The Background
A Tale of Two Pregnancies and 100+ Extra Pounds
I will admit at the outset that for many years I was as susceptible to dietary confusion as the average layperson. As a teen and a young woman, I was "effortlessly" thin and fit, and I ate a LOT of food that I now consider poor quality food. The "effortless" thinness was actually the result of consistent and rigorous exercise which counter-balanced my less than optimal food choices.
During my pregnancies. I ate WHATEVER I craved, in mass quantities, and told myself that it was all "for the baby". I gained 70 pounds with my first child and 45 pounds with my second, and for the first time in my life I had to put in a concerted effort to get back to a weight that I considered desirable. I flirted with "clean" eating for as long it took to take off the weight, and then returned to my old eating habits .
As my children got older and life became more and more busy, I found it more difficult to fit in my old rigorous exercise habits, and slowly but surely, the pounds began to accumulate on my small boned frame in a distribution that I found well - unattractive and potentially unhealthy.
My medical training told me that the extra weight was unhealthy, but the medical literature offered no clear pathway to the "best" way to eat. I began to pore through alternative medical literature and even popular media in a quest for a more healthful and balanced way of eating that would take off the pounds and lend itself to a more permanent lifestyle change.
I studied the Mediterranean diet, the Paleo diet, pesco-vegetarianism, lacto-ovo-vegetarianism and veganism.
In the end, the data and my personal experiences have led me to choose veganism.
In the next installment, I'll tell you why!