Previous Post: What Sparked My Transformation (Part 1)

 

From the Melanated Man:

 

So…

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I needed a change.

 

As I mentioned earlier, me and my fiancee (now wife) were staying with her parents in our hometown Atlanta for her last year in medical school. AND as mentioned earlier, the situation was a putting a major strain on me as an individual and our relationship with my wife. You add in the fact I wasn’t working in my field, I had gained the weight back I had lost and then some, and loved ones dying around me left and right.

It felt like I was having a mid-life crisis before the age of 30.

Luckily, my wife received an internship in St. Petersburg, Florida for a year right after she graduated from medical school. So that opportunity to salvage myself as a husband, father, and overall as a man had came. I was going to make the best out this blessing.

We move to St. Pete, and slowly but surely, I start to get back to being myself.

I begin to lose weight and by learning from my mistakes in the eating department I start to also evaluate and change my eating patterns. I am home with the newborn while the one-year is at daycare, taking it one day at a time, enjoying every minute of being a stay-at-home father (I detest that label.) Also, I am reading a few books concerning the plight of my people and expanding my understanding of our struggle in this world, so to speak ( I’m still a lightweight but learning everyday.)

Unfortunately I did not find a job in the engineering field, although I was at this time still in communication with my previous, or current,  employer while living in St. Pete.

 

(More background on my work situation)

Couple of years after graduation, the black-owned engineering firm I was blessed to work with had issues with finding projects. Or WE had issues with finding projects. Which meant no money was coming into the company. So TECHNICALLY I was laid off although I was still coming into the office to doing work. The principal of the firm, my manager, would promise to pay me out of his pocket for the time spent looking for work and finishing up old projects. Like a fool I feel for it. It wasn’t consistent, and eventually, it stopped coming altogether. I became bitter.

There were other issues that occurred, which I don’t care to elaborate on, that caused me to be even more bitter at my manager. Promises of projects coming through rarely were fulfilled, if at all. All this coincided with the OTHER issues mentioned above. For a while, I hated my manager and really thought I was taken advantage of, even though he gave me my first job offer out of school.

 

So why was I still in contact with him after our departure in Florida?

 

My manager himself was going through a change within himself that I could sense (he was a big guy himself so he knew of the struggles of losing weight.) Everything in me didn’t want anything to do with him; at the same time I believed in second chances and felt deep down the guy had my best interests at heart (crazy me, right?)

He kept calling and we talked, not necessarily about engineering-related topics, but FOOD. As I said before I had lost weight myself my first couple of months in St. Pete, and he did as well, so I didn’t mind receiving more advice from him regarding the topic. The more we talked, the more I learned not only about how I SHOULD eat, but I began to understand how MISGUIDED I was.

 

I began the realize THE MATRIX I was operating in, and by the WAY we have been taught to eat, it affected our (black-melanated people) well-being and livelihood.

And that’s where my TRANSFORMATION began to materialize…

 

My manager and I would converse about the perils of eating meat and how the natural diet of our ancestors with HIGH melanin content consisted of only fruits and raw vegetables. We discussed how the food that we are given/offered has “put us to sleep,” and our eating habits was one of the most important, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT, foundation in blacks realizing their potential and freeing themselves from enslavement.

At first it seemed off the wall to me. But then I started to implement new habits that consisted of no meat, more fruits and lightly-cooked vegetables, and no processed and refined/denatured foods. I started to recognize a change in not only my physique but also my demeanor and personality.

The INsecurities I had previously concerning my role in my own family, my jobless situation, and the life I had so far leading up to the point prior to my TRANSFORMATION started to fade away. I had more energy in all my realms: physical, mental, spiritual, etc. My outlook on my life and life in general began to change dramatically positive.

All because I changed my eating. That I was my doorway.

All of my life I had been a big man. To me the food issue/problem/deficiency that we have resonated with me because I had LIVED it.

That’s why I NOW believe the powers that be have it in for us. Nobody talked to me about food the way my manager, who at this moment I consider as a  close friend/companion, had.

Not my parents, teachers, friends, or my damn doctors. Quite honestly I’m glad I didn’t give up on that relationship with my manager; it may have spared me a lot of heartache.

 

 

My wife had the opportunity to finish her residency training back near Atlanta, so we were able to move back near family so we could have help with our girls. I didn’t want to leave St. Pete (I miss the near 365 days of sunshine!) but I knew at the time it was best for our family unit. Plus, I was going back a new man!

Around moving time, I had lost around 70 pounds and feeling real good. At this point I was eating little to no meat, more fruits and raw vegetables, and very, very little processed foods.

I was still associated with the old firm so I still had my job. There was a project here and there I could work on to keep my skills sharp, which I appreciated. My manager never gave up on me either, so the feeling is mutual. Our relationship improved tremendously through our conversations.

My wife and I were on good terms heading back to the A.T.L. We began to operate as a family unit: me, her, and our two baby girls. We were a well-oiled machine.

I was on Cloud Nine.
Then we moved back.

Life is still great.

But am I starting to separate myself from the pack?

 

(TO BE CONTINUED)