So here it goes...........
WARNING: This is a very long post.
We love to eat. Food is yummy! But through the years I've noticed my health and body changing - along with my hubby's and son's. So when I was in my early thirties I wanted to learn about nutrition. I took a home schooling course on the subject and listened to advice I'd hear from all kinds of sources. "Stop eating potatoes" was one. I remember this one well because I was raised eating potatoes at EVERY meal! But thinking this was now one of the problems I gave them up. Doing everything though did nothing. The only thing changing was our weight (and health) and not for the better.
Now here I am moving into my mid thirties and still gaining but doing everything I learned and heard to not gain! I would even exercise. Funny thing was I started exercising 4-5 days a week at a gym. So now I'm eating the way they say you should AND exercising therefore I should be in great shape and health! Nope....I didn't lose 1, that's 1 (one), pound! What!?
Pushing into my late thirties I went to my yearly doctors appointment and the scale was 201 pounds. Yep, my heaviest and most upsetting moment in my life....201 pounds! For me that was it! I knew what I have been told and what I was doing wasn't working. Plus my hubby was having serious health issues. The doctor told him that he could have a heart attack if he didn't change things! So I knew things had to change.......but what?
We learned that there was a diet program on the market and it worked. They would send you meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack/dessert - a month worth at a time. Just follow the program with the food they sent and *voila* you lose weight and things are good in the world again.
So we did it for 2-3 months and got down to a good weight. Only to gain it all back in due time after no longer on the diet food. This is frustrating to say the least. How could you be doing what you're told is right and it not work? The doctors office just finally told me to exercise! Are you kidding me!? I WAS exercising......4-5 days a week! NOTHING WAS WORKING!
It came to the point where it was now about health more than weight. I didn't want my hubby to have a heart attack and I was tired of having pains in my joints. Not to mention our son was very over weight for his age and having bad issues with acne. There had to be a better answer to all this.
Upon my research (something I give credit to my dad for) I starting hearing "The Starch Solution" and wanted to know more. This is where our real healing and life changing journey began. There were people documenting their life changes and health changes on this path. I was hooked to know more and more. It lead me to some medical doctors: Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and others. One in particular caught my attention - Dr. John McDougall. Wow!
I read his website, which is on the home page of this blog. I subscribed to his newsletter. And found his newest book called 'The Healthiest Diet on the Planet' and went to the bookstore to purchase it. I very much recommend anyone interested in information to read his website and watch his videos! You don't have to run out and buy this book though like I did. You could just rent it from the library.
This book started me on our new eating lifestyle. It has a recipe section but not enough (for me, hehehe). I got more recipes from their newsletters. I checked out over 20 books from the library to get more. I even found websites that are a big help. So do your research!
Let me state that this change was really for me and prayed that my boys would see the health benefits and then follow. But I was not going to force someone to do something I wanted to do. So I would make dinner as usual and put everything on my plate but the meat. Which was fine with me because I was never a big meat eater anyway. After dinner they would have that really full heavy feeling. Me - I felt just fine! Full and satisfied, yes! Heavy, no. Not a week later my hubby said he didn't want to eat what I wasn't. Then a few days after that our son said he didn't want to eat meat if we weren't.
In the mean time I watched some documentaries and hubby would sit thru them with me. We were both always shocked by the information. Then our son started asking questions about our new lifestyle change. I would tell him the best I could from what I learned. One day he asked to see a documentary. Sure! I showed him one, I think he ended up watching another one. Then that was enough for him to understand what Mom was doing ;-)
Now remember at the start of this long ass post I said how we like to eat....well I actually said we love to eat! And eating this way we can eat when ever, whatever and as much ever. Okay that didn't sound right, I tried. You get the idea? Like when we ate the S.A.D way and everyone wanted seconds you had to watch how much was being eaten. But now no one even has to ask. They just eat until they are satisfied and that's that. By the way for those that don't know - S.A.D stands for Standard American Diet......I know sad isn't it....haha......hey don't blame me, I didn't make it up.
Okay there you have it. We started eating this way March 2017. We are four (4) months in and things are great! Hubby is actually losing weight, me too, son three :-) Also, our son is clearing of his acne! I don't have to worry about what anyone is eating in the house anymore. Yay! The two best parts....no dead animal yuk on my kitchen counters to worry about sam'n'ellen or anything like that and no nasty grease to always try and clean off everything! I love it!!
I'm not sure if anyone is still reading at this point but if you are you might be thinking vegetarian, vegan? Nope. It's called plant-based. Anyhoo, here's a list to help you understand the difference in terms.
**Vegetarian: a person who does not eat meat and sometimes other animal products.
There are different vegetarians. Ovo-lacto Vegetarian does not eat meat but do eat both eggs and dairy products. Ovo-Vegetarian does not eat meat or dairy but does eat eggs. Lacto-Vegetarian does not eat meat or eggs but does eat dairy. This group also goes into whether or not fish is considered "meat"....Confusing I know!
**Vegan: a person who does not eat meat, egg or dairy or use animal made products.
**Whole-Foods Plant-Based: a person who eats foods in whole form, unprocessed or minimally processed food, fruits, vegetables, starchy vegetables, whole grains, legumes and no oil.
I know that Plant-Based may sound similar to Vegan but let me give an example to help you have that "Aha" moment! Vegans can eat Oreos because they aren't made with any animal products (go a head and check your package.....you think that white stuff was dairy....think again, I'll wait) Okay now back to the Oreos. Vegan can eat them cause they fall into their 'no animal' category. But plant-based doesn't eat them. They are highly processed and contain oil, among other unknown crap. Therefore they don't fit into the plant-based lifestyle. There are processed vegan products out there for convenient foods for vegans. But they don't fit into the plant-based diet as they are processed and some contain oil.
I was finding it very hard to eat this way in the beginning. It was a shock to the mind to see how much of our food contains some kind of animal or oil!! Sad really - pun intended :-). Let's talk a little about oils as it's in almost everything! I don't care if it's olive oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, corn oil, coconut oil....don't eat it! Oil is a processed, un-natural state of the plant. It's pure fat!! Fat is fat no matter how you coat it. If you eat a coconut you get the oils naturally with the rest of the fruit. Therefore it is better for you. Pull the oil from the rest of the fruit and it's no longer good, it's pure fat. No fiber, minerals, nutrition, nothing!! Just fat! Same with olives. Eat the olive, not just it's fat.
Now I will say that not eating oil is the hardest we have found eating this way. It only becomes hard when we want to go out to eat. Cooking at home with no oil has become very easy. It's only the splurge when the boys want to go out. Because it's not animal or animal by-product I'm okay with it once in a while. I don't use it at home so the little I get when we go out is fine. Plus I find that when we end up eating out more than usual our son has bad acne flare ups. But sometimes he will have fare ups even from eating extra natural oils like avocado and peanuts.
I know, by now you are thinking 'this lady is flipping crazy' and that's fine. Do your own research and read, learn, read, learn and learn and read some more! But in the end when you sit with this new knowledge it's still your choice on what to do with it. Judging isn't one of the things you should do with it tho. Just saying.
Okay. I think I've made this long enough. I will provide some video links and a list of things to get you started on your own path of researching - if you choose to. But I've given what I can. I will be posing more on this subject - what we eat, recipes and stuff like that. Until then........
I know some of the videos I post and that you will find during your research are about 1 hour long. Sorry, but they are full of very good information.
I think the Dr. McDougall videos might have some of the same info but not really sure. They might be kinda similar but also have different stuff. I just watched them at different times and liked them so I'm posting what I watched to share with y'all.
LIST OF DOCUMENTARIES WE'VE WATCHED
** GMO OMG
** Food Choices
** Fed Up
** Vegucated
** Cowspiracy
** Forks Over Knives
We watched these on Netflix.
And for those that stuck with this entire post!
THANK YOU FOR READING!
Have a wonderful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment