One year anniversary

This August I celebrated my one year anniversary of plant based eating. I felt it's good to look back on my journey and reflect a bit. And I thought I'd answer some commonly asked questions about it.

About 5 or so years ago, my husband and I watched a movie on Netflix, called Fat, Sick and nearly dead. Which is about a guy who has countless illness aches and ails and is overweight. He decides to do a juice fast to aid in his getting better.

This is the first time I had heard the concept of using plants to cure sickness and disease. I loved hearing his story. So much so that we went out and bought a juicer and proceeded to juice fast for 2-3 days. And my husband and I nearly died, haha. It was such a shock to our bodies, the juice tasted bad at the time, and we felt hungry all the time. So we put that juicer in the closet and didn't think about it for lots of years.

A couple years ago, I started thinking again about this concept of flooding your system with nutrient dense foods. And I decided that I'd start to kick up the amount of vegetables and fruits that I ate. I was eating mostly cooked meals, of greens and some type of meat thrown in. It wasn't hard, and soon I was starting to notice that I had a bit more energy, felt better.

A couple of months into that journey, I had sort of a strange dream. I was at a factory where they make hotdogs, and I watched as all the parts of the animal go into the slurry of what then becomes the hotdog you consume. And I don't know why but it's sort of like a switch just went off. I went to the grocery store that day and tasked to get hotdogs I'm standing there and the dream flashes back to me and I just can't ignore it anymore. I can't do it. I'm going to stop eating meat.

So my nutrient dense meals switched after that too, veggies with beans, seeds and nuts. And I noticed the change immediately. I felt lighter after my meals. My taste buds were starting to adjust to liking the taste of vegetables, even craving them at times.

I also noticed I started looking at animals differently. And asking odd questions, like why did we decide to eat cows and not cats. Really it's made up of the same stuff. I love my cats I would never think about eating them. I have a hard time watching hunting shows now, because I only see some beautiful creature that has no clue someone is about to ambush them to fill up a freezer.

I don't push my agenda on anyone else, but if telling my story resonates with you, that's wonderful.

It hasn't been a perfect journey. I still have a ways to go. I've given up milk, but I do still eat cheese (next thing to go). And the occasional egg (next thing to go also).

During my last year, I've learned a lot about what being plant based means. And lots of similar

stories about people who get really excited to eat this way and its really inspiring. In fact there even more types of plant based eaters out there. A vegetarian, avoids meat , but still can eat dairy, eggs and animal byproducts. A pescatarian will eat fish. A vegan avoids anything animal, including wearing leather, or products that test on animals. There are raw vegans, that eat mostly raw vegetables (to maintain the live enzymes from the vegetable). There are fruititarians that live just off of raw fruit.

There are all types of fasts, that people can participate in as well. Myself I did a 5 day juice fast this last winter, and I have a couple youtube videos on that if you want to see how it went. Water fasts, where you just drink water for a certain timeframe. Theres a dry fast where you don't eat or drink. And then there are breatharians that don't eat at all, and live off the air we breathe.

So you can see there is so much to explore with this new outlook of mine. I still have a lot to learn but it feels right for me now, so I'll continue.

Some Commonly asked questions:

Where do you get your protein? I eat beans and seeds, and lots of veggies have protein.

Aren't there nutrients you can only get from meat? I take a quality B-12 supplement daily. As far as my research has led me, this is the only thing a plant based eater may lack.

So how long are you going to do this? For the foreseeable future. It's not hard for me at this point. And I've integrated it into my lifestyle.

Are your kids plant based? Unfortunately no, my husband and kids still eat the standard American diet.

For those of you wanting to be inspired by my plant based adventure and recipes I've created, follow along on my Instagram: jess_kippes_creates