in my favorite place in the world,  a restaurant.

The Heartless Vegan

I've gone vegan for one reason, it is healthier for ME.  Not because I care about the animals, I don't.   
Last year after much research and consideration I decided to adopt a vegan diet. I fell off the wagon HARD last summer but I'm climbing back on.   The decision is completely selfish,  based only on the health benefits to me.   It's about me.  I don't care at all about the poor sad animals in the Sarah McLachlan commercial. 

I know a plant based diet is the only diet if you want maximum health. I did the research.  But if the research had told me that the most sadistic foods are the healthiest, that "live monkey brains" are the way to go... I'd be building a table with the little hole in the middle.  

Ding dong, Hello, My name is elder Skip, I'd like to share with you the most amazing Book, The Book of Vegan

A few days ago I re-posted all my old blog posts. The posts written before I fell off the vegan wagon. When I still lived in Mississippi.  When everything vegan was new and fresh.  I was starry eyed with the cliche enthusiasm of a convert.  I became a vegan evangelist of sorts. Like I had discovered the secret truth of the universe and I had to tell everyone! " Listen, really!  I know it sounds crazy but it's all true! It cures Cancer"

It's not like you're 50...

So it's August in New Orleans and after a full shift on the pedicab I'm at Molly's at the Market in the French Quarter.  I'm lucky enough to be in the company of fellow pedicabbers Peyton and Nicole.

Don't you wish your boyfriend was hot like me?

Look at the picture above.  Be honest.  What do you see?  Hold that thought we'll get back to that in a minute.

I am very easy on myself.  I judge myself by my intentions and everyone else by their actions.  Oh and I expect everyone else to as well, I mean judge ME by my intentions not actions.  And could you also lavish me with praise when I STOP doing some self destructive thing? I live for the Cheap POP!.  Here's a link to an old blog post that defines a "cheap pop".

I need to lose about a hundred pounds. Still, not just from the sad pathetic high of last year (293 yikes) but from now.  I weighed in Wednesday at 254.  I'm 5'10" I should weigh 166.  I did once, right out of basic training.  I was so thin my mother walked right by me at the MP School graduation.  My own mother didn't recognize me at the right weight.

Constructive abuse appreciated.

I begin a 25 day cleansing fast today. I use the "Master Cleanse” or the lemonade diet.  Almost a year ago I did this fast for 10 days before going vegan and starting this blog.  I now repeat the process but I have set the bar higher because the stakes are higher.  WHY? Here's why:

To live and Die in McComb, MS (and be reborn in New Orleans)

A year ago I started to make some changes in my life.  I was living in McComb MS and working at a car dealership....  I hadn't been on stage in months ( I used to be a stand up comic and hope to be again).   I weighed in at about 290lbs (up 50lbs from my cruising weight of 240), smoking a pack a day and I was drinking every night.  Something had to change or I wasn't going to make it.  I clawed my way out of the funk and  got serious about health and fitness.

Bless me followers for I have sinned, it's been 7 months since my last blog post.  And a whole bunch has happened since then...

Hear are the highlights:

Fell into a deep and paralyzing depression
Left Mississippi for New Orleans
Separated from my wife
Baby Momma Drama and depression has kept me from seeing Beau, more depression
Jumped off the vegan wagon and dove into a troth of dairy and meat
Became a Pedicab driver in the French Quarter
Maintained the weight loss by pedaling 200+lb tourists around the big easy
Was hit by a Taxi cab while on the pedicab and was injured and will need surgery
Finalized divorce (yesterday)
And here we are.

I got back into therapy, back on anti depressants, working hard in physical therapy and I set a date to return to Veganville (Lent, actually the day after Mardi Gras).

The accident left me with a torn rotater cuff, torn cartilage, torn tendons and the shoulder injury will require surgery.

Not lookin' too bad for the oldest Pedicabbie in the City

The plan is to party thru the pain all Mardi Gras and then at the stroke of midnight March 4th re-embrace the vegan path.

As soon as I can ride, swim and run again I'll resume the IronMan quest but it looks like I'll be a spectator again this year at the Oschner event.  I am hoping to run the Crescent City Classic April 19th and my doctor thinks I can.

The good news is I'm in a real city and not in health HELL (Mississippi), Farmers markets, 5 (yes 5) whole foods type markets. My local Rouse's carries almost everything I need and there is a Whole Foods a half mile from my house

I'll check back in after Fat Tuesday, new pics, wild tales of the Pedicabrones, vegan meals, vegan restaurants, Yoga (yes yoga I know a cool instructor) workouts and more to follow!

A little zen in my bike maintenance today for real

Had to handle some  basic bike maintenance today.  I found myself on the back porch of my mothers house in the New Orleans suburbs. It had just rained. There were little drops hitting the tin roof randomly,  in the background I could hear a large wind chime gently pealing and bonging in the early summer breeze. Normally I'd have my headset blaring some speed metal or dance track but today it was just the rain and the wind and the chimes and the bike and me, pretty close to perfect.

The work I was doing was preparing the Walmart bike for passing along to someone else. I just can't do it anymore it's not up to my needs and I  have a nice Giant hybrid I'll be riding in the meantime.

I am in the market for good used tri bike, it might not be till late this fall but I will have one.  Updates on that on everything shortly. 

Big changes happening just not sure yet how to put them out into the world.

Woo Hoo ! I'M JUST OBESE! (no longer morbidly obese)

Not that it is important.. weight is just a number, health is the goal, but... I now weigh less than I did when I joined the Army in 1983.  I weigh less than the lie I told the DMV when I got my Mississippi Drivers License.  I am down 62 pounds in 3 months.  I know the easy part is over, every pound from now on out will be harder to lose, BUT, this is a great start.  It's OK to take a moment and appreciate the progress.

Truth be told it was not crazy hard and I am not starving, in fact I slipped a little the other day.  More on that in a minute.

I'm really starting to believe that I can do this.  Lose 100+ pounds and become healthy and fit before I turn 50 next year.  By eating for health rather than eating for pleasure the tide has really turned.  I am now only OBESE!  Not MORBIDLY OBESE!  pretty cool huh?

OK now about the "slip".  I have my excuses all lined up.   I was lonely and depressed.  But most of all I was hungry, actually, for real, hungry.

I had gotten lazy on the food prep and shopping so there was little to eat in the house.  My stomach was growling,  I felt weak.  That's when addiction get's ya.  When you're weak.  I went out for a drive.  Not looking to score jut too see if my boys were on the corner.   That's when I drove by my local dealer.  He was workin the corner like always, my boy Mac D was steady slingin 24-7.    I rolled thru and got a double cheese burger, fries and a coke.  Like it was nothing, in broad daylight, they sold me poison and even took a debit card.

I'd love to report that it made me sick.  I want to tell you that it didn't taste good.  But I can't.  It was awesome.  The salt and fat and carbs were wonderful.  I almost got sick because I was eating so fast.  I had to pull over and make myself slow down.  Damn, the chemists and food technicians that put together the McDonald's menu know what they're doing.  The combination of tastes and chemically enhanced smells is unparalleled.  I was stuffed and in a food coma for about 20 minutes.

My body did react though about 3 hours later the "meal" went right thru me.  What was produced was an atrocity.  It was shocking after months of very predictable and generally unremarkable movements to produce this war crime of waste.

I'm back on the plan and ready to tackle the next 40 pounds.  But hey 60 pounds...  I am stoked. 

Juicy

I have this one, and it is awesome!

I officially started juicing this week.  I opted for the kitchen sink approach, carrot, tomato, red chard, turnip greens, collard greens, celery, bell, jalapeno and scotch bonnet peppers. 

I guess my body is not used to nutrition.  I am buzzin'.  I had to sip because it is just so chock full o' goodness.  The juice is strong.  I ended up adding some water.  I'm gonna call this juice mix "The Truth"  because as it turns out, I just can't handle the truth.

Yet the truth is just what I need.  Lots and lots of truth.  Juicing is a great way to boost nutrition, lose weight and feel better fast.  I made about two quarts this morning of fresh juice and this afternoon as I'm on the last bottle I feel wonderful.  Juicing is now officially part of the Team Guidry training and health plan.  I am joining a movement which has a storied history.

Times a wastin'

I can't sleep lately.   It feels like there is too much to do and not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  Tonight I over did the caffeine and worked out too late.  Now I'm all hyped up and left with my racing thoughts.  Racing they are.


I read somewhere that men who do anything of import typically do so between 40 and 60.   I'll buy that.  It takes 40 years for some of the immaturity to fade.  40 years to begin to see things clearly.    I'm in the middle of that span of life and am just now getting some traction; finding a little focus.  I finally feel awake, alert and oriented   Better late then never I guess.  To finally "grow up" at 49 is a little depressing.  But much better than the alternatives; Dead or never have been awakened, to continue to drift, rudderless, that would be so much worse.  I know I've wasted so much time.  I just don't want to waste anymore. 

You don't need vision to be a Visionary

Memorial Day weekend,  I took my 9 year old Beau to the USA Para-Triathlon National Championship which was run in conjunction with the Capitol of Texas Triathlon.  We did the Expo Sunday and then watched the race Monday.  The whole experience was wonderful. 

The event sold out with 3000 participants registered.  Professionals, amateurs, first timers and the para-athletes, it was amazing.  But the best part by far was watching my son as he cheered on the para-athletes, running up to high five and hug them as they came across the finish line.

First the expo, Sunday May 26th

Extra Extra Extra Extra Extra Large

The biggest size I ever bought was a 5X-L.  At my top weight (335lbs) in 2005.  It was a t-shirt from, where else, Walmart.  It actually fit nicely.  It was one of the many last straws.

America loves them "Extra Large".  'cause that's 'merica man!  We like everything writ extree large!

In my case it was writ extra, extra, extra, extra, extra large.  That's crazy.  What

must the 97lb garment sweat shop workers think?  But to be fair my usual size was only extra extra extra large.  Extra extra extra large is conveniently annotated at Walmart by a black plastic ring on the neck of the hanger.   I drifted between extra extra large and extra extra extra large most of my adult life.