I am a Nurse Practitioner and have been in practice for 16 years. I have loved every minute of it. I have been lucky to work at some of the best hospitals in the world where I learned amazing things, except anything on nutrition. I am also just a normal American woman who has struggled with her weight over the years, gaining and losing up to as much as 60 pounds at one point.
I had always said I was a “vegetarian” but I really was not a very good one. I would occasionally eat meat and the joke goes that I said I was a vegetarian “except for steak and lobster.”
Then we got Oscar, our labradoodle rescue. One day I was sitting down eating a piece of pork at dinner and patting Oscar on the head and I was reminded of an article that said pigs are smarter than dogs. My life changed forever.
I immediately reached out to my friend who I knew was vegan for guidance. She directed me to Melanie Joy’s TED talk. It changed my life. I never ate another piece of meat.
As I was exploring this lifestyle I discovered that a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) was the healthy version of being vegan (you can eat very unhealthily as a vegan). More research showed that most, if not all, of the chronic diseases that our population suffer from can be prevented if not reversed with this lifestyle.
Then I entered the angry phase. I have been in healthcare for over 16 years and this is the first time I heard about this! I began to devour everything written on WFPB and the data that supports it as the one way of eating to improve por prevent almost all chronic medical conditions, not just a select few.
Eating a WFPB lifestyle I effortlessly dropped 40 pounds. I did not count and weigh anything. I ate until I was full (and that was a lot). Everyone began to notice not only the weight loss but also how happy I seemed to be. This lifestyle has literally changed who I am physically, emotionally and spiritually. I am a new woman and I thought it would be selfish not to share this life-affirming way of living and I decided I needed to spread the word.
Deirdre Sweeney, Plant-Based Health 