I'll never be able to what?

One of the things people tell me when they want to know about this nutrition plan is "I could never commit to not eating ...(fill in the blank with your favorite protein or dairy) again".  I will 100% admit that I've always felt that way as well.  Coming from a food background and convincing myself that moderation was the way to go, I slowly, moderately put on that extra weight and, like what predictably has become clockwork in our generation, started the statins and blood pressure medicine that so often is the fix, not the cure.  It certainly masked the problems, for a time.  But again, over time, the dosage of each prescription was increased to counter balance what I believed was a moderate, well balanced eating program.

I only ate non fat milk, sour cream and cottage cheese.  I used non dairy butter substitutes.  I mostly ate boneless skinless chicken breasts or fish, healthy pasta with garlic and olive oil, oatmeal or other non sweet cereals for breakfast, lean meat sandwiches or salads with olive oil based dressing for lunch...and yet the blood and blood pressure numbers were getting worse.  My job is pretty physical so I thought exercise was covered.  In other words, I felt like I was doing all the right things.  I can't imagine what people that didn't think about EVERY bite of food they put in their mouths must be going through.  I was fighting a good fight and I was losing.


There were also the times that I would indulge in a nice steak, high end expensive cheese, sausages, eggs.  But those were the exceptions, not the rules.

When I first started the plant based nutrition way of eating, I gave myself 30 days to see if I noticed any changes.  At the end of it I felt better, my blood pressure was coming down, though I was still on the medicine, and, as an added benefit though not at all an intended one, I lost about 15 pounds.  And I survived to talk about it.  I won't lie, I did still find myself wanting a steak when I saw a commercial on TV.  I said eventually I'll re-introduce eggs in my diet, though I'd make sure they were from grass fed chickens.  In fact, the day I started the program I bought an entire grass fed organic lamb that I put in the deep freeze with the intention of eating it when I was over this silliness.

Three months later and 25 pounds lighter I no longer crave the things I cut out.  In fact, if I do get something when eating out that has added oil in it I can really taste it.  I eat more today than I did before and I feel great.  I think the best advice I can give to anyone that wants to attempt this is to look at food the way a drug or alcohol addict has to look at the substances they abused.  One day at a time.  However, I go a little further than that and break it down to one meal at a time.  Eventually you stop thinking about it and this new way of eating is the norm.

Here's a link to Dr. McDougall's 12 day program.  If you really read the information, and it's not that much to take in, you'll get an overall idea of what eating a 100% plant based diet looks like.  The books I recognized in the previous post are great, but they're a lot to take in.  Dr. McDougall breaks it down into an easy to read program.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html

Ken

PS  I've got a freshly butchered, organic halal lamb for sale.