DIEt

If you know me at all you've probably heard me say something like, "If the first three letters of 'diet' spell 'die', it can't be good."  

So, in this post when I refer to 'diet' I'm not talking quick Jenny Weight Craig Watchers weight loss plan.  I'm talking lifestyle.  I'm talking about a regular way of eating.  The kinds of food one eats, not a restriction plan.

So, why am I even talking about that?

Well, it started way back in 2011 when I noticed that Jack had a milk allergy.  He loved drinking cups of cow's milk daily but he also always had a runny nose.  Good bye milk, and hello almond/soy/rice/coconut milk.  Good bye runny nose!  

That got me thinking.  

Why do we drink the lactation of another mammal?  Um, because it tastes good!  If you think about it, that's just weird.  Apes don't drink horse milk do they?  Why do adult humans drink milk intended for baby calves?


At the same time these 'crazy' thoughts were going on in my head, my sister was reading a book called The Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr.  First of all, when she purchased this book at B&N the checkout display just said "Crazy Sex" and that was NOT what she wanted the people behind her in line to think she was buying.  The clerk laughed and said, "You should see what people purchase here, Miss."  ANYHOW...  This aforementioned book is about a gal who was diagnosed with cancer and decided to forgo traditional chemo and radiation and attack the bad stuff with a change in diet.  A very dramatic change in diet.  VEGAN.  Yep, eliminating anything that ever had a face or a mother.  She has no cancer now.

So, if it works with cancer, what else does it help?  Heart Disease?  My weird blood clotting disorder?  Hmm...

Also, around January my anti-vegetable sweetie Derek had started feeling the need to change his diet a bit and stop with all the fast food and soda and eat more salad!  He started to feel good for the first time in a long time.

You're probably wondering where I'm going with this.  You're also possibly a little offended about my rant on cow's milk.  Sorry, I'm getting somewhere I promise.

So, my sister starts adopting parts of a vegan diet - more accurately called a 'plant-based' diet...and Derek started eating better and I'm still mulling this around in my head when I hear about a documentary on Netflix called "Forks Over Knives".  Somehow I find two free hours and watch said documentary.  I immediately call Derek, who's at work, and encourage him to watch it as well.  He does.  The gist of the film examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.

We both feel very compelled to give this diet a test run.  Hey and Lent was coming up!

Let me preface this test run by saying my husband was still very anti-vegetable and very pro-meat at this point.  Very American I might say.  This was huge.  This was going to be hard.  But 40 days ends at some point so he thought it was worth a try.  My veggie loving self was excited.  But my dairy-loving self was a bit apprehensive.


It wasn't just the movie that convinced us to try it, we also did a lot of research.  I highly recommend The China Study by T. Collin Campbell PhD based on one of the biggest nutrition studies ever done and Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Essylsten MD.

So, with the help of a stack of great plant-based cookbooks and a zillion web based resources I cooked for 40 days without ANY meat, and ANY dairy.  NO fish, NO eggs, and no added oil.  (There were a few select times when we were over at someone's house where we may have had a butter cookie or two, or three but that was rare.)

What did we eat then?  Every vegetable, bean, whole grain, legume, and fruit we could thing of! We never starved, we ate a lot in fact.  There is no need for any kind of portion control on a plant-based diet because it's all so good for you.  And with that much fiber, it is all in and out pretty quick!  We didn't even need to take multivitamins anymore because we were getting real vitamins from our food! I could go on an on with great recipes but I'll save that for another post.  There are even lots of yummy cookie recipes!

What began on February 22 officially ended after 40 days on April 8.  But it didn't actually end.  We had never felt better in our lives.  Derek's insomnia, irregularity, lethargy, seasonal allergies, and mood issues were gone.  He lost weight.  His cholesterol dropped dramatically.  He was a different person.  He didn't know how bad he was feeling until he realized what feeling good was like!  And I finally felt consistent energy throughout the day, I lost that puff around my waist, and I didn't feel the need for caffeine or sweets all the time.  And Jack, who is totally great at eating most anything anyway, transitioned without a problem.

With all this going for us, we decided to officially adopt a plant based diet.

Fast forward to mid April, I'm 6 weeks pregnant and suffering from terrible morning sickness.  I can hardly keep anything down and the food that I can swallow grosses me out.  All I want is cheese, and meat, and grease.  So, I start eating those things again and get a little relief because at least I feel full for a bit.  But, I still feel horrible.  At this point I'm calling myself a 'flexitarian' who eats whatever she feels like good or bad.  Thankfully in the last two weeks I've started feeling significantly better and actually love me some vegetables again.  And I feel so good for it!  My baby thanks me!

Through this whole time of significantly altering our way of eating, my sister had already switched over, both my parents starting eating plant-based, and my mother-in-law changed her diet as well.  Even my neighbor friends started it as well.  It's been exciting seeing the changes in all of them.

We've made a few exceptions along the way, like if we're at someone's house or we're on vacation.  We are going to Austin in October and can't possibly think of not having at least one meal of Texas BBQ.  

There is SO much more to write about the benefits of eating this way, but I won't fill this blog with that - you can ask me or send me an email.  I only wrote this long post because I had a lot of people asking me to.  I don't want to be preachy or weird.  I didn't stop shaving my legs or start wearing Birkenstocks with socks.  We didn't do this for the animals, we did it for our health.  My body is God's temple and I want to take good care of what He's given me.