Accidentally Vegan
So, about 10 weeks ago, My middle son had been having pretty severe tummy troubles. To the point that he would lay on me in tears. I took him to the Dr, with no real concern from said physician. He started having severe bouts of gastrointestinal upsets, from both ends. I took him to children’s hospital, where they found nothing wrong. So, I decided to eliminate any and all dairy products from his (and the household’s) diet. Within 2 weeks, my 3 year old stopped complaining of the tummy aches that had been present for months, and stopped having tummy troubles. On his 4th birthday next week, we will be taking him to a Gastroenterologist. Hopefully they can tell us what’s been going on with him. During all of this happening, My husband (who IS lactose intolerant) started feeling better than I can ever remember him feeling. You see, he never stopped eating dairy due to his intolerance of it. He just suffered. So, when asked if he wanted to go back to eating dairy, he was adamant about staying away from it from then on. Early in this ‘experiment’ I got into some sustainability and health documentaries that had a focus on whole food plant based lifestyles. I talked to my hubby about trying it for a week to see how we felt and if it would be feasible for us as a family of five. We went the week on a whole food plant based ‘vegan’ diet. At the end of that week, we knew it was completely possible for us, so we went another. At the end of the month, we had amassed enough recipes that we liked to try it for a second month. We are now ending that second month. I feel better than I had in a long time. I’ve been losing weight, slowly. Healthily. 7 pounds in 2 months may not seem like much, but it something. And I don’t exercise. I’m too busy chasing 3 boys around. Taking them to school, cooking them dinner, working 2 jobs, cleaning my extremely lived in 1k sqft apartment. My husband no longer has tummy troubles, we both get more restful sleep. He has lost 10 pounds. My kids are eating a bigger variety of foods. It’s been a good experiment that I really didn’t expect to go as well as it did. I don’t see any sign of us looking back.