My WFPB Journey In Progress-Day 5 to Day 106-Pics and Info

kmcosgrove115

WFPB Timeline – Schedule of Progress

Day 1 - Friday, February 8, 2013

Made the decision to start whole food plant based 100% after watching the FOK movie the evening of Thursday, February 7, 2013 – found www.myfitnesspal.com as well and dedicated myself to logging in everything that passed my lips – I also found their app and installed it on my smart phone so I had no excuses not to track all that I ate and drank

Day 5 - Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Snapped a “before” picture to start documenting my journey to better weight and health – steroids had done so much damage to my body after 2012 when I endured 7 lung infections and countless trips to the Dr., Emergency Room for asthma attacks along with so many pills:



Day 63 - Thursday, April 11, 2013

Weight began dropping quickly from being 100% WFPB – I believe much of the initial loss was due to inflammation coming down from eliminating dairy and so many processed foods from my diet

I noticed it had been months since an asthma attack and the one cold I did get in early 2013 was mild, short lived, requiring no antibiotics and for the first time I can ever recall, one of my lymph nodes in my neck swelled and was tender – I realized then that my immune system had finally “turned on” and this was how your body should fight infection / disease

I also really dove into understanding as much as I could about BMR and TDEE - after determining that I was severely under eating each day in caloric intake, way below my true BMR, I recalculated my information for my weight at the time and began eating at least my BMR but 20% less then my TDEE – I also learned as the weight drops, those calculations change and need to be refigured every 5-10 lbs. It was through this adjustment my metabolism finally turned back on and my body re-learned that I would not starve it and began to let go of the excess weight.

I made the decision that once I felt enough of a loss had occurred in my weight from all the medications that had put it on in 2012, tracking calories daily and to the detail I was doing at this point, would diminish because I knew eating plant strong and in everything I had read, tracking calories was just not needed because of the foods plant strong diets included – but at day 63, I was getting there, but not quite “there enough” to let go of my daily logging – and the side effect of that (in a good way) was I really was learning just how many calories were in so many things so I felt the education in that arena was very beneficial!

By this date I was down 16 lbs. in just 63 days:



Day 78 - Friday, April 26, 2013

I began to learn to not look at my bathroom scale often which always caused much frustration and feelings of failure if the changes were only slight, I started to research and really understand that the weight would eventually drop due to being WFPB – my goal had started as (and remained) to be in better health and so the scale started to become something I only did every few weeks

I decided to snap a picture on Day 78 after seeing that I was now down 21 lbs. AND that I could wear one of my favorite red dresses that really started to show my hourglass figure returning!



Day 100 - Saturday, May 18, 2013

Sometime between day 78 and day 100, I began researching more into raw food and health. I ran into some documentaries on Netflix regarding Dr. Gerson and how his therapy of juicing helped reverse all sorts of cancers in patients sent home with no hope. I was captivated and knowing I had 3 lumpectomies already in my life (I am only 42), along with the surgeons who had highly recommended that I have a prophylactic double mastectomy in late 2012 due to my family history, this “cancer therapy” of juicing held appeal.

So I began slowly – I started with a food processor and put in a balance of citrus fruits and veggies – I then took the chopped up result and poured it into a dish towel held over a strainer in a bowl and twisted it and squeezed and squeezed.

It was laborious and at first, I thought there was no way I could drink this even a little – I clearly felt as though my body was rapidly moving things out of my system after ingesting just one glass.

I decided not to give up on it as the information was too compelling, so I kept researching and saw some videos on You Tube by Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram who also had launched a Fully Raw website and FB page. Her happiness in those videos was infectious (her eye color even changed after going fully raw) and I watched as she drooled to herself after juicing a fresh batch of “health in a glass” and getting ready for that first sip.

And so I decided to stay with it, incorporating it into my already firmly established WFPB diet and found very quickly that ginger gave the juices an extra kick of spice I really liked – I began frequenting Oasis Living Cuisine near my home and work to get juices when I wanted them and then expanded to going to farmers markets every weekend or the organic section in Wegman’s loading up on things I thought I’d never eat – chard, beets, turnips and more.

Eventually, as the juicing continued and the dish towel proved ever so messy in squeezing, we finally migrated to the Vitamix (so in love with this machine) and the juicing was a little easier as the Vitamix really chops and dices to an amazing puree before I started to pour into my trusty dish towel – I even snapped a picture of a filled container before I turned it on as it was so visually pretty to me and it hangs at my desk at work – here it is:



Fairly quickly (within days, a week at most) I noticed significant changes in how I felt from the juicing - my moods were constantly up and deliriously happy, and I mean crazy happy (I spoke to new people at work with no hesitation, smile constantly and nothing seems to get me down), my energy was even more boosted, the kids no longer triggered impatience at things that normally would leave me scrambling and I laughed and found pleasure all day in just being alive – sounds corny I know but I swear this happened and is still occurring – life was brighter, happier, easier in some odd way and the weird, weird thing – I woke up every morning now CRAVING the juice after maybe a week of doing it every day!

Again, the juicing became this new, firmly entrenched “staple” as part of my WFPB diet (I have it now all throughout my day) and so while out one weekend shopping, we happened into the kitchen appliance aisle and found a juicer – sold and sold! And here it is (also printed and on my wall at work):



In conjunction with all of these new things we were trying, we started to grow a vegetable garden out back on our deck with large portable rolling boxes and we then made the decision to use the left over pulp from the juicer for compost for our plants as well as to make vegetable stock! Nothing is wasted now!

It was around this time I started noticed clothes getting looser, belts requiring me to make new notches to keep my pants up and so I went online and bought a few new things – not too much as I knew I was still dropping weight and could feel the chemistry in my body shifting every minute of the day – I was well under way now to great health and a much healthier body weight. Below is a picture snapped on Day 100 in a new pink dress I got from Victoria’s Secret:



Around this mark the Kaiser Permanente article came out urging doctors to promote a plant based diet to their patients and I printed a bunch of them out as I find myself speaking regarding Forks Over Knives, Engine 2, juicing and plant based eating daily if not multiple times a day……………..and so I wanted to have the information printed and handy.

I also decided to enroll at eCornell and become certified in Plant Based Nutrition, the course T. Colin Campbell designed and my classes begin Wednesday, May 22, 2013! I am SO excited at 42 to be going back to school and wished my Bachelors degree I earned in 1992 was in a more interesting field of nutrition instead of Business!

I continue to take pictures of beautiful whole food plant based meals (like the salad below with gorgeous pomegranate seeds on them after learning how to de-seed the fruit with my daughter!) as well as of my own progress as the days continue on:



I think this below picture that encompasses “key days in progress” along with the side by side at the bottom showing the comparison pictures from Day 5 to Day 100 speaks volumes:



Additionally, around this 100 day mark, I received my blood work results from my new primary as I was curious what the results would show. B12 (an important nutrient we need in this diet and can lack if not supplemented), was absolutely ok and then some.

The real results I was after were the cholesterol numbers – I was never truly “high” but always in the high end of normal. The breakdown from my 5/13/13 blood draw were as follows:

Total Cholesterol - 193 (less then 200 is desirable - Dr. McDougall notes that 150 or less is ideal – I am well on my way!)

HDL (Good Chol) - 50 (40 – 60 is optimal – Dr. McDougall notes higher is better with a caveat that all fractions of cholesterol are reduced on a plant based diet – this is looking to be in the ideal range!)

LDL (Bad Chol) - 100 (is in the optimal range of 100 or less and much lower then past blood work draws – Dr. McDougall suggests less then 90 as the ideal – heading that way too!)

And for the heck of it because I felt “smaller” and “lighter” today, pictures of Day 103 are now side by side to Day 100 and Day 5………………..pictures are only getting better

As of Day 103 I have not weighed for about 3-4 weeks – my TOM hit and so I am waiting for that to leave town – perhaps this weekend (Memorial Day weekend) I will venture to the scale and see what the updated numbers now are – my gut tells me I have lost, clothes are loose, loose and more loose but that little inkling of fear of the scale still lingers…………………it’s all good though because time is on my side with eating WFPB and eventually my body will be that leaner more fit and healthy version!

rhea420

wow, you did an awesome job! Thanks for sharing and inspiring.