Although when we were growing up our family was no more educated about nutrition than the next, our parents were always health-conscious. Our meals were homemade and generally looked similar to MyPlate (protein, grain, veggie, fruit, milk) and every night we ate supper together. When we got to high school my brother, sister, and I all played sports. Our parents made the connection between eating a balanced diet and performance and they stressed that importance to us. (I remember my mom making me a smoothie before practice and cracking a raw egg in it for extra protein. ?) Although our parents weren’t spot on nutrition-wise, they were pretty dang close, and they succeeded in instilling an interest in nutrition in us kids (thanks mom and dad!).
That interest was the main factor when I decided to study Dietetics at Purdue and then Nutrition Science at TWU. When doing so I learned a ton about nutrients (macro/micronutrients, sat fat vs. unsat fat, fiber, phytonutrients, etc.) and how they each impact the body.
After finishing my formal education, I really started applying that knowledge (unlike in college when every Friday a meals worth of chips and salsa were washed down by a cactus cup of margarita — ?). I started making connections between nutrients and the food I was eating. For example, when considering the nutritional content of cheese (saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, hormones, tonsss of calories) and comparing that to the nutritional makeup of kale (phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber) it becomes obvious which foods I should be eating and which I should be avoiding.
I continued to make these connections, educate myself, and apply the info to my daily food choices. The more research Nat and I did, the more apparent it became that a whole food, plant-based diet was (without a shadow of a doubt) the healthiest diet.
At that point (a couple years after college) I started cutting out the remaining animal products in my diet – mostly seafood, greek yogurt, and lots and lots of eggs. I made a 2-week meal plan with only whole food, plant-based foods. I followed it religiously for a month, which was so satisfying for my organization and plan-loving personality. While following my meal plan it became obvious that eating only whole plant foods was not only doable, but easier than I thought. Over time I gained confidence and ditched the meal plan. Since then it’s been smooth sailing. I did find that a meal plan worked well for me in the beginning. The goal of eating only unprocessed plants seemed daunting without a plan.
Nat and I are both dietitians and our family loves learning about nutrition. We all feed off each other’s interest in nutrition – we can’t get together without talking about what we’ve learned recently. Staying motivated to eat healthful foods and continue learning comes naturally when I have people to share it with. If you don’t have some of those people – find some! They are invaluable! These are my people! ?
Continuously creating and testing recipes and doing research for the Wholly Plants blog also keeps me excited. I love the adventure of trying new ingredients and cuisines and spices and cooking methods, etc. and my husband and I have lots of fun experimenting. My food preferences used to be static, but now are everchanging and evolving. Even though we don’t eat animal products, I feel less confined than when we did. I’ve become more of an adventurous eater and with that comes endless food possibilities and an excitement to try allllll the healthy foods!
Thanks for reading! – Lexie
