Introduction: Welcome to My Blog!

As my first post of this blog, I thought it would be important to give you some background on me and my new found obsession. My journey actually began when I switched jobs in 2021. I am a Registered Respiratory Therapist and I had been working in pediatrics for 6 years. I decided it was time for a change and I took a position at a cardiothoracic intensive care unit. I was so saddened by not only the elderly patients but also patients in their 40’s and 50’s that were having to undergo heart surgeries! Forty and fifty is still young, why were they developing chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes? I thought there had to be a reason for this.

I did some digging and came across books such as How Not to Die by Michael Greger, M.D., Eat to Beat Disease by William W. Li, M.D., and Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz M.D., to name a few. Then came the documentaries, I watched Forks Over Knives, The Game Changers, That Sugar Film, and What the Health, among others. I was shocked to discover how much nutrition plays a part in our well-being! At the same time being horrified by what goes into our foods by the food industry and how animals are mistreated. The amount of chemicals, carcinogens, fats, sugars, and salt that are added to our foods is enough for anyone to want to pack up their things and move to the middle of nowhere to start your own homestead! But we must not get discouraged, there is hope! We can control what goes on the end of our forks. Every day and at every meal we make a decision to fuel nourishment or to feed disease. I choose nourishment!

Thus began my journey to start my own personal health voyage. My changes did not happen overnight. I work full time (plus overtime lately), have a loving husband, and three rambunctious dogs. We also foster puppies when we don’t have any house projects going on ( I love dogs and pretty much all other animals!). Needless to say, we are busy. I ended up going back to working in pediatrics. I felt almost an impending doom working in the cardiovascular unit. At the time, I wanted to help these people but I didn’t know how. We were extubating them from the ventilators after their heart surgeries and then offering them bacon for breakfast the next morning! I feel like things could be better. I understand some people will not change, and that’s ok! We all have a right to make our own decisions. But it’s not ok to withhold ALL the options from patients about nutrition and lifestyle. If people were offered to go under a surgeons knife, deal with excruciating pain, have a long recovery time, take time away from work and family….OR simply change the way they were eating, I have a feeling more people would try the diet change first. Especially after the docs read you the list of complications that can occur with surgery, it's like hearing a commercial for a drug on TV but worse! Side effects include bleeding, heart attacks, infection, memory loss, kidney problems, long term need for a ventilator, abnormal heart rhythm’s, death…..we all get the picture. I want to spread the word to everyone and anyone who will listen to me about the dangers of our standard American diet. We need to take control of our own health and stop relying on the food industry to tell us what is good for us. The solution is simple… Eat mostly vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

My husband still eats meat and I still do on occasion. We are much more conscious of where we buy our meat from and how the animal was fed and treated. My diet is 90% whole food, plant based. My most difficult days are when I have to work. It’s important for me to make time to meal prep my meals. I find that if I am unable to meal prep, I usually slip up on my dietary plans because our cafeteria at work does not offer much for vegetarian or vegan diets. I also have a problem with stress eating sometimes. When I get stressed, I have that feeling that a bowl of mac and cheese will fix it all. It doesn’t. I eat the bowl and regret my decision afterwards. I need to have better coping skills. I am a work in progress! I’m hoping by recording my thoughts in this blog, I will be more accountable for my own actions and help me get to a place of well-being. I’d like to learn from others and hopefully share some good recipes, advice, and tips with you as well! Here we go!