One step at a time…
It didn’t happen overnight. There were steps on this journey for us.
It was a little over two years ago when Mark’s silent migraines were becoming a serious problem. When he did some reading on diet soda, he decided to give it up cold turkey and the result was no more migraines! That same day, we were packing for a conference in California. Because it was Labor Day weekend, we arrived a couple of days early to relax before the conference started. Since we had some free time, which is very rare, Mark suggested we watch a video that had been recommended to us by several people. (Most of them were under 30, by the way). That video “Forks Over Knives” was such an eye-opener that Mark announced that he wanted to switch to a plant-based diet.
That was a beginning of sorts, but we weren’t really “all in” at that point. I would say that we just started making an effort to become aware of what we ate and tried to eliminate meat. That was a positive step, but only a small one and the benefits were correspondingly small. One of the tough challenges for us was navigating food choices when we traveled. We would usually just consider those times “off” or at least try to make the best choices possible in each situation.
I will insert here that one of my big hangups was dairy. I would often say that I just couldn’t give up cheese. The irony there is that I had given up milk as a beverage back in 2014. That might not sound like a big deal, but I LOVED milk! I have been a big milk drinker all my life, so much so that I would buy 3 or 4 gallons a week and I was the only one drinking them. When we would travel, we always needed refrigeration so Mark could have his diet soda and I could have my milk. Then, in February of 2014, a friend sent me an article — with pictures — showing the high content of pus in milk. I have not had one single glass of milk since that day. This is not the article, but covers the same material.
So, I didn’t drink milk, but I ate cheese. That isn’t even logical, but nevertheless, I had a hard time getting dairy out of my diet.
It was last summer that we came across a video from a preacher that had experienced a dramatic improvement in his health due to a change in his diet. Mark watched a message he preached and was very impressed that this person travels all over the world — all the time — and still manages to eat healthy. We immediately got a copy of the book he and his wife wrote together, Breaking the Stronghold of Food by Dr. Michael and Nancy Brown. This book is not only informative, it is also entertaining!
So, on June 17, 2018, we made a commitment to change our eating to be strictly Whole Food Plant Based. And this was only a short time before we knew we would be traveling. (I have an upcoming post showing some of what that was like — traveling on a WFPB diet.)
After reading that book together, we started reading some of the other books they recommended. The next one on our list was Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I also discovered what is now my favorite cookbook, How Not To Die Cookbook by Dr. Michael Gregor.
All of the scientific evidence was overwhelmingly convincing — and, everything we read just reinforced how God’s design is so wonderful. So, we are still reading and watching and eating WFPB.
Here are a few other informative resources:
Documentaries:
What the Health
Fed Up
Website:
NutritionFacts.org
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