My Journey to Eating a Whole Foods, Plant-based Diet

I’ve long had a complicated relationship with food. I love to cook, but, for most of my life, I haven’t particularly enjoyed eating. There's something about the texture of food and the process of eating that I tend to find off-putting. I didn’t particularly understand it when I saw how much other people enjoyed food, so I felt like there was something wrong with me. I hid my feelings about food as best I could.

Eventually, I started researching health, which led me to looking more closely at the food I ate and what it meant for my health. I was fascinated by what I read. It didn’t do much to change my aversion to eating, but it did make me appreciate food a bit more.

Throughout my life I suffered a series of health issues including kidney problems, severe headaches including migraines, and recurring stomachaches. I took a series of medications that only provided limited temporary relief. Doctors told me these health issues were just something I would have to learn to live with. I never made the connection to my diet in a meaningful way.

After reading several books that made little impression on me, I picked up Dr. Andrew Weil’s 8 Weeks to Optimum Health and Eating Well for Optimum Health, and something clicked. I made a few changes based on his books, and I noticed some improvements in my health. I was impressed enough that I shared the book with some family and friends. Some of the changes I made stuck better than others. Some I found just didn't work at all for me.

A few years later our doctor recommended The South Beach Diet for my husband, Loay, and as a show of support, I joined him on the diet. I felt rather miserable the whole time, but we both lost weight. Erasing sugar from my diet helped, but my scarred kidneys really didn’t like the diet. I modified the diet to better suit my kidneys because it seemed to be working for Loay, or so we believed...

Loay had tried to control his cholesterol a few different ways by this point including a few different medications. We’d also tried several different dietary changes none of which had worked, at least not very well.

I’d tried several times over the years to introduce a vegetarian day or week into our lives because I felt pulled toward the idea but didn't know why. Loay, however, was resistant, to put it mildly. 

Then he listened to the book, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe,Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall and convinced me to listen to it as well. He decided he wanted to try a vegetarian diet. I jumped at the chance without hesitation. We settled on an eight week trial with a few set exceptions determined and, also, since we didn’t know if it would be permanent decided that we wouldn’t make a big deal of it at social events.

I quickly discovered I loved the vegetarian diet! My nightly stomachaches quickly lessened to the point I no longer needed to take medicine every night. Life felt good. Going vegetarian didn’t work as well for Loay though, so we became a dual diet household.

After a couple of years of me being vegetarian and him eating meat, one night we watched Forks Over Knives, and he started talking about going vegan, something I’d been trying to do for awhile with limited success, as in I would manage to stick with it for a week or so, but end up eating something like cheese or a latte with half and half. Adopting a plant-based diet together made it easier than having each of us eating different meals, in part because we could encourage and support each other. 

We read Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and The Spectrum by Dean Ornish. This gave us a starting point. We started using the vegan cookbooks I’d already bought and buying others. Eventually, I also read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Gregor.

We watched numerous videos online, some more helpful than others. We were particularly impressed with nutritionfacts.org. We both prefer scientific research, particularly scientific research that isn’t biased by corporate greed. 

All of this research helped us develop a style of plant-based eating that works for us.

The results of a plant-based diet have served us well. Loay’s cholesterol is lower than it ever was taking cholesterol lowering medication. Mine was never considered high but lowered even more. My migraines disappeared and my kidneys aren’t as temperamental. My stomachaches totally disappeared.

Eating a plant based diet has also served us well in other aspects of our life. We both feel more energetic and focused than before. We also feel more engaged with the world and more excited about pursuing our interests than we did before. For example, we started hiking and playing golf again. We don’t tire as easily or have “down” days as often. 

A plant based diet changed our lives for the better, and so I decided I wanted to share our experience with others and hopefully demonstrate that plant-based cooking can be fun, interesting, and easy.