My name is Shari and I am morbidly obese, (Hi Shari!) Let me give you some background, at my heaviest, I was 390lbs. (September 2008) In May 2010, I started dieting, starving myself and trying to eat less than 1200 calories everyday. I obsessed about not eating, weighing in sometimes twice a day. I had great results losing 100 pounds in less than a year. That lasted about 3 weeks. I thought I had things under control. I ate animal protein, dairy and cheese at almost every meal, just tiny portions. But I was still hungry, always hungry. I couldn't live this way forever, it was a diet, not a realistic, maintainable lifestyle. I loosened up and fell into the trap of thinking that I could eat healthy foods like I Cant believe it's Not Butter, I mean, it's fat and calorie free right? I switched from vegetable oil to EVOO, that's the healthy oil, right? In other words, I let the food industry mislead me into thinking I was eating healthy and making better choices for myself and my family. I was wrong! It didn't take long for me to put back on over 50 pounds.
Fast forward to January 2012, my DH came across some medical mumbo jumbo about eating 'Plant Strong'. I was super skeptical, I shot him down before he could even finish telling me about some Cleveland Clinic Doctor and his research about preventing heart disease. A few weeks later, we were looking for something to watch on Netlix, we love documentaries. We saw one called 'Forks Over Knives' and decided to watch it. Can you say, life changing? The DH was excited because this was the same Dr that he had tried telling me about before. Dr Caldwell Esselstein and T Colin Campbell presented their findings in this movie. Two different people, 2 different research studies, but the same overall findings. Meat and Dairy are simply not good for you.
The DH and I talked about how compelling the research was, we were interested in learning more. We then watched a documentary called Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue, presented by Forks Over Knives. This movie was done by Dr Esselstein's son Rip. He is an incredible athlete, having competed in high school and college, he became a professional athlete competing in triathlons. He also became a fire-fighter and encouraged his co-workers to live a healthier, plant strong lifestyle. In the Engine 2 movie and book, Rip suggests you to complete a 28 day plant strong challenge. This is it! The DH and I are in! Let's do it, 28 days! We can do it 28 days right? LOL, we were realistic and expected it to be extremely difficult for us. We thought we would really struggle and had pretty low expectations of making it the full 28 days.
Guess what... we have been eating 'plant strong' for close to 2 months! Basically no meat, no dairy and no added oils. We have no plans to stop eating this way. For me, I eat when I'm hungry, I don't really pay much attention to calories or portion size (unless it's a whole grain). I eat 3 meals, a few snacks and even dessert. I never feel starved or deprived. I am learning and experimenting with foods in ways I never imagined, it is fun and I love it! I know that it's only been 2 months and I am still in the 'Honeymoon phase', but I am so excited! I feel great, I have more energy, and I am seeing results on the scale! I love talking about my new eating habits to anyone that will listen. I am sure that my friends are bored and possibly even annoyed with my enthusiasm for eating plant strong, but I don't really care. This is about me, my family and our health. I hope that our friends will accept and support us, even if it's not something that will work for them or their families.
Think you can't give up meat, maybe it's the cheese, trust me I didn't think I could do it either!
