When a Plant Based Diet Just Isn't Enough

A few weeks ago, in my vegetables for breakfast post, I mentioned the fact that I have been experimenting with dropping whole grain flours and all sugars (except for the occasional date in a dressing or sauce) out of my diet. I said that it was a story for another day, and that day has come.

This is going to be a very long blog post, so if you are interested, I recommend that you get comfortable!

First a review of my recent dieting history and inspiration for starting the Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog. Five years ago, a college roommate of mine asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I was thirty nine years old and I had recently had my third child. I had a long history of yo-yo dieting, with many successful weight loss journeys, all to be followed up by weight gain horrors. I made up my mind that I would NOT be the fat bridesmaid, and I went back to a national weight loss program that had worked for me many times in the past (if you consider working to mean losing the weight and gaining it all back).

The program worked again, because I was hell bent on weighing and measuring my food, tracking it all and staying within my allotted calories. I made a lot of really nice friends in that program who I miss to this day. The camaraderie was amazing.

Shortly after I entered those meeting rooms again, one member had mentioned to me an online support group for people who follow all different diet plans. It's called PEERtrainer and it was in that support group that I first heard of a whole food plant based diet. The idea appealed to me immediately. First, from an ethical perspective, because I had been a vegetarian for ethical reasons for eleven years. But second, from a health standpoint, learning about the negative impact of processed food, dairy and meat on our bodies suddenly and forcefully hit home for me. So while I was on the "counting and measuring" program, over the course of a few months I was really BOTH on the counting plan AND on a whole foods plant based plan.

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