Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

This past weekend, I attended the Vegetarian Vision Expo in New York City. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Robert Ostfeld and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn were all giving lectures, among others. I decided it would be worth it to buy tickets for both days as all of the speakers were great.

I had been eager to hear Dr. Fuhrman in person as I interviewed him over the phone last year, but never met him in person. I first learned of Dr. Fuhrman on the Dr. Oz Show over 5 years ago. I purchased many of his books since then, "The End of Dieting",, "The End of Diabetes" and most recently "The End of Heart Disease". He offers science behind what he says, and he is the first doctor to make me aware of the dangers of eating too many animal products. I learned what foods lower blood pressure from him, what foods would help me lose weight. I credit his work for giving me the information I needed to begin my health journey. He wasn't the only one I read during that time, but he had one of the biggest impacts on my nutrition.

Many people who decide to give up animal products in their diet will often call themselves vegan. They figure that the word vegan applies to some kind of diet and they might not be familiar with the terms "Whole Food Plant Based" or "Plant Based". Meanwhile, true ethical vegans get irritated because they believe being vegan is more than just not eating meat, but a complete avoidance of using any animal products beyond food... which means they will not wear fur, leather or use any products that were tested on animals.

Almost 11 months ago, I went plant based, just as a challenge. The last time I ate poultry was September 6th. I never imagined that I would stay with this eating plan but discovered how awesome it felt to eat this way. I have a lot of energy and my muscle continues to grow. I can't think of the last time I had a cold either.

Growing up, I never went a day without eating something from an animal, whether it be dairy, meat or eggs. Every day I would consume either eggs, cheese, steak, chicken or any combination of these foods. I ate very few vegetables and not enough fruit.

A friend asked me recently why I decided to go plant based. I thought I should write about it because there were a number of factors that contributed to the decision.

I had already lost 150 pounds, so it's not like I needed to change my diet further to keep the weight off. I was mostly flexitarian, eating occasional eggs, dairy or poultry 3 or 4 times a week for a couple years. But I had an issue with my weight loss; I was left with loose skin. I wanted to tighten my skin, not just around my abs, but in my arms, etc. Weight loss really does a lot of damage to the skin and I refuse to get a tummy tuck.

As someone who has been plant based for almost 10 months now, people love to tell me how they could never be vegan. I don't even ask them, they just volunteer the information, automatically thinking I'm going to judge them. And the excuses I get range from "I could never give up meat" to "I could never give up cheese or ice cream".

This article isn't going to focus on why someone should go vegan... there's plenty of articles out there covering the subject. Instead, I wanted to focus on how easy it is to eat this way. So many people think it's complicated and because of this, they don't even want to try.