Unforseen Benefits of a Whole Food, Plant Based Diet

As anyone who has read my blog so far may know, I decided to make the switch from mostly veggies and animal products to whole plants; everything plants! I was so unaware that a lot of people can't understand how someone can eat JUST plants. As if meat, eggs and dairy are the only food groups!
Anyway, I feel I've been luckier than most with the decision to transition. Some of my family members feel it's a phase and I can see why. I've tried so many different things. Honestly, this is the only thing that has helped me lose weight, get mental clarity and such. I plan for this to be a lifelong commitment.
Moving forward, I wanted to fix my PCOS and things are changing and getting better, slowly. But there's one thing I never thought would change - my vision. My eyes were getting so bad to the point that looking at this very screen for more than a few minutes would give me a massive migraine. I had to wear a hat at work because the lights were too bright. I could barely see from one end of the machine I work on to the other (and it's not a very big machine...)
However, my vision has cleared up, my light sensitivity has decreased to a more normal level (I'll be going to a specialist early next year to see how well it's improved), and I think even my color vision has improved. I'm not sure if that's even possible, but I'm finally believing in the impossible now.
I'm happy that I can do the things I enjoy again, like writing and sculpting without suffering for the next few days. I never thought that chaning my diet would improve my eyes so drastically. I could go on and on about how wonderful it is, but there's not enough time for that!

I just wanted to let everyone who is following this know that so much more than just PCOS can be conquered when transitioning to a whole food, plant based diet. It's truly incredible.

If you want to make a switch, there's so much information for you online or you can email me. I have a link below and I hope you'll check it out.

Even though it may seem like I'm avoiding my main goal of this blog, I'm not. Work got busy, holidays have come and gone and more are coming. At the beginning of the next year, I will get back to this blog. I need the time to spend with family and get things ready for Christmas. Thank you so much for reading and I hope this is inspiring to anyone who is struggling with vision issues.

https://veganuary.com/starter-kit/
sharaelyse@live.com (please put 'wfpb' in the title your message)

WFPB - What's That; Another Craze?

The acronym, WFPB, stands for whole food, plant based. Is it another craze or trend? Probably for some. For me, it's life.

So why did I choose to switch to a whole food, plant based diet? Because the science is clear. It's the only diet in the world that has been proven time and time again to reverse our major ailments such as heart disease and diabetes.

The reason I believe that it is a bit of a trend right now rather than a way of life is that there have been many documentaries like, What The Health and Forks Over Knives that have become popular recently. Now this isn't a bad thing, but some people will try anything and if it doesn't work within their time frame, they give up and move onto the next big thing.

That being said, I tried it for two weeks, feeling rather skeptical, and the immediate results were fantastic! It helped with my IBS almost instantly. Inflammation went down allowing me to lose a good bit of weight quickly. I finally had energy and I could finally go to sleep rather than toss and turn all night. As of today, I've been on this journey for 61 days. My insulin resistance has improved drastically. Normally, I'd wake up with very low glucose levels (50's or below) and this morning when I checked them (after 12 hrs of sleep) they were at 89.
After eating, my blood sugars don't really get any higher than 110 and all I've been eating is carbohydrates and some fats. Before, I could eat an apple and they would spike to 130 or higher. For me, this is incredible and I'm happy with the results.

Not only has it helped me physically, but emotionally as well. I struggle with depression and lately, I've been able to keep my emotions in check. I've gone from having weeks if not months of feeling hopeless from something little triggering it to the same situations getting me frustrated but only temporarily. I no longer have this constant state of anxiety or stress either which is amazing for me.

And the last major thing I want to point out about this way of living is my eyes. I have an eye disease called cone-rod dystrophy and it basically breaks down the lens of the eyes over time. I'm not sure if this can be reversed, but when I went to my eye doctor he was so excited that he would be able to adjust my prescription to allow me to see 20/20. The whole 20 plus years that I've gone to see him, I've never had that kind of success in anything I'd done prior!

Anyway, this is a blog about PCOS and not my eyes!

Okay, okay what does whole food, plant based eating include?

To begin, WFPB basically follows the same food guidelines as veganism. No meat, no dairy, no eggs, no fish, no animal bi-products. But here is where it differs, it also requires that you avoid all oils, added sugars and added salts. All of these have negative affects on our bodies and while I'm still working on avoiding oil, sugar and salt, I still fall short here. I do however, still see major health benefits from just cutting out any animal products.

Whole foods means to eat a plant in its entirety. So don't avoid fat, but rather eat whole nuts, seeds or avocados. Avoid sugars but don't say no to whole fruits. Fruit juices, however, are not a good choice. Even juicing them yourself could still be harmful. And while I'm on this, berries and bananas can be blended up for smoothies or juices as they don't seem to have the same negative affect as fruits like apples or oranges.
Separating the fructose from the fiber basically gives you pure sugar. The fiber in fruit is what helps slow down the absorption of sugar into the blood.
Now, a lot of people get mad about having to avoid oil, but when you eat just oil you're eating pure fat. It does not matter if it's coconut oil, olive oil or canola oil. When separated from their whole form, they cause issues in our bodies from paralyzing our arteries right after eating to heart disease.

Here's a video by one of my favorite YouTubers. He goes into the studies showing about the dangers of oil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtwwZP4Yfs

I hope that helps you understand why, if you are using food to heal your body, that it's better to eat whole foods instead of processed foods.

Then you have plant based. It basically means just that - eat plants. Any plants! We do have issues with major crops and GMOs around the world. I personally try to avoid soy, wheat or corn that do not have the GMO Free stamp on them. If you are not sure what these are, leave a comment and I'll do a blog just on those!

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of a whole food, plant based lifestyle.

PS: I will go into the different aspects of PCOS and see what the science has to say about each and how a wfpb diet can help. Also, September is PCOS awareness month, so I will be setting aside one weekend to do an entire blog, possibly vlog using cronometer.com and my glucose tester to show everyone what I typically eat day to day and how much I'm eating as well as how it's affecting my glucose levels. Stay tuned!

Who Am I?

My name is Stephanie. Currently 29 and the pictures above are of me in 2006... I was skinny and this wasn’t even my skinniest size. The sad truth is, I was anorexic - I lived off a handful of veggies, possibly a pack of cheese crackers, soda and coffee each day. In 11th grade, was down to 107lbs (though in the collage, I’m a high school senior and around 112lbs). Even so, I didn't feel it was good enough.
It all started when a boy I had a crush on called me fat. It was then that I decided to make it my goal to lose 50lbs. I did - in a month. It seems like a huge accomplishment, but I was killing myself over nothing.  I was hungry all the time, sluggish and miserable. The only thing that made me feel slightly alive was walking or listening to music. At this size, though, I thought I was still fat! I wanted to be smaller, but my parents caught on to what I was doing to my body and had stepped in. They were monitoring me as much as they were able and holding the threat of sending me off to get help if I continued to lose weight. In the above pictures, I was dating my high school sweetheart who is now my husband of nine yearsm, also made sure I was eating enough. No one cared what I was eating, as long as it was something. 

This next picture was taken on my wedding day. I have no idea how much I weighed. i remember eating salads everyday for months - with loads of bacon bits, cheese whiz, ranch dressing and pickles while drinking a ton of water. It didn't help me at all lose the weight I wanted to before the big day. I look like I'm pregnant here and I was probably pretty bloated feeling. My husband and I didn't have time to eat anything before heading off to our honeymoon destination so we stopped at Taco Bell on the way there. My diet was so poor and you could see it on the outside. I could feel it on the inside as well, though I had no idea what it was actually doing to me.

The picture to the left was a few years after I had been married. We were still eating rather poorly - both in the financial and health related way. We didn't have great jobs and so we bought as little as possible. I was eating maybe once or twice a day and when I did eat, it was chips or only meat and always cheese. Move back a little to our college days, my husband wanted me to eat all the time since he was afraid I'd start starving again so we ate Taco Bell everyday - sometimes multiple times per day! I was gaining weight - so fast - yet no one said anything to my face about it. I was now on the opposite end of the eating disorder. I had become a binge eater and was putting on the pounds like you wouldn’t believe. I developed a disease called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which caused a lot of grief and suffering on my marriage. We tried for two years to get pregnant before we went to see specialists. My OBGYN told me to lose weight and put me on three different types of medication without really explaining it to me. After several months of feeling sick from the metformin and birth control, I decided to stop taking any of it. It was dangerous for me to come off the medication cold turkey and I do not recommend this to anyone.
I wish my OBGYN had known about the role food plays in PCOS and she may not know to this day. I spent a lot of time blaming her for my condition getting worse, but what I've learned in recent months is that most doctors are not taught about nutrition in medical school. I more blame myself now for not doing my own research.
PCOS causes a lot of different issues in women, but my main concern at this point was infertility and all I ever wanted to be was a mother. The reality that it may never happen sent me into a spiral of deep depression, self-hatred, denial, overeating then starving myself, turmoil in my marriage and eventually a nasty separation from my husband. The last time I remember weighing myself I was over 190lbs. If you don't know me, I’m less than 5ft tall, so you can imagine how that much weight looks on a short person, and needless to say, I didn’t take many body pictures at this time.

These last two pictures are the most current of me. Here, I’m down to 150lbs and while the weight is starting to come off, it’s not as quick as before - which is great - it’s in a healthy and sustainable way now. I made the choice to change my diet to a whole food, plant based vegan lifestyle. I am  hopeful that in doing this I will be allowing plants to heal my disease. 

This is where the blog title comes into play "Plants Vs. PCOS". I want to see how going vegan is going to help me overcome this disease so that maybe other women might be able to overcome this as well.
As of today, I’m on day 47 and down to 148lbs in my vegan transition. I haven’t felt this good in so long. I can finally sleep well, get the rest I need, think straight and concentrate better. I'm no longer in pain on a daily basis and I have a ton of energy.

I am excited to start this blog and hope it'll inspire others! Thank you for reading.