For the past 18 months or so I've been writing a "blog-like" newsletter which I send to a list of several dozen family, friends, acquaintances and work colleagues. I've been reluctant to post them on the McDougall forum as they're a bit lengthy. The current "issue" however is particularly a McDougall sorta success story, so I'm sending it along. Hope you enjoy it.
TIME FOR THE SECRET HANDSHAKE? April 11, 2016
(I wrote this about a month ago, but held it back until now)
Nestled, more or less, at the southeastern corner of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is a strip shopping mall. It fronts on Mockingbird Lane and is hemmed in to the east by a parking lot which tries to masquerade as Central Expressway. The mall has been there a long time, but recently got a major facelift and, as I understand it, successfully resisted SMU’s efforts to send it to the strip mall landfill a few years ago when the University began to metastasize southward, eventually leaping over Mockingbird Lane to build on the erstwhile site of Mrs. Baird’s bread. Whatever else can be said of the structure SMU put up, it doesn’t rival the intoxicating aroma that daily poured forth from Mrs. Baird’s ovens, delighting the olfactory sense of anyone lingering in or just passing through the neighborhood. White bread, Mrs. Baird’s main shtick, as we now know, is a nutritional wasteland but one would never have courted such a thought driving by the bakery in the days of yore before the wrecking ball came to conduct its evil chore.
At or near the center of the array of stores in the mall is a sandwich shop specializing in roll-ups. It’s called Roly-Poly. I can’t remember how, by nothing more than dumb luck, I happened to discover the place several years ago. We (Royanna was with me) quickly learned we could modify a #6 California Hummer just a bit and have a quick, affordable, eat-in or tote home, delicious plant-based meal. Over the following weeks, by the third or fourth iteration of ordering a #6 customized by holding this and that and adding extra avocado, the guy behind the counter urged me to write down the specs, saying they would keep it on file and I could short-circuit the tedious task of placing my order. I did as instructed, named it too, and thus was born Don’s Vegan Nutritional Cannonball Roly-Poly.
Visit Roly-Poly’s website and you’ll learn it was born in the mid- 90’s by two women who had separately been rolling sandwiches for years. They combined and have since expanded into 24 states. Unless things have changed recently, the Dallas shop remains the only Roly-Poly in Texas. While traveling in Virginia several years ago we came across one in Lynchburg, as I recall. By that time I’d learned that a friendly, enthusiastic fellow named Tim Pounds operates the Dallas shop, so I named-dropped to establish my credibility and proceeded to chat-up what turned out to be the owner of the Virginia shop. From him I learned that the Dallas shop was, and I’d guess still is, a frequent flyer in the top ten list of all Roly-Poly’s extant. I mentioned this to Tim Pounds last week and he added that they were recently #1. I suppose the world is full of such scarcely heralded achievements, yet still, I’m happy for Tim. I’m pretty sure that to generate the volume he does requires more than simply waiting for hungry people to find his shop and come in.
Perhaps, before you start scratching your head or rolling your eyes, I should try to draw a connection between the secret handshake and this flood of information that I so obviously regard with more than mild interest. Well, here it is.
The last time I went by Roly Poly was a week ago. It isn’t often that I see owner Tim when I go by, but a week ago there he was. Not only there, but actually rolling the Polys. Normally others, typically Esai or Jesus, or both are on hand to do the final assembly of the array of menu items available. Very practiced at putting together a Don’s Cannonball , either of them can do it without even a glance at the recipe. Tim, not quite the same, he peeked, even checked with me a time or two. When he finished making the sandwiches I was the only customer in the shop, so Tim and I got to talking about the storied history of Don’s Vegan Nutritional Cannonball. I don’t remember the details of our brief conversation. I do though remember making some comment to which Tim responded, “Dr. McDougall.” My jaw probably dropped. While McDougall is well-known, indeed revered, in the plant-based lifestyle subculture, beyond that group though, his anonymity likely rivals that of the current President of the American Philatelic Society beyond the thoughts of serious stamp collectors. Thus my total surprise that here, right before my eyes, in Dallas, Texas, the owner of the local Roly-Poly sandwich shop had just let me know that he was acquainted with the work of the person who is spoken of as a pioneer in diet and lifestyle medicine.
Well, Tim went on to explain that he learned about John McDougall by watching a Utube video and for the past 6 weeks he and his wife have been doin’ the deal. As those weeks passed, his pre-diabetic symptoms have vanished, notably hypoglycemic episodes have disappeared, his blood pressure has come down, joint pain in his knees has diminished so he can sit cross-legged again without unbearable discomfort, a worrisome feeling of pressure in his head has resolved, he’s even noticed a dramatic reduction of bothersome eye “floaters,” plus he has more energy and he’s sleeping better. Tim is clearly enthusiastic about his new way of eating. Dr. McDougall wouldn’t be surprised. He’s been witnessing these kind of results for decades.
I suppose there are persons following a plant-based way of eating who would have left it at that. Clearly I don’t. To wit, sending these words to you. That’s not all though. When I happen to discover another person who has embraced this distinctly minority dietary practice I feel an immediate, exciting kinship. It happened with Tim. Unwrapping the Roly-Poly’s at home I told Royanna the news. Then I began mulling over how to tell you the story.
Those of you who’ve been getting these periodic releases of proselytizing prose for a while know of my repeated promise to teach converts the secret handshake. Despite getting favorable feedback, I don’t think I’ve converted anyone. I can’t count Tim. Clearly, a Utube of Dr. McDougall nudged him over the threshold. Consequently, the splendid and arcane nature of the handshake must alas, remain secret a bit longer. Regardless of that, if you’re in the vicinity of SMU and hungry, go by and tell ‘em to make you a Don’s Vegan Nutritional Cannonball. Betcha won’t be sorry.
CAROL MISKIN PUT THIS UP ON FACEBOOK A WHILE BACK
Remember her? She’s the one I’ve mentioned here several times as the founder of Get Healthy Rockwall. Like my sister Joan, she eats plant-based and makes artistic quilts for the fun of it.
“One day, I just thought, if you see a bird with a broken leg you really have the urge to do something about it and help the bird, then at the same time you go to a restaurant and eat a chicken or something. It doesn’t make any sense.”
This sounds like something my niece Betsy Saul, co-founder of Petfinder.com might have said. And though Betsy has doubtless expressed such thoughts, these are actually the words of Patrik Baboumian, one of the strongest guys on the planet…and an exclusively plant-based diet person. He was born in Iran of Armenian parents, ended up living in Germany where he has amassed a host of records lifting heavy stuff into the air. To mention just one of his achievements, he’s competed in an event called log lifting and has managed to lift one of those cellulose monsters weighing something around 385 pounds. Sorta fellow one might welcome alongside in a dark alley in a strange neighborhood. His story is yet another nail in the coffin of the myth that says one has to eat animal flesh in order to get enough protein to be healthy, let alone strong.
BROCOLLI, KALE, ONION, GARLIC, BAMBOO SHOOTS, ORANGE BELL PEPPER, BAKED TOFU, MUSHROOMS OVER BROWN RICE AND BARLEY.
It’s what’s for lunch (or was). Almost suppertime now, so I’m outta here and off to the kitchen to craft another meal based on the only diet proven to reverse atherosclerotic heart disease.
Good eatin’, Don
