It’s been a whole year of plants! I never thought I would be saying that.
I went 100% plant-based last year after our trip to Florida. It was a trip I was panicking about, because I was so nervous to tell others I wouldn’t be eating their food. I have since gotten over that, but the transition to a plant-based diet for me spans a few years. Some people transition overnight, but I was not one of those people.
Since going plant-based a year ago, I have learned so much. I have become much more comfortable cooking and eating out. I understand the science. I continuously feel better and better in my skin (although confidence is a journey of self-exploration dependent on many things other than food).
It’s hard to pinpoint that one moment where things just clicked. I vividly remember saying I don’t think I would ever go vegan, but as time went on, I couldn’t really see myself not making the change. For me, it wasn’t working to sometimes eat dairy and to sometimes not. I had pretty much eliminated meat, with the occasional piece of salmon. I would eat cheese and immediately feel awful, which would then make me feel awful about myself. It was a very poor relationship to have with food— so I eventually decided to give up those things completely.
Don’t get me wrong, I still indulge in the vegan treats and vegan cheeses, which undoubtedly aren’t the healthiest things for me to choose— but what it came down to was knowing these things were exactly that, indulgences. They were not to be a part of my every day meal, and when I enjoyed them, I was sure to enjoy them. It also began to matter to me deeply that I was not actively participating in the dairy industry, so to enjoy a plant-based ice cream felt much more acceptable in terms of my values. On most days, my plate typically consists of whole foods like fruits, veggies, rice, beans, oats, brown rice pasta and lentils.
There are typically three reasons individuals will go plant-based— for their health, the planet, or the animals. I went plant-based for my health.
My health has been a bit like a roller coaster. It was around college, a time when I most certainly was not focused on health, that I started developing serious stomach pains. Prior to this, in high school, I was all about health, in an air-quote kind of way. I thought I ate well, but in hindsight it was not that great. I focused a lot on calories— 100 calorie packs, frozen meals, etc. This is probably a story I can dive into more later, but post-college was the beginning of my forceable exploration with food and its effects on my health.
No one ever really wants to change. Pain is usually the catalyst. You become so fed up with your current situation that change no longer seems so scary or so off limits. Pain was my driver.
It was on our honeymoon when I initially began to question my diet. I ate vegetarian in Sri Lanka, and while there was still dairy, I slowly started to notice my stomach bloating fade and my energy begin to rise. And the following week, when I got my period, it showed with very few cramps. Something I had never experienced before. Looking back, the nature of the food was predominately whole food based— lots of veggies (and anti-inflammatory foods like ginger and turmeric) and very little of anything else. I figured learning more was a good place to start. It was about a year later that I made the transition to completely plant-based.
Finding this way of eating has been a beautiful blessing. Healing, an ongoing process that I am still very much in the middle of, takes time and patience. It requires a hard look at the truth and instilled beliefs. It takes questioning and practice and failure and the resilience to start again. Turning to food to heal has opened my eyes to the human potential. Our bodies are incredibly resilient, so long as we give them space to nurture and grow.
Drinking straight out of coconuts on our honeymoon in Sri Lanka. The beginning of the path forward.
Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) Beginner Tips
A Whole Foods plant-based diet is different than a vegan diet. A vegan diet can technically consist of anything that omits animal products, but does not necessarily focus on health-promoting ingredients like fruits and veggies. A WFPB diet focuses on cooking with whole ingredients as often as possible, and trying to reduce the use of highly-processed ingredients as much as possible. For me, this means eating a lot of fruit, potatoes, leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, brown rice pasta, oats, etc. and limiting my consumption of white flour, baked goods, and processed/boxed foods.
Eat fruit.
There’s a lot of talk about fruit containing a lot of sugar— which it does. But eating the whole fruit, aka not a fruit juice, means you are consuming the fruit with its fiber, which will not yield a giant spike in your blood sugar like fruit juice will. Eat the whole fruit. Fruit also provides the glucose our bodies need. To give you an analogy about different sugars that exist (good vs. bad), I will share this example about water. You have puddle water and glacier water, all of which is water— but we do not question that glacier water is exponentially better than puddle water. Consider artificial sweeteners to be the puddles and fruits to be the glaciers. Not all sugars are the same.
Also, in the summer when my fruit consumption is the highest, my cravings for sugary treats completely disappear. Fruit is what our bodies are naturally designed for, and when we provide our body with the glucose it needs, we no longer crave all of the artificial sweeteners on the market.
Calories do matter.
Learning how much to eat has been probably one of the largest adjustments for me. Originally, it is easy to eat too little. Leafy greens and vegetables are significantly lower in calories than meat and dairy, so when you first remove those from your diet, it’s important to increase the intake of others. When people feel deprived and hungry on diets, it’s usually because they are removing without adding in. On a WFPB diet, it’s important to make sure you are eating enough of the good stuff to ensure you will be satisfied and satiated and to keep the cravings at bay.
From personal experience, it’s also really easy for me to still overeat plant-based foods. When I was researching, it was always suggested to increase serving size— which I agree with— but this didn’t address that fact that overeating did not immediately disappear when I switched to a plant-based diet. I used this ‘eat more’ mentality to justify my wanting to overeat. Our bodies will tell us when we’ve had enough. Using calories as a guide to ensure our bodies get sufficient nutrients and vitamins when on a plant-based diet is important, but once that point is reached, our bodies will let us know. Learning to listen to your body is the lesson underneath this all.
Educate Yourself.
See the resource section below.
Learn to cook.
Start by adjusting your most frequented meals. Instead of beef, use beans. Veganize your favorite, most-cooked meals and see how easy it is to change up your routine. I’ve become quite the foodie and it is surprisingly so easy to have delicious plant-based meals. Don’t knock it till you try it. Use blogs like the Minimalist Baker or some of the resources I’ve included below.
Surround yourself with support.
It can be difficult to go at this alone, but social media can definitely be used in a positive manner in regards to support and inspiration. See if family members will go on this journey with you or if not, make new friends and use your feed to follow like-minded individuals. From my experience, I was lucky enough to have my husband totally on board with a vegan household. He himself is not vegan, but in our house, we eat the same. He also enjoys eating this way, so I do feel like I have a built-in support system when we go to restaurants or family members houses who may not be as supportive about this lifestyle change. But truthfully, Instagram is a hub for me to follow like-minded individuals and to constantly be inspired on this journey.
My Favorite Resources
There are so many resources that I used when I was transitioning to a plant-based diet. I started first with learning why it was good for my health in the first place. There is so much contradictory information, that I wanted to get very clear on what was the truth. Intuitively, it always felt wrong to me when diets suggested limiting fruit or healthy starches like potatoes. But to really feel confident in my decisions, I wanted to know what science was the truth. I explored a lot of work by doctors in the plant-based space like Dr. Michael Gregor, Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell. Below are some of my favorite resources, stockpiled with useful information. The best thing you can do for yourself is become educated.
DOCUMENTARIES
+ The Game Changers
+ Forks over Knives
+ Cowspiracy
+ What the Health
BOOKS
+ Whole
+ Life-Changing Foods
+ Skinny Bitch
+ The China Study
+ How Not to Die
+ Eat to Live
+ 80 10 10
RECIPE E-BOOKS
Ellen Fisher’s E-books, Epic Vegan Food and Epic Kid Food and Ash Foster’s E-book Potatoes are by far my most heavily used. They are super affordable and I can easily say I use these three books more than I have ever used a cookbook or a recipe blog. They are focused on whole plant-based foods, which can be a bit different than vegan cookbooks and blogs. They use no oil and lots of whole foods and are insanely delicious.
PLACES
+ Plant City
+ The Red Lentil
+ The Grange
+ Pizza J’s
+ Garden Grille
There are so many more resources, but this is my experience and what I have found valuable along the way. I hope you find this useful and feel free to share your favorite recipes, resources, etc. in the comments below :)