The success I have had thus far has had nothing to do with willpower.  While there may be some level of willpower, I find I only have so much of it and it only lasts so long.  The true testament to my success thus far has been changing my mindset which has allowed me to change my habits and my lifestyle.

As a child I used to wish that I could eat all the cookies and desserts and food and not gain weight.  It’s fascinating to me that even as a young child, I knew I struggled with overeating.  Not much changed as an adult to be honest.  I have spent most of my adult years searching for THE ANSWER that would allow me to eat all the things AND be skinny and healthy.

The day I finally started to see changes in both my weight and health, was the day I accepted that I simply cannot eat ALL THE THINGS and be healthy.  The two are incompatible.  The answer I have been searching for my entire life does not exist. 

Once I grasped this, I was able to move forward and start learning what to do.  As I am the type of person who likes to find the loophole in everything, this part took me the most time and this was where all the hard work came in.  I had to UNlearn everything I thought I knew about how to prepare a meal and how to nourish my body.

When I stumbled upon a health documentary called What the Health on Netflix, and learned of the collusion and corruption of corporations, governments and even non profits, I was quite frankly disgusted. This may have been my initial itch towards activism. I’ll be damned if I’m going to be a regular cog in the wheel and blindly support industries that are intentionally misleading the public and preventing us all from living our healthiest lives. Something stirred inside me to go against the grain, to keep UN-learning and RE-learning. What the Health is very well done and uses quite a bit of humor, it’s not a scary watch I promise. I highly recommend checking it out and re-visiting it as needed.

As I was leaning towards a whole plant food lifestyle, I found that as I brought up the miracle of health whole foods can bring, I was met with skepticism and a myriad of misunderstandings and myths from everyone in my life, including health professionals who are simply not aware of the plethora of scientific research available. I felt I had to stand strong on an Island of one in my beliefs and KEEP GOING. I KNEW I was onto something that was life changing and my life has most certainly changed for the better beyond my wildest dreams.

The book How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger pours over all of the good studies out there, see my past post for resources here). People’s skepticism was a gift. Other’s biases and comments on my new lifestyle propelled me to learn even MORE about my new way of eating so I could defend myself and my choice.

I was very open about my journey and the success I had early on with giving up dairy and I was genuinely happy to learn that I didn’t have to starve myself to a normal weight, not that I could starve myself anyways. I am a huge foodie after all and still am!  I could lose weight eating fruit, pasta, rice and potatoes?!  SIGN ME UP!  This was exciting news. This is also why humans see colors – so we can SEE where our food is located in nature whereas carnivores rely upon movement to track and locate their meal.

WEEKLY CHECK IN: +0.6 lbs | 32.2 lbs to goal

I may or may not have gotten into some tortilla chips this weekend, like all weekend long. Cousin Clint makes the BEST VEGAN Hot Buffalo Artichoke dip, which is dreamy and creamy and uses lots of cashews. Of course chips are high in fat and so are cashews, so I know this is why I’m slightly up, but I have no regrets. The biggest work of my journey in changing my mindset is behind me. All I have to do is put into ACTION everything I have learned, but also I’m human and am not and will never be perfect and I’m ok with that!

Peace, love & plants,

Michelle 😊

p.s. I highly recommend watching What the Health on Netflix and the classic Forks over Knives which you can watch online for free. I’ve watched these both multiple times as in the beginning of my lifestyle change, my brain needed constant reminders of WHY I am eating this way. Change is NOT easy, but we are all capable of change. The good news is it’s only the learning phase that was hard, now my lifestyle is easy as it’s my new normal.