Plant-Strong Diet: The Next Phase

Oh how I love the month of May! In my opinion, it is one of the best months. school winds down...not that that affects us much these days. Usually things have warmed up by May, but it is not deathly hot yet. And the flowers are out and it is green and it rains and the birds are singing again. Allergy season seems to wind for me, so I feel like I can breathe and be alive again. May always seems to be filled with excitement for the upcoming summer and sometimes the anticipation of fun is just as exciting as the events themselves. So, I was very happy when it became May 1st and I could say, "It's May Day," even though I really have no idea what that even means.

Avocado Pasta Bean Salad

In January we decided we would try a whole-food plant-based diet for three months. Well, in the middle of April we completed what we think was a successful three months. we cut out oil, refined sugar, meat, dairy, and refined flour from our diet. To replace these things, we ate more vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains. Was it hard? Not as hard as we thought it would be. I guess we have never been really big meat eaters because we really didn't miss the meat at all. Dairy would have been really hard to cut out, but we actually eliminated that previous to this diet since we are both slightly lactose-intolerant and Hinckley had problems with it during nursing. It was difficult to move to a diet of whole wheat flour and whole grains for a few weeks; it takes awhile for your digestive system to catch up, so there was a short period of indigestion. Out of everything, the hardest thing to eliminate was sugar. It is amazing how addicted we, as Americans, are to sugar and we don't even know it. It is seriously in everything--from bread to juice it is in pretty much every processed food. I still have days were I just want something sweet, even after three months without refined sugar. On those days I eat some raisins or oatmeal with coconut in it.

Grilled Veggies with Mashed Potato/Sweet Potato 

African Peanut Soup with Salad

Oh, let me tell you about oatmeal...we love oatmeal at this house. Oats are very versatile; they can be eaten for breakfast, but it also cooks up and keeps things moist in muffins, granola bars, casseroles, etc. Before this diet we did not know the possibilities that oats could offer. Now Greg craves oatmeal in the middle of the day. That says a lot considering he could not eat oatmeal without brown sugar back in December.

Oatmeal Cravings Fulfilled

Anyway, I'll get off my oatmeal soapbox. We learned to love so many foods we would have never tried or liked before. After our need for sugar subsided a little, we realized that many foods have a natural goodness to them. Both of us ate tomatoes before, but didn't really appreciate them. Now, we love the taste of tomatoes. Same goes for zucchini, squash, bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, and on and on. We branched out and tried artichokes, arugula, brussel sprouts, tofu, tempeh, etc. Who knew that lentils taste great in tacos and chickpeas taste good in everything?! Oh, and great northern beans....we were missing out before we tried them! We definitely became better cooks as we tried new recipes and learned different ways to prepare foods. Most everything can taste great, but it is all about how it is prepared. Vegetables were not my favorite food and it was hard for me to get three servings of veggies a day before. As we ate our plant-strong diet, though, we had at least five servings a day and as many as 10 servings on some days.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Breakfast Cake (no sugar)

Thai Squash Soup

We have never had major health problems, so we didn't see a drastic difference there. However, we have seem some minor improvements. We had our cholesterol, blood sugar, heart rate, and blood pressure taken last week and all the results were great. Greg used to get headaches a lot, but he has only had one in the last few months. Also, we don't have stomachaches as much and Greg doesn't get what he calls "stinky burps"(TMI?). We have a lot of energy and we want to be active and exercise, even though we wake up at 5:30. Both of us have lost weight even though we weren't really even trying.

Family Visit to Liberty Jail, MO

Overall, it was a great experience and we are so happy we did it strictly for three months. Now, we are moving into the post-diet life. We plan on continuing a plant-strong diet for the most part. However, we do feel there might be a place for meat in our diet as long as it is sparingly. We have started using eggs again; eggs do play an important part in many recipes and we missed them. Also, we had a sesame chicken salad last night; the first time we have had animal-flesh since January. Though we do believe people can get everything they need strictly from plants, lean, natural meats are a convenient way to ensure that you get the protein and vitamin D you need. Also, food plays an important part in many holidays and special occasions. We think birthday cake is okay and a piece of pie at Thanksgiving is fine. the problem lies in having those things all the time. Sugar used to be rare and special and we want to keep it that way. It means so much more to have a special food on a special occasion if you don't have it ten other times that year! We are also a little more liberal with our use of oil while cooking.

Greg and Hinckley Looking Serious

We don't have weight issues and some healthy fats are good for a diet. In fact, there has been some debate that Greg may have lost too much weight. He is excited about his six-pack, but many people (including myself, his wife) have expressed concern about the look of his sunken jawbone and reptilian-looking spine. Feel free to weigh-in on your opinion! (No pun intended.)