It Began When...

For years, Dan, my husband, has bugged me about eating a plant based diet. This meant NOT eating meat and dairy. We tried it a few times but several things worried me each time. Some of the questions I had about eating plant based were; Am I getting enough protein? Will I lose weight and keep it off? Where is the variety?! It wasn't until we had been eating low carb on and off for several years that we became extremely frustrated with the constant weight loss and weight gain. The weight was never something we could keep off. We missed bread, beans and fruit. We were overwhelmed with counting everything...calories, fat, carbs, etc. Dan was also frustrated as he hit his highest weight ever! We noticed over the last year as our girls started to turn 11 and 13 that they were gaining weight because of our eating habits. We were frustrated. What were we doing wrong? What do we eat? We tried just eating a balanced diet. Still we would find ourselves giving into cravings. Dan fought the desire to even exercise. He was so tired. I had been exercising regularly for many years but could never keep the weight off. We would constantly ask ourselves, what should we do? We had to make changes.

Dan asked me to watch a documentary called "Forks Over Knives". I did...and...it changed my life. It didn't end there, in fact, it still hasn't ended. We believe in research. We believe in study. We believe in knowledge. We had been searching all along. Nothing fit, until now. This was just a few months ago and we decided to sit down with our 5 children and watch it together. We decided to cut out all meat and dairy (animal based foods) immediately. The first week was very difficult, mostly for the kids. We began searching for recipes that would work for our family. We created our own recipe book and started making notes about what worked and what didn't. As the weeks went by we watched a few more documentaries "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", "The Beautiful Truth", "The Gerson Miracle", "Food Matters", "Food Inc." (We had seen this one about a year ago). We immediately ordered the book "The China Study". We were amazed that we had no knowledge of what we were doing to our bodies. We were amazed that from the time we were young we were told that in order to survive we had to have so many servings of dairy and meat every day. We were amazed that as children we were told of the importance of fluoride in our water and toothpaste (I had one doctor while living in Portland tell me that I had to give my children fluoride tablets if it wasn't in my water). All of it was unnecessary and in fact very dangerous. It is all funded and supported by BIG dairy and meat companies. There is a lot of money behind the food pyramid our government has issued. We then learned about The Gerson Therapy. How fascinating that you could heal yourself by what you ate. We ordered the book. We loved this book! We studied all we could about juicing and eating plant based foods. We studied all we could about eating raw. This wasn't something that sat well with us but as we studied we began to realize the importance of slow cooking, or cooking at low temperatures to ensure that we weren't losing the nutrients we needed in the foods we were eating. We read a few more interesting books, "The Ph Miracle", "Pleasure Trap", "The Engine 2 Diet". The one book that seemed to encompass many, if not all of the same ideas found in these books was "Eat to Live" by Doctor Joel Fuhrman. We were again, very fascinated with what people were doing to heal themselves, lose weight, and feel better. All of this study has been since we began this journey around Valentines Day of this year (2012). While studying we were continuing to eat a plant based diet. We began to notice changes. Dan wasn't suffering from allergies! This was huge! We have been married for 15 years and he can't even mow the lawn without being flat in bed for the weekend. He has suffered from them for as long as I've known him. He hasn't had so much as one sneeze. He put together our entire backyard garden this spring, working in the yard all day, skateboarding with the kids, with no allergies. I had been suffering from a very bad case of anxiety for about 4 months and within 2 weeks, I had no anxiety! I noticed my skin looked clear. I noticed my dandruff had disappeared within a couple of months. My nails and teeth were whiter. I was losing weight, albeit slowly, it was coming off. Dan has lost an average of about 10 lbs a month. Our eyes were clear, we had a lot less tarter and plaque. Our 13 year old daughter has lost 20 lbs. These are just a few changes we've seen. We were sold within the first month. In the beginning we hesitated telling many of our family and friends about what we were doing, but as time goes by, we realize that we have to tell others about what we are doing. It has changed our lives. We don't need to be at our ideal weight or have been practicing vegans for years to have a voice about what we feel has made our lives so much better!

On this blog we intend to share mostly fun recipes that we love. Dan cooks for us once a week and has found some amazing recipes and will share what he can. I will share anything and everything from yummy recipes to interesting info. WE are so grateful for what we've learned and our hope is that you will feel the desire to Plant Yourself, like we have. It doesn't have to be 100% plant based, in fact much of our reading encourages small changes, even if it is just one meal a week. Find out what plants can do for you and your health, GO PLANT YOURSELF!!