Plant based Living

I transitioned to a plant based diet as an experiment.  A thirty day experiment that has lasted for the past four years.  When I was studying to be a health coach I decided to see what it was like to live a vegan life, first as a challenge to myself, and secondly to become familiar with it in case I took on a client that lived this way.  I was already a vegetarian, and had been for about 15 years so it came down to eliminating dairy and the occasional seafood.

I embarked on my journey one Monday, and haven’t looked back.  At the beginning the hardest part was not having cheese, but soon after I started discovering all of the alternatives.  It forced me to try new recipes and come up with vegan alternatives for my favorites foods.  About a week in, I noticed my stomach had flattened out.  I hadn’t even realized that I was perpetually bloated.  The flat stomach and increased energy more than made up for the lack of cheese!  There was also an adjustment in terms of cooking shared meals and going out to restaurants.  At first I would cook a vegan meal, and add regular cheese or chicken to my husband’s portion, but as time went on my cooking skills got better.  Now most times we all eat a plant based diet.  We also frequent restaurants that have at least one or two options for me, and Mike has gotten over his hurt that we can no longer share cheesy appetizers.  

Since adopting a plant based lifestyle, I have had 1 healthy pregnancy and am half way through my second.  I workout 5-6 times per week, walk around NYC, and chase after a toddler and have never felt better.  My initial experiment has turned into an adopted lifestyle that I truly believe makes me the healthiest that I can be.  For me, selfishly that is my main reason for living a plant based life.  I also love that is is better for the environment and the treatment of animals.   

I firmly believe that one way of eating is not for everyone but I think it is worth the experiment to try plant based eating for three weeks just to see how it feels.   You may discover something about your body and nutrition that you didn’t know before.  Taking time to tune into our body’s needs is so important.  If you have any questions at all, or are interested in adding more plants to your diet feel free to ask questions.  I’m happy to answer, and share more about what I have learned on this journey.