[music] Welcome to the Whole Food Plant Based Cooking
Show.Today, I'm not making a recipe, but I am going to share with you a question that
has been ask to me very frequently. We've been on this plant based journey for
3 years. Me, my husband, and my two teenage daughters
and everyone asks us "how has it been? Share with us your experience" So, that's
what I'm here to do today. So, 3 years ago we decided to go plant based. More specifically, nutritarian after reading
this book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and it pretty much just blew my mind. I thought we were really eating well. We were living on a farm at that time and
we raised chickens and ducks and geese and we ate their eggs and our neighbor raised
cows that we had the benefit of having the meat from also and we ate a lot of fruits
and vegetables but we still ate quite a bit of meat and we were still consuming a lot
of dairy. We thought we were doing the right thing. You know when you go on the internet and you
look for the healthiest way to eat for optimal health there is so much information out there
and it is so confusing. I mean who do you believe. But then after reading this book I think it
really cleared up a lot of things for me. A lot of misconceptions and beliefs that I
had my whole life that really needed to be cleared up. So we started right away. My husband and I decided to just go all in
all the way. We weren't going to try to transition, we
were just going to do it right off the bat and we told our teenage daughters that if
they wanted to do this that it was great but they didn't have to. They could make their own choice but they
decided to go all in with us. That was great, it made my life a lot easier. I only had to cook one meal. You know, I didn't have to cook special things
for anybody or no one was left out. And I think within the first week it was just
amazing, the changes that were happening so quickly. Right away we started loosing weight, we started
feeling better.Waking up in the morning and you know I was only 40 at that time and I
just felt achy when I woke up and I felt like an old lady. Gosh I'm only 40 years old, this is crazy. So, after a week to two weeks, loosing a bunch
of weight, not feeling achy anymore. I felt like I had all of this energy and before
I was drinking a lot of coffee just to stay awake for all of the things I needed to get
done in a day. You know being a mom, a stay home mom, there
is a lot to do, a lot to get done. But eating this way I don't feel like I need
caffeine. I feel like I have a lot of energy and it
is coming from a good place and it doesn't have a negative consequence. You know, eating as much fruit and vegetables
and whole foods as you want only does better things in your body. Unfortunately, the more coffee you drink the
worse your health conditions get. This was a much better choice of course. I'm going to share with you some other resources
that I turned to when I changed our diet. You need a lot of recipes because you have
to change everything about the way you cook. You have to clean out your pantry. I didn't have that much on hand so I looked
online for recipes but even that is tough you know because a lot of the time you can't
see the food and of course you can't taste it so it's really just shooting in the dark. You have to try recipes and just be brave
and just go for it. So I tried quite a few recipes out of this
book and he has a cookbook that comes along with it that I will not share with you because
it is so badly marred and fingerprinted and sticky cause we've used it so much. I've used quite a few of those recipes and
he also has another book call " the End of Dieting" which is also a fantastic book and
it's got some information that has been updated. "Plant Pure Nation" this is another great
one. This comes with, well it doesn't come with,
it started out as a documentary and it's actually based in our area which is really cool. the folks that did the documentary live in
our area which I'm not promoting but I will promote it because I think it is great, the
movie is great and her recipes are pretty good. So that is another great resource. Another great resource is " Fully Raw Kristina
Diet" She has her own YouTube channel also and its
a cooking show and her recipes are fantastic. I've tried so many of them and my kids really
like her and like it, her recipes and her pictures and her recipes are always so colorful
and vibrant. It just makes you want to eat that way. It gets you a little more excited about eating
this way. So those were some of the resources and also
watch " What the Health". It's a fantastic documentary. It's the second movie from the man that made
" Cowspiracy" . Which Cowspiracy was great but " What the Health" is even better. It's just more concise, there's a lot more
scientific evidence so if anybody asks you the crazy questions about "where does your
protein coming from", " where is your calcium going to come from" this movie clears all
of that up and it gives you some really great information to give people if they have questions
of " why you are going to do what you are going to do"? Which I hope you do. I hope you try out this plant based lifestyle
and my website of course. I have lot of wonderful recipes for you to
try and their tried and true. We have a family of four, teenagers. We've tried it on little kids and their friends
and our neighbors and I don't think there are too many things that people have had a
problem with. Almost every recipe, they've been shocked
that it's vegan. Like, I can't believe this doesn't even have
meat in it or it doesn't have any cheese. I don't feel like I want to put cheese on
it. I mean , once you start in this way of eating,
you're going to be shocked at how much your tastebuds change. Things you didn't like before, now you're
going to like. So, it's fantastic. So, we've, I'll say again, we've been doing
this for three years and there have been some changes along the way. There's a lot of confusion between Plant Based
and Vegan .Because there is a lot of processed vegan food out there and of course it's delicious
but it's processed. So that doesn't mean it's necessarily good
for you either. So, you have to find a balance of how you're
going to cook the food. How much processed food you're going to eat,
if any. I would suggest knocking it all out but there
are a few things you can splurge on every once in a while like some vegan ice cream
or going out to eat . You know you'll have to make some comprimises there. Not many places serve food with no salt or
no oil, so nutritarian is really tough eating out. But you can suggest low oil or low salt or
no salt. They looked very shocked when you ask them
these things usually but it is possible. Otherwise, stick to the side dishes on the
restaurant menu. There are usually quite a few things to choose
from if there's nothing on the menu. But other than that, do your research. Look around, see if there are any vegan places
out there. If anything, there will be vegetarian places
out there which just means there's cheese on something that you can easily ask them
to omit. So back to our journey. My husband and I did very well on this journey. We lost, I lost 25 pounds and my husband lost
50. This is a picture of me before which will
also be on the website if you look in the blog. There is a blog post about our 3 year journey. He also looks great and we get a lot of comments
about how young we look , how much younger we look since doing this. Our kids are feeling great and they are doing
great. Their journey was a little tougher. You know, kids, teens, they're tough. You know kids would think " Oh, what are you
doing this for" and actually shoving food in their mouth because surely they want to
eat this. But our kids stayed strong and they've stuck
with it. I think over probably around year 2 we started,
my husband and I started gaining a little of our wight back. Just a little bit. It wasn't anything alarming but we were wondering
" what was going on" and a lot of my recipes have nuts in them and quite a few. So we were eating a lot more of the more decadent
recipes that I have that contain a lot of nuts, you know like my cheesecake and peanut
sauce. It is still higher in fat so you have to watch
your portions or you just don't eat them very often. But we were eating them pretty often so we
had to learn. Over this last year we've learned how to balance
better. You know, if we have a really rich meal one
night then the next night we have a lighter kind of meal like stir fry to balance the
calories and the fat. But we can still enjoy them . We just don't
want to eat them quite as often. So, that's our journey and at the year 3,
I'm 43 years old. I'm going to be 44 in just a few days and
I'm feeling great and I can't tell you how wonderful and excited that we can share this
with you and how to do it. So check out the recipes and there's some
great tips on my show and on the blog/ website. So check it out, let me know what you think. Let me know if you have any requests. I'm always open for a new recipe. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope it helps
you along with your journey.
