So I have hinted about eating healthier in a few of my posts, so now for a little explanation. For anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I eat MASSIVE amounts of cheese, not a lot of meat and virtually no vegetables. Despite being a vegetarian for 17 years I never managed to figure out how to like healthy food. I love McDonalds, frozen pizza products, PB&j, Doritos, candy and above ALL else...DIET COKE. Brandon will eat what is put in front of him but also gravitates towards highly processed or fatty foods. Actually, almost all Americans do.We are the fattest most unhealthy nation in the world and its because of all the processed food and massive amounts of sugar we consume.
A couple years ago I went on a documentary kick and watched a lot of the sugar documentaries about how sugar is the root of all of our health problems as far as obesity and diabetes. No matter if you believe the whole " the government it lying to you for the sake of politics" bit, it is very obvious that as Americans we consume WAY too much sugar. Throw in there the 100 of articles I have read about how awful Diet Coke is for you and you would think I would have changed in a heart beat....nope. We did eat healthier meals but me personally, remained virtually unchanged. I would frequently watch these documentaries while eating my second dinner of PbJ and Doritos and sipping a massive diet coke, oh the irony.
Several months, went by and I switched to historical documentaries for awhile. I live my free time at night on the wild side, I know. After I ran out of good historical documentaries and was banned from watching any more conspiracies documentaries by my husband ( did you know we never landed on the moon?!) I found myself looking for more health ones to watch.
I stumbled on one called Cowspiracy. The general gist was that it was animal agriculture that was the cause for global warming and we could feed the world and stop climate change if we all went vegan. It was dumb. The facts in it seemed legit( although I didn't fact check) the people that headed up organizations seemed shady and afraid of what was being accused( animal agriculture has a terrible impact on the earth) that it seemed true. However, the sensitive now vegan convert that was the star of the documentary was a bit much for me. If you are an earth biscuit, as my dad used to call them, you might not want to watch unless you are a vegan. For you will be convinced you are destroying the world by consuming animal products.... or you might just laugh at sensitive Vegan man, who knows. For me, it was just eh, didn't really have any impact on me other then to further hate politics and the games they play for money, HOWEVER because I watched that, Forks over Knives came up as a suggestion. LIFE CHANGED
Forks Over Knives is a documentary that talks in detail about how beneficial eating a whole foods plant based diet is. So what the heck is a whole foods plant based diet? It is NOT the same thing as being a vegan as you can be a vegan but still consume a lot of high fat highly processed foods. It is also NOT about eating a poop ton of Kale. It is a high carb( YUM!) low fat way of eating. I refuse to use the term diet because that implies it is temporary. This is our new way of life. A WFPB diet is eating whole grains, vegetables of all kinds, fruits, legumes, yummy fats like seeds and nuts, no oil and no refined sugars. I was so moved by the health claims and all the peer reviewed studies they cited, I went out and not only looked into their claims( of improved heart health and reversal of diabetes. I am going to leave the whole prevent and "cure" cancer bit out because quite honestly that part has no concern at this time in my life) but tried to find peer reviewed research that contradicted their claims. I am not trying to convince anyone so I am not going to regurgitated the facts in the movie but what I will say is after SO much peer reviewed article reading, I was so convinced that I immediately began to plan to change our way of eating drastically.
I started off slow, only doing breakfast the first week. It was a super easy transition and consisted of some WFPB cereal, my homemade whole grain bread made as toast, homemade oatmeal and FOK( forks over knives) approved pancakes, muffins etc. The response from myself and the kids was so encouraging I moved onto lunch the next week and by the end of the 2nd week it was going so well that almost all of our meals were whole food plant based. We had eliminated virtually all animal protein. Meat, dairy , eggs, fast food, processed foods, DIET COKE....ALL OF IT. Don't get me wrong it wasn't all smooth sailing. I had some pretty big huge dinner fails and the resistance put up by Brandon was my oh my absurd. It was like taking candy from a fat kid. the number of times he pouted over a meal only to watch his kids devour it and then finally admit it was amazing, was way too many time for a grown man....but I get it. Food is an addiction and breaking the addiction to certain foods is HARD.
We are now about 6-8 weeks in and doing great. Everyone is feeling better. I no longer have headaches, I have a tremendous amount of energy compared to where I was before, I have only had heart burn twice this entire pregnancy both times after "cheating", Brandon's snoring has lessened drastically, he no longer has blurred vision at night or headaches when he is driving around, I don't know the last time he complained about being tired. He has lost a little weight, he still gets pressure hives but the rest of his hive problems have disappeared..... The list goes on.
I worried greatly about all of our our kids and their reception but especially Elias. Yet, out of all the kids, Elias surprisingly has taken to this new way of eating the best. He likes a lot of flavors and food I would have never imagined were possible! They let me know the successes( Shepard's pie, enchiladas, strognoff) and the failures( that nasty failure of fried rice YUCK!). They are loving all the new snack options and eat so much fruit and veggies I wonder how I am going to afford it at winter prices! We are not super strict, especially with them and if I get in a dinner pinch or free food is offered we eat the standard american diet. However, without fail almost every single time, someone gets an upset tummy and ask to go back to a plant based diet.
Anytime you mention going WFBP, you are going to get questions of how do you get enough ------ insert any vitamin or nutrient. My answer is unless you are calorie deficient on a WFPB diet, its almost impossible to be nutrient deficient. Because I do have kids and am pregnant, I do use an app called cronometer to make sure we are all getting the right amount of good stuff( Fiber, Iron, Protein, Vitiman b12 etc). So far, no issues and I love the app, no matter your diet!
Budget wise, this has been a very friendly change to our checkbook! I don't buy milk or meat or cheese ever and while the first month was spendy building up our pantry, I have drastically reduced our grocery budget. The change feels great all around!
My one and only complaint is it is very time consuming. There are not a lot of prepackaged options around here( if only we had a whole foods) and almost everything from Breakfast to snacks is made from scratch. I have developed some time saving methods like making batches of rice and quinoa and freezing the, pre cutting fruits and veggies, canning sauces and beans, freezing baked goods and sauces I can't can, making two casseroles, eating one and freezing the other and so on. I make snacks twice a week and have a list of "quick go to meals" in my meal planner. We are doing good!
Oh also, my biggest pet peeve don't call us vegans. That is a political almost religions statement I want nothing to do with. I have no moral opposition to animal products and don't get angry if you choose to eat them. I joined a couple vegan meal groups for ideas since a lot of vegans eat raw and thus the same foods I am looking to cook with but boy oh boy those people can get cray cray! Not all vegans but still, just please don't call me one.
Now for a little secret... I am not one of those people who thinks they are perfect or need to be perfect. Sometimes life just needs to be easy and that is OK. I KNOW this way of eating is better then McDonalds but guess what, food addictions are hard to break and sometimes I want a diet coke a french fries! The kids eat at Grandmas usually once a week, not WFPB, we attended a BBQ a few days ago and they ate hot dogs, we have gotten ice cream from the ice cream truck twice this summer....its OK. I make my own tortilla chips usually but in a pinch I might buy a bag from sams with added oil. I don't make homemade buns for the veggie burgers...I have a butt ton of kids and a busy life and I can't afford 27 loaves of Ezekiel bread so if I run out of homemade I might buy the best of the worst if you will. Its all OK. That is the beauty of not pigeon holing your self. We eat a 95% whole foods plant based diet( at least when I am in charge) but you better believe when baby girl Eberhardt is born and Grammy brings over her homemade mac and cheese, the kids will eat it, and that is OK.
In the meantime if you want to watch any documentaries....
Forks over Knives
Food Choices
Engine 2 Kitchen rescue
What the health
Plant power nation
cowspiracy ( Thumbs down)
GMO oh no ( thumbs down)
are all on netflix and good family fun.
