The Illnesses: Two illnesses forced me to critically reconsider my health. In 2018, benign prostatic hypertrophy. In 2020, benign left ventricular tachycardia.

Post surgery: The catheter and the urinary bag were not incidental. Their poisons leached into my system and disrupted my endocrine function — interfering with my body's natural hormone development, daily, weakening me. I was close to death. The weakness made it difficult to walk; I moved like a puppet without strings. My heart rate palpitated at intense rates through every twenty-four-hour period.

The urinary bag terribly leaked urine. the smell was everywhere. I lie in urine. I breathed urine. I even tasted urine. Somehow, I found the will to constantly clean my bed and what was little more than a living carcass.

A grown man but all I could do was cry. I cried, sometimes, all night. All day.

God and the Mother: Humanly, I fail to comprehend how (?!) I did not die. Spiritually, I know that God and the Mother held me. Permitted me to remain here. I cannot know what but somehow, still, I am needed here. There remains a use for me. (“Father, Mother, use me.”)

Immediately after the prostate surgery — a TURP — my heart rate returned to normal. For two years, I continued to improve.

Left Ventricular Tachycadia: Then, unexpectedly, it happened. One night in late April 2020, within fifteen minutes of bedding down, my heart rate began to palpitate extremely rapidly. Fear gripped me. I was certain I would die. However, I calmed me, and slowly accessed my situation. I called 911, arrived at the local hospital, and was evaluated. The heart was undamaged and appeared fine. Later, under the care of my Cardiologist, deeper testing — including nuclear imaging — evidenced the benign left ventricular tachycardia: an electrical malfunction in the left cardiac ventricle.

Dietary Change: Both illnesses sent me back to my diet — not as an afterthought, but as the place to look first. I began scrutinizing what I ate, screening food nutrient and ingredient labels. I needed answers to what I suffered. I needed to heal.

I was not new to eating carefully. Prior to the illnesses, I followed a semi-vegetarian diet. But it was the arrhythmia, not the BPH, that pushed the full conversion: from a semi-vegetarian-meat-based diet to a whole food, plant-based nutritional plan.

My Evolution: The changes to my nutritional dietary regimen demonstrated positive results. My health and vigor continued to improve. I felt, and now, feel better than when I was younger, fitter.
My recipes [all] trace back to that same foundation — whole food, plant-based nutrition. Seemingly, with a life of its own, the plan continues to evolve. The Morning Creamy Brew and its revisions. The morning, afternoon, and evening structure of my current regimen. Each is evidence of a progressive plan. A plan building a better me.

The Rhodes Plant-Based Nutrition Protocol exists because of my need to clearly and closely scrutinize my experiences. To make sense of them. To organize and direct my nutritional plan. (And) naturally, because of my need, and desire of optimal health. These are my final years in this world, I want to live them-well.

Additionally, I built the protocol as an educational mechanism — to inform others facing similar challenges of health. For those searching for [that] extra motivation to modify, to change lifetimes of ill fated habitual consumption. Moreover, it is my intention to, one day, license my educational and informational data to institutions of learning.