About Me
Hi, I am The Veggie Gal, otherwise known as Kim. My journey into eating a plant based vegan diet started after I had given birth to my 4th child. My 3rd child had been born with Down syndrome and around 2 years old she developed Autism and JRA (juvenile arthritis) and I wanted to see if diet would help her. She really struggled with her health and I struggled to help her. I have always been leery of medication and the doctors were giving her some really big drugs with scary potential side effects. I decided I would try and help her myself. I read through everything I could get my hands on and it all lead me to nutrition. I found an AMAZING book called The China Study. This book changed my life and the life of the rest of my family. I decided half way through reading the book that I was now vegan and I would have my 2 youngest become full fledged vegans as well.
Before reading that book I had been a lacto-ovo (dairy and eggs) vegetarian for more than 25 years and thought I was being healthy not eating meat. I have a husband and 18 year old son (who are meat eaters) and a 15 year old daughter who was like I was a lacto ovo vegetarian as well as my 4 year old and 18 month old. With in 2 months of becoming a vegan I had lost 20 lbs! I had only lost about 10 of the 40 lbs of weight I gained with my baby even though he was already 7 months old. Within 2-3 more months I lost another 15-17 lbs! I felt so much better, looked so much better and almost felt like my old self. My eyesight had also cleared up a bit which was unexpected. I had always had trouble seeing the numbers on the microwave while sitting in my living room chair but all of the sudden I could see them. It was great.
My daughter who has Down syndrome was not cured by the diet but improved in many ways. Some of her autistic behaviors decreased or went away (which is wonderful!), she seemed to be in less pain and she lost weight too (she had gotten very chubby from the steroids) so she looked normal weight for her little body. Also people with Down syndrome usually have trouble with constipation and that was greatly improved! My little baby was just starting solids at that time after breastfeeding so it would mean he would be starting off better than all of the rest of us and be a vegan from the beginning!
After those 4 months of getting healthier my teenage daughter saw the changes in me and my body and decided she would give it a try. She had always been very slim by nature but puberty was adding a little bit more curve than she wanted so she jumped in. She figured she would not last a week because she loved cheese and ice cream so much but one week came and went. Two weeks came and went and here we are at over a 1 year (as of 12/09) for her with only 1 cheat (krispy cream doughnut).
Now I am trying to convert my husband and 18 year old son but wow that is proving very difficult! I have educated them in great detail (some wanted and some unwanted educating). They have both agreed that it is probably the healthiest diet to eat and they want to give it a try but just don’t want to give up what they say is “the good stuff”. I make vegan dinners every night (I have not cooked meat in almost 20 years) and give them the option of adding cheese or butter or what ever they want to it. More than half of the time they decide not to add it which I love. My husband said at the first of the year he will try it for 21 days (like Rocco-the cowboy on Dr. Oz) and see what happens. He tried it once for about 10 days and lost about 12lbs! He does not want to give it credit for doing that though.
I hope that through this website I can help educate, support and inspire many people to either continue with or venture into a plant based vegan diet. I want to provide information that has helped me through it and information that is helping my children and husband try it or continue it. If they like something I make then I think most SAD (Standard American Diet) eaters will like it too. Who knows maybe some of you SAD eaters will give it a try and enjoy it and become a healthier you because of it. Join me!
(read my intro here)
Here is a pic of me and my little man
