Transitioning from the Standard American Diet is not the easiest thing to do. Simply changing your “normal” activities like choosing to exercise for 3-4 hrs. a week can be hard to do and maintain for the long run. One of the hardest concepts for people to understand is that you do not need to eat animal products to survive! So as you can see making a big change in what you choose to eat at every meal is very hard to do, it took me a few years to get to the point where I was even willing to give it a shot, I am so happy I did!
The first change is to consider giving up meat, cheese, milk, yogurt, oil, refined sugar and so on. My first attempt at any diet was a low carb high protein and fat diet; I did not like that much at all. Sure, I lost weight and looked better, I even felt better, but I was constantly hungry and very unsatisfied shortly after each meal. So my main reason for even considering a whole food plant based diet was to lower cholesterol, and boy did it drop, after 28 days on the Engine 2 Diet my total cholesterol dropped from 234 to 169! So my motivation to continue on was the health benefits, how great I feel, losing excess weight, and getting lean muscle. Now there are so many more reasons, but that is for another post.
How can you start a whole food plant based diet and then even more important maintain and succeed at it? The best advice I can give is to keep it simple. Re think your favorite and easy to cook meals:
- Pizza (whole wheat dough, no cheese, all you favorite veggies)
- Veggie Burgers (make your own, lots of easy recipes out there, I will be adding soon)
- Sandwich (whole grain bread, sprouts, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, black olives, mustard, balsamic vinegar, etc…)
- Pasta (whole wheat pasta, veggies, favorite low-fat/low sodium sauce)
- Salads (home-made no oil dressing or store-bought no oil options)
- Stir Fry (brown rice, veggies, seasoning)
- Pasta Salad (whole wheat pasta or Quinoa, fresh veggies that you like, vinegar and seasoning)
- Chili (your favorite recipe cut the meat)
There are tons of recipes on the internet that are great and easy to follow, start building a “favorites” folder with all the recipes you would like to try. I always suggest trying out the recipe as is and then make note of what you might want to change, any seasonings you like better? Any ingredients you want to substitute for something more appetizing? You do not have to be a chef to come up with tasty meals that you like your way.
Another thing to consider is to change-up the veggies and fruit you eat on a regular basis make sure you are getting a good variety of plant foods. Change up your grains, try different veggies, cook them or eat them raw in a salad, mix your fruits up, make small changes to your favorite foods so you are getting a good mix. The more variety in your diet the more balanced nutrients you will consume and ultimately the healthier you will be. The only nutrient you need that is not is not supplied directly by plants is B12, so to be safe add a fortified food containing B12 (cereal) to your diet, add Spirulina to your favorite health shake, or take a B12 supplement.
Focus on what you are doing, stick to the idea that you are eating whole plant based foods. Don’t be fooled by the boxed foods, read the labels and know what to look for:
Here is a great video that gives some label reading tricks.
The optimum break down is 80/10/10, 80 % starch foods, 10% fat, and 10% protein, all from plant sources of course. So what does this mean in calories? On a 2000 calorie diet 1600 should come from Fruits, Veggies, Whole Grains, Legumes, etc… then 200 calories from fat found in nuts, seeds and avocados; the final 200 calories from protein found in all the foods already listed! Pretty easy to do if you stick to the whole food part of the whole food plant based diet, you can easily lose your way when you start to look for pre-packaged meals and snacks.
Give yourself some time to make the adjustment, first consider the change, then put it into practice a few times a week, then dive in! There is a reason the Engine 2 Diet is a 28 day plan, it takes about 30 days to develop a habit, it also takes that long to break bad food habits! If you consistently “cheat” then you are allowing your cravings to take over and dictate your final outcome, usually failure. I am not saying that you will not cheat, I still have a cheat, but it is a rare event these days and usually followed by a reminder of why I do not eat that way any longer.
Get support from your inner circle. I could not have done this without the support from my lovely wife, who also persuaded me to do this site. There are online communities or local pot luck groups you can join! If you have a family, get them involved! Educate yourself; there are tons of posts on the internet as well as videos on YouTube. Use the information to your advantage, you will need it; everyone you talk to about your choice will all of a sudden become dieticians and nutritionists. It is funny to observe how people will tell you that you will not get enough nutrients by just eating plants, how you need protein to survive, and will find disinformation about your choice; but they will not do the same fact-finding when looking at their own dietary choices.
My goal is to one day have this site filled with all of the information you need to start, and succeed at eating a whole food plant based diet, so please visit often and post any questions you have.
Whole Food Plant Life 