Our Journey
I can remember where we were sitting and what we were doing the moment my oldest daughter told me she was becoming a vegetarian. We were having breakfast at our kitchen table, a meal that no doubt included some type of meat product, likely bacon. I wrote it off as unlikely to last–she was 15-years old and wasn’t likely to stick to anything that drastic. It was December 2009.
Fast forward over the years and picture plenty of your standard American meals—you know the kind, cheeseburgers, steak, ribs and lots of chicken…baked chicken, grilled chicken, rarely fried chicken—we ate healthy after all. The years came with plenty of nagging about her lack of giving up on this vegetarian phase. My husband and I did little to support her lifestyle other than buying her the occasional fake meat product and telling her she’d be better off eating real chicken.
The Carbotarian and the Carnivore
I had come to call her my “carbotarian” and my youngest was my “carnivore”, who would proudly and obnoxiously enjoy a rack of ribs in front of her sister, waving it in her face. No amount of ridicule would get her to cave—she never took another bite of meat. Her diet was far from healthy and what she lacked in meat, she made up for with rice, pasta and Sour Patch Kids. Every ailment that befell her—and she was one who seemed to attract strange ailments—I blamed on her vegetarianism.
What my daughter didn’t eat, we made up for in meat consumption. While we would have a meal without meat once or twice a week, like most families, my meal planning revolved around that centerpiece of the dinner plate—meat and occasionally some fish, which she did eat. We lectured her on protein and encouraged her to eat eggs, milk and cheese to make up for what she wasn’t getting from chicken and beef. Like everyone in America, we were taught adequate protein consumption was important and we knew she was just not getting enough.
We Thought We Were Healthy
All the while, my husband and I followed what we considered to be a healthy diet and we exercised regularly. I ran and he did CrossFit—sometimes I did CrossFit and he ran. Bottom line, we were active and although we battled an extra 10 to 15 pounds we’d like to lose, we considered ourselves a pretty fair picture of health. Besides the nagging couple pounds, my hubby’s cholesterol was the only health concern we faced. The numbers always came back high during his yearly physicals for work. It wasn’t really something I gave too much thought to though. I do vaguely recall him being put on some medication once, maybe twice. I remember he didn’t like the side effects and it didn’t last long. It wasn’t concerning—he was young, healthy—an active firefighter that many looked to for health guidance.
In fact, I took a lot of pride in the healthy meals I provided for my family, minus my daughter who wouldn’t eat my healthy meat-centric meals. I made sure the plate was balanced with veggies and a starch of some type—rice, pasta or potato. I made smoothies for breakfast, I had milk delivered to our door by a farm that didn’t use antibiotics and practiced humane methods. I made sure to buy organic, grass-fed meat and eggs from vegetarian, free-range hens. I bought organic. I thought I was pretty darn awesome.
Then We Canceled Our Cable
The years ticked by and it’s now late May 2013. I’m on another one of my missions to improve my family. Deciding I was sick of us mindlessly watching television in the evenings, I had cancelled the cable (a different story). I got Hulu instead 
and we began our exploration of what was available to us on this new toy. Our exploration brought us to Forks Over Knives, a movie my sister had told me to watch nearly two years ago. As is often the case, timing is everything. My cancelling of the cable and discovering of this vaguely familiar-sounding documentary just happened to coincide with the results of my husband’s yearly physical. I gathered the family and pushed play. By the end, my head was spinning and my world was tilting. One thing was for sure–we had some food for thought, and for once, it wasn’t meat.
The information in Forks Over Knives made sense and after some discussion, we decided we would give a whole foods plant based diet a try—we would remove animal products from our diet for a trial period and we would remove the little bit of processed foods we did eat. I got a book with a lot of good information and recipes and we picked the day after my youngest daughter’s birthday so she could enjoy a dinner of chicken wings at her favorite restaurant before we took the plunge.
Our 30 Day Plant Based Experiment
On June 4, 2013, we committed to just four weeks of this way of eating—and I can tell you, it was a household divided! My youngest daughter was counting the days and my oldest daughter was thrilled that we were finally making meals she could eat! Well, four weeks turned into six weeks and at the end of the six weeks, my husband went to the doctor and got his cholesterol numbers done. In just that short time, it had dropped 60 points!! We were amazed! Couple that with the fact that we were actually enjoying this way of eating, and we haven’t looked back.
And the Journey Continues
So far it’s been about a year and a half and each week that goes by we notice more benefits from our new way of eating. First off, other than my youngest, we all lost between 10 – 20 pounds without even trying and none of us were obese. Even my 20-year old, who hadn’t even been consuming meat, dropped about 15 pounds once she cut out all dairy and seafood from her diet. While she was considered thin prior to our diet change, the weight she lost made her look so healthy and radiant. For myself, I used to have to take antacid every night before I went to bed in order to sleep and I haven’t had to do that since. In addition, I now sleep so well! Prior to cutting out animal products, I slept really lightly and would wake up at every little noise. My sleep is so solid now!
When it comes to fitness, I have trained for two marathons on a plant based diet and have noticed that my recovery is now so much faster than it was when I was consuming animal products—my endurance has just taken off and my speed has improved! My husband also noticed similar improvements. And we get plenty of protein! Finally, I’m so proud of my youngest. Even though she loved her ribs and steak, she has really embraced all of the changes and is so knowledgeable about nutrition and makes really good choices for her age. She has even mentioned to me that she notices if she eats high fructose corn syrup, she gets a headache—what incredible awareness! Yep–we are now a whole foods plant based family with even my carnivore fully on board. And while the occasional ice cream will trip her up, and it’s hard to navigate a jungle of junk food out there, we know it’s a journey and one we are committed to taking together. We’re not perfect, but we accept that and do the best we can to live a plant powered life every day, one meal at a time.