I am a wife, a mother of two adorable girls, and a part-time worker who loves music, running, snow boarding, water skiing, and hanging out with my friends and family.
My passion is studying the connection between our diet and the state of our health. I love exploring restaurants and recipes that are whole food, plant based diet friendly. To complicate matters as of a year ago, I discovered I am gluten intolerant. All of my recipes are not only plant based but also gluten free.
My hope is to share what I have learned, what I eat, and how I get my family to eat their fruits and veggies.
Background
In the early 90s I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Dr. John McDougall. During his one lecture, he completely transformed the way I thought about food. Through the research he presented, I began to understand the connection between diet and health. Dr. McDougall shared that the Standard American Diet (high animal protein and fat) can promote cancer growth, and many other diseases. My grandmother was dying of cancer at the time, and I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to prevent getting that horrible disease.
He also mentioned that you no longer needed to count calories or worry about weight gain if you maintained a diet that was low in fat and did not include any animal products (yes, that means, fish, dairy, chicken, turkey, etc.). I was the typical teenager at the time always worried about how I looked, so I thought this was a great benefit for this type of diet.
Twenty years later, I wish I could say I kept my life simple and followed his simple, straightforward, health promoting diet. Instead, I have had many adventures with my eating, from trying to eat a vegan diet as a teenager in the South, to my college “vegan” diet of Diet Cokes and Hot Tamales. I have been an overweight vegan, an underweight vegan, a vegetarian, and a pescetarian. I have been criticized, questioned, and applauded by friends, family, doctors, and strangers.
I am happy to say, I enjoy the way I eat, and I am more convinced than ever before that it is health promoting and disease preventing! Call it what you will – a starch based diet, nutriarian, plant strong, or plant based. I eat a variety of whole foods that taste great, while avoiding oil, animal products, dairy and gluten. Veggin Around is my place to share my cooking and dining out experiences while also providing helpful tips if you and your family want to give a plant based diet a try!
