Where am I now? Lesson 3 - Nutrition
Started researching whole food/plant based diet back in November after watching a documentary on Netflix. Less than a week later my doctor recommended due to my pain/inflammation. I bought more books, reached recipes, but still wasn’t sold as I hate vegetables and am very picky with my foods. I know eating whole foods is better for you, but I felt the deprivation was worth the unnatural/bad things I was putting into my body.
Beginning of December after reading “How not to die”, I started dabbling – slowly trying to implement whole foods and plants. Mid December I went to see a rheumatologist who recommended I go on Prednisone. I’ve heard many unwanted side effects and decided that day I would try to heal myself with nutrition and if all fails I would go on this medication.
Fast forward to today – Mid January. I’ve been majority plant based for over a month. I say majority because I have eaten pizza, I drink whey protein (I tried the vegan one and I just could not do it long term – nasty), and I do enjoy my cookies.
Did I heal myself? Unfortunately not. My pain did get better; however I was on high anti inflammatories at my worst, doing physical therapy, exercises/stretches daily….and I’m talking like over an hour religiously every night, and eating plant based – so not sure what exactly I can credit, that caused the slight improvement; if not a combination of it all.
A few days after telling one of my doctor friends that I’m still in pain, she again told me she believes I should go on prednisone. (she told me in the beginning but I wanted to try this lifestyle first) I picked it up and started my first dose yesterday. Wow! Significantly less painful – from a pain scale of 6-7/10 to a 1/10. Not sure where this journey is taking me but extremely thankful to be feeling better at the moment.
If I didn’t get this bad, I would have never succeeded in plant based dieting. So in a way, I feel I was put in this place to get on this path with my nutrition.
My review –
Weight loss – loss 7# in the first 2 weeks and then plateaued. I am still counting calories and am in a deficit, so I should be losing but have not lost for the past few weeks.
Difficulty – I don’t like to spend lots of time cooking and I’m picky. So normally I would have said it was 10/10 difficult. However, I’ve found some simple recipes that work for me and am still looking for more when I run out or get bored. One downfall are restaurant selections and get togethers – so I’d say it’s a 8/10 in difficulty (when I was eating cleaner it was still around 7-8 in difficulty though)
Energy level – I don’t wake up jumping out of bed, but I’m not dragging either – I feel rested. Also, throughout the day I feel alert and awake. I used to always drink 2 coffee and 1 energy drink daily to give me a pep, now I’m at 1 -2 coffee and it’s more for the taste.
Bowel - J yes this is important to note. Extremely regular, nice, consistent, quick…..
I don’t know what this would categorize as, but I feel “light”, not weighed down or sluggish. I don’t feel bloated, full, “gross”, etc. I guess previously when I ate some less nutritious foods, I would feel heavy, crappy, full of oil? If that makes any sense.
So my conclusion – For the reasons above I’m going to continue with eating majority whole foods/plant based. Why majority? Again: pizza and cookies would miss me if I left them. Because I don’t eat many beans, it’s hard for me to get my protein in otherwise so I’ll continue with my protein shakes and I’m going to add seafood occasionally, as I do enjoy poke and shellfish. (Meat, chicken, and turkey I’m certain I can do without)
I’m not one of those that are so influenced and “cult-like” that I am going to sit here and try to persuade you or convince you to do anything nor create your meal plan that is strictly vegan. I still believe in Doing U and finding what works for you. I do believe that if you tried the very minimum of adding green into your day and/or replacing some of your processed food to whole foods you would feel better. I recommend if you are even a tad bit interested that you watch “Game Changers” or “Forks over Knifes” on Netflix. If you are a reader “How not to die” or “idiots guide to plant based nutrition.” Want a summary? Want to learn more? Message me.