Plant-Based Eating, the First 14 Days and How it Fits with my DDP Yoga Journey

For the past two years, I have been slowly modifying my eating habits to be even more healthy than they had been. Previously, I had still eaten some processed foods, and some artificial sweeteners, but I reached a point where I decided I was going to make some serious changes. I had gone to a new doctor, and to be honest, his approach was very subtle and worked much better than being told “Just go to Weight Watchers.” He sat with me and asked me if I would go home and watch 2 movies. He said he just wanted me to watch, I didn’t need to check back with him or anything but please just watch. I went home with a card, with the movies “Forks Over Knives” and “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” written on it.

 I watched the movies. In fact, I watched both of them twice. While what I saw was thought-provoking, I just couldn’t even imagine eating either way. However, I DID make some good choices that day and decided to make some small changes, a little bit at a time.

Fast forward a year to 2013. In the middle of 2013, I started doing DDP Yoga. I also decided that I was going to start to eat clean again. I had slipped since I met that Doctor in 2012, and my weight had gone up again. As I started working on the DDP Yoga, I realized I was craving fresh foods, lots of veggies have been a part of my life for about 14 years, but now I wanted even more of them. A piece of fruit here and there, and I felt great. As the months went by, I started to want less protein.

In late May, I shared  that I had shaken up my eating plan. I started to eat brown rice and veggies for breakfast, then protein and a huge salad for lunch, followed by protein and a ton of veggies for dinner. This was a comfortable way to eat, but I noticed, again, that I wanted less and less of the animal protein. I was having more and more veggie burgers for dinner-- or a simple green juice drink for dinner. Things were changing.

  Sometime near the end of June, a fellow DDP Yoga person, Slim Gillian, posted on his blog that he was doing a 40 Day Plant based Challenge. This sparked my interest and curiosity. I started to research a bit and realized I was a turkey burger and maybe an ounce of goat cheese a day short of being plant-based.

In the meantime, I had an Achilles tendinitis flareup, and went back to that doctor from 2 years ago. I told him I was about 75% plant based, and he did new bloodwork, mumbling something about a baseline.  I think he knew from talking that I was almost ready.

For the past two years, Mondays have been “Meatless Mondays.” Therefore, when June 30^th rolled around and was a Monday, it was an easy leap. It is now July 13^th, making it 14 days since I started this journey. I’m doing great! I’m finding it fairly easy to eat enough, in fact, I’m having to be careful not to overeat, still. I’m not eating processed foods, unless you count the occasional Kind bar! My breakfast is still a big bowl of brown rice with steamed veggies, most days, other days it might be a plant based protein shake made with almond milk or a big glass of my favorite “green juice”, a copy of Jamba Juice’s Tropical Greens drink, which contains kale, pineapple, and apple juice.  Lunch is a huge salad, as always, with a sweet potato, quinoa, black bean burger or a portabella mushroom cap with some hummus on it. Yum! For dinner, I’ve been having lots of grilled veggies and the occasional veggie burger. On the weekends, if my husband and I have a large-ish lunch, which we do sometimes, I might have a green juice for dinner.

How do I feel? I’m starting to notice little changes. My skin feels softer, I’m sleeping more soundly, and I have SO much energy! It’s crazy. I thought I’d be dragging around, but I’m not! When I do my DDP Yoga workouts, I’m finding that my heart rate is a bit lower than it’s been, which is awesome! I’ll be excited to see what the next set of bloodwork looks like, I expect it will be even better.  Oh yea, and I lost 2 pounds in the past 2 weeks. Bang!

I am still taking the same Raw vitamin (Nature’s Way, Alive! 50+ for Women) I’ve taken for the past 2 years. I haven’t dropped that, because I figure it’s not hurting me. Other than that, I’ve been clean of everything including aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, etc. for so long I don’t know how my body would react if I took them!

So that’s where I am! I’ve started a Facebook group for my fellow DDP Yoga folks who are eating plant based. Feel free to come join us!
Until next time!