Before becoming vegan, I had a stomach ache every day of my life. I was always the kid who got sick at parties, even when everyone else ate the same junk food. And nothing made the stomach ache go away, no matter what I tried. My parents tried to cook low fat “weight watcher” type recipes, since that’s what was considered healthy in the 90’s, but I saw no improvement. As a teen, I even went to the doctor and had several test done to figure out what was wrong. The doctor rightly predicted it was my diet, but then told me to cut out dairy for a week to see how I feel. He was on the right track, but little did he know, diary was just the tip of the iceberg.
Years later, I now know that a combination of several different ingredients were causing my daily ailments. Meat, dairy, eggs, sugar, processed foods, they all had a hand in it.
The first thing I cut out of my diet was meat, and it made a huge difference. Apart from just feeling better in general, less stomach aches and joint pain, what I noticed the most was my increased energy. After not eating meat for one month, I went out to lunch and ate meat and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I had to pull my car over until I felt that I wasn’t going to fall asleep behind the wheel. It was that bad. From that point on, no more meat for me!
Over those first 2 years as a vegetarian, I gradually phased out highly processed foods and foods with a large amount of processed sugar. Obviously I continued to feel better and better. Today if I eat something that is high in processed sugar, I can definitely feel it. I try to keep these items to a minimum.
After 2 years I finally gained the courage to stop eating dairy and eggs. I have a mild allergy to eggs, so this was overdue. But, I had some surprise with the reaction to no dairy. Not only did my stomach feel even better and less bloated, but I was regular for the first time in my life. Apart from that, it had a large effect on my hormones. The small amount of acne I had went away, I have no symptoms of PMS, my emotions are more normal, I cry a lot less, and the brain fog went away. I didn’t even know I had most of theses problems to begin with, but after seeing these results, I will never eat dairy again.
In the summer of 2018 myself, my husband, and 2 boys celebrated being vegan for 3 years (vegetarian for 5 years), And it has been the most healthy, exciting 3 years of my life. I feel energetic and happy, and most importantly, not in pain anymore. My body is well and I am grateful for that every day.
I am so glad to have discovered the huge benefits to veganism and am blessed to be able to raise my kids in a way that I know is the most healthy lifestyle possible. It is my goal to share the cooking and lifestyle secrets that I have discovered during the past few years and help you raise your family Vegan, in real life.
