3 things I was NOT expecting when I went plant-based

When I first started down this plant-based path, I had a general idea of what to expect. I thought I’d feel a little better overall, maybe lose a few pounds, and hopefully try some new foods and find some new favorites.

And that all happened.

What I didn’t anticipate was how much of a ripple effect it would have in other parts of my life. 

I was completely focused on the practical stuff: meal planning, the best way to peel a butternut squash, and how to convince my teenagers to try tofu so I didn’t have to cook two meals every night. It never crossed my mind that it would impact my daily habits, my mental health, my interests, my pets… even my job. 

There are probably 100 little things that are different now because of this one change, but here are three of the big things that really took me by surprise.

1. I actually kind of LIKE to cook 👩‍🍳.

Don’t get me wrong. I still want to snap my fingers and have delicious, whole food plant-based meals miraculously appear on my plate, but my powers of manifestation are clearly still a work-in-progress.

And if I’m being honest, I never really hated cooking. It was just a means to an end since those people living in my house apparently wanted to eat EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. and the food wasn’t making itself. 

But the more I tried new plant-based recipes, the more fun it became. 

Once I got over my fear of anything “different”, each new meal or ingredient I tried felt a little bit like an adventure. Not to mention I got to completely reorganize our pantry to accommodate all of the new ingredients and spices we were accumulating, and I love a good organizing project!

Plus it’s kind of hard not to feel a little like a wizard 🧙‍♂️ when you can take some cashews, beans, water and a bunch of spices and turn it into a delicious cheesy-like sauce. 

We made this switch three weeks before the whole world shut down because of Covid-19 😷, and I really do think it saved my mental health. Making healthy, plant-based meals for my family gave me something positive and health-promoting to focus on during a time when everything around us was scary and out of our control. 

And that mindset stuck around even after things got back to "normal". It’s a lot easier to enjoy cooking when you know all the amazing things the food is doing for your physical and mental health.

If I ever find myself a gazillionaire, I am still 100% hiring a whole food, plant-based chef to cook for me. But in the meantime, cooking all the plants has turned into a true form of self-care (even if I still sometimes complain about it).

2. Dogs and cats apparently like plants too 🐶🐱.

We have a lot of pets: two dogs, three cats and a guinea pig (who we affectionately call “the pig”). One of these animals is supposed to be a herbivore. The other five? Not so much. 

But do you know what dogs and cats do when there’s no chicken, steak and deli turkey to beg for?

They apparently discover their own plant-based treats.

🧆We can not leave any kind of beans out on the counter or the cats will steal and eat them. Chickpeas in particular appear to be a delicacy when your humans are plant-based.

🥬 Greens left on a towel on the counter to dry are fair game for cat nibbling and/or sitting on. I only threw away three bunches of lettuce before learning to put a second towel on top to avoid cat butthole contamination.

🌱 Potted herbs on the window sill and kale and spinach growing in pots on the screen porch are also too tempting to ignore. If you ever come to eat at our house, please ignore the teeth marks on your greens and herbs. 

🌶️ Bell peppers are apparently the steak of the plant-based world. The minute we cut into one (which is often), both dogs come running. One dog will eat all the peppers, regardless of color. The other dog won’t eat the green ones. 🤣🤷‍♀️

I guess if you're a canine or feline living in a plant-based house, your motto becomes “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

(Note: They are all fed a regular diet that is appropriate for their species, age, and health conditions, and we don’t impose our plant-based ways on any of them except the pig, who is supposed to be eating plants. We also don’t let them eat anything that hasn’t been deemed safe for cats and/or dogs, and we don’t give them a lot of anything not made specifically for them. I just didn’t expect our historically carnivore-leaning pets to take a liking to plants.)

3. This is about so much more than food 🤯.

Before starting this plant-based thing, I was pretty apathetic about my health. It wasn’t that I didn’t care if I was healthy, but I’d been fortunate to not have any serious health problems so I simply didn’t think about it much. 

And I’d been led to believe that a lot of the things I did worry about, chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and dementia, just ran in my family and were therefore mostly out of my control. Until I learned how much diet and lifestyle could potentially reduce my risk of those conditions and I made changes.

As time went on, I started to notice little shifts in other aspects of my life. 

🤔Things I’d heard 100 times before were landing differently and I started trying to implement them in my daily life. 

🚶‍♀️ I started to make walking a regular part of my routine. I’m now trying to incorporate more running because… cardio.

👩‍🏫 I took the leap of faith and quit my teaching job, with nothing more than a gut feeling that I was meant to do something else in the plant-based world.

🍷 I cut alcohol out of my life when it no longer made sense with all of the other healthy things I was doing for my body.

🖊️ I started journaling again, something I hadn’t done in years.

🧘‍♀️ I committed to doing yoga a couple times a week.

These things are all a work in progress and probably always will be. I still have days where I just don’t do the thing I said I was going to do… for absolutely no reason other than I don’t wanna and no one can make me. 

But the fundamental shifts in my mindset and attitude mean that when that does happen, it’s just an “off” day. 

• I’m not starting over or going back to Day 1.

• I am able to get back on track so much easier than I ever was before.

• I don’t beat myself up like I used to when I don’t do something I planned to do.

• I’m making an effort to actually feel my feelings instead of shoving them down with wine and chocolate and ignoring them. 

And I can honestly say that all of this started with the decision to go plant-based. 

Life is full of surprises.

It sounds so cliché, I know, but it’s true. I never expected the changes I made to go beyond the food, but I’m absolutely here for it.

If you’re thinking about making the switch, don’t just think about it as changing your diet. It’s so much more than that. The benefits go well beyond what’s on your plate - they’ll affect how you feel, how you live, and how you show up for yourself.

I thought I was changing the way I ate.

Turns out I was literally changing my entire life.

If you're ready to experience the transformative power of plants, it might just surprise you how much more it offers than you ever expected. 🌱💚

Sign up for a free consultation and let’s get started.

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