The Veganist and more...

My friend Shauna sent me this amazing book called The Veganist by Kathy Freston. I hadn't read it because Jeremy wanted to read it first. It is in fact what made Jeremy come to me a few weeks ago and say that he felt we should go totally Vegan. This book is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving your health in a different way. This book teaches that it's as easy as changing your diet and doesn't require any medicine or surgeries. I am only about a quarter of the way though and I am amazed by what I am learning that I didn't know. I have been a vegetarian for 7 months and the improvements in my body have been ten fold. I have been a vegan for about a month and again I can feel the massive changes. I don't think it's for everyone but I am loving the way I feel.

As I am reading this book a couple of quotes have stuck out to me and I thought I would share them. She asks the question how long does it take to lose and how much will I lose when asked about going on a Vegan diet. Her answer, 'When you're in the process of losing weight, it's important to remember that the extra weight didn't just come about overnight, and in the same manner, it will take some time to lose it. Patience is important--hard, but important--because anything that happens super rapidly simply won't last.' As I read this is really struck me and it made me think back to how many times I have beaten myself up over how slow I am losing the weight. Despite the fact that it was a gradual process, for some reason I have felt like bam it should be gone. I think that's my American mentality talking in all of this. Many of us as American's are known to have a instant gratification type attitude, we want it now and that's it. I am super guilty of doing this myself in so many things and I know many people that act the same way. In fact I can remember lecturing my brother when buying an expensive car about this exact thing, yet I didn't follow my own advice time and time again. One of my goals this time is to take it a day at a time, it works for those addicted to drinking and drugs. So why wouldn't it work for someone addicted to food.

For that is exactly what it is, it's a food addiction. We get addicted to the high sugar, high fat, rich taste foods and it's a constant struggle not to turn to those very things. I had been addicted to those very items since I was a small child, I can vividly remember my Mom sharing large boxes of Hostess chocolate donuts and stopping on the way home to throw the box away before we got home to my Dad. I learned not only how to eat these things but to hide that I was eating them, even at a young age I knew I shouldn't have been eating them. After all why would Mommy hide the boxes or throw them away before Daddy saw them if it was ok to eat it. I knew each time I ate them as I reached adulthood that I shouldn't have been eating them, but I did the same patterns. In fact using the same instruments and hiding them from my husband before he could see what I was doing. Again I knew it was wrong but I did it anyway.

Another quote that she wrote ties in with this, 'For years, I consumed death, and for that I almost lost my life.' This strikes an even deeper cord in me than the one before, I knew what my risk factors were from an early age. Almost all of the females in my family are over-weight or obese. Almost all of my Aunts and Uncles had or have diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart problems. By the time I reached my teen years I had lost my beloved Grandmother, both my Great Grandmas on my Maternal side, my uncle on my Mom's side, and so many more than I can list here to cancer. My Mom had been diagnosed with Diabetes and by the time I was married I had had cancer myself, my Dad has been diagnosed with diabetes, and I had lost even more family members to cancer. My Dad was later diagnosed with high blood pressure and heart problems as was my Mom and one of my Uncles died of a heart attack before he reached 60 years old.

I knew that I had been obese since childhood which further increased my risks and that I shouldn't eat the way I was with all the risk factors but turning to that food was more important to me than my life, the well being of my children, or the love of an amazing man. I daily ingested death just as the quote says, I continued to drink soda, eat Little Debbie's, and suck down more calories than any one person should ever eat. So yes my name is Jenny and I am a food addict but I am here today to tell you that I am beating this addiction. The cycle stops here with me, the buck stops here with me, and as long as my children live in my home I will never watch them be teased for their weight or shove cakes in their mouths. No more, it's done here!