My Journey to a Happier, Healthier Life Begins

On My Way...

This is a continuation of my whole-foods, plant-based lifestyle journey that began January of 2015.

I left work and had little time to get to Whole Foods.  Tonight would be the first meeting for the Engine 2 Challenge.  I don't know if it was my own self doubt or the rush hour traffic, but my nerves were on edge. The whole idea of being a vegan seemed, suddenly, ridiculous.

I arrived with a few moments to sit and collect my thoughts. I took stock of others in the room. It was a diverse group ranging in age, race and sex.  I was wrong when I assumed I would be the oldest person there. I learned that some had practiced plant-based living for a couple of years.  These were the people that gave me hope for successfully transitioning to plant-based living.  There were a number of couples who had made the change and experienced significant health benefits. They were returning to the challenge to offer support and enjoy the company of like-minded people.  Little did I know how important community would become as I transitioned to a whole-foods, plant-based lifestyle.

Playing It Safe...

Listening to the program leader and hearing the testimonials was very motivating.  It was a lot of information to take in but it gave me hope that I could do better than I had with so many other failed diets. Before going home I had one last thing to do.  We were asked to choose a path that would achieve the outcome we envisioned.  We had four paths to consider:

• Path #1 - Use the four week challenge as informational but make no changes to our diet.
• Path #2 - Reduce the amount of meat and processed food we were eating while also adding more whole foods to our diet.
• Path #3 - Eliminate meat, poultry and fish from our diet but continue to eat dairy and eggs.  This would be a vegetarian diet.
• Path #4 - Eliminate all meat, poultry, fish AND dairy products and eggs.  This is what many people refer to as a vegan diet.

My heart was telling me to go all the way but my brain told me to be careful.  Don't bite off too much Terri.  You don't have a good track record.  Do you want to explain another failure?  My emotions took control.  I raised my hand and announced that I would take Path #2. As soon as I said it I felt better. I felt safe.