Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [16]
Even my friends were supportive. I still attended Meat Fest, and a double veggie burger and fries became my new usual. When we’d have barbecues over the summer, I’d bring along a box of Boca Burgers, and it was like nothing had changed at all. Sure, people cracked jokes about it, but they were my friends. I didn’t object to what they ate and they didn’t object to what I ate. We all just made our own choices, and no matter what anybody said, I felt good about mine.
Looking back on it now, it’s amazing how little changed when I became vegan. It seems inconceivable that going from a meat eater one day to a vegan the next wouldn’t require a huge shift in a person’s life, but it certainly didn’t in mine. There was one major thing that changed, but it was a change I didn’t expect.
It never occurred to me that adopting a vegan diet would cause me to lose fifty pounds in two years, but that’s what happened. I lost the first twenty or so pounds before I left for college. People were beginning to notice that I was slimming down, but I didn’t notice a huge difference that first year until my mom took me shopping the summer before I left for my freshman year of college: I hadn’t worn a size medium shirt or a pair of pants with a 34-inch waist since I started high school.
The rest of the weight came off my freshman year, and that’s when the difference really became apparent. Gradually, over the course of that year, my body completely changed. My face looked slimmer, my waist leveled off at a size 32, and I even lost what my mother had always affectionately referred to as the “baby fat” on my hands.
Since the weight came off so slowly, it wasn’t until I went home for Christmas that year that I fully understood the extent of the changes. My friends and family couldn’t believe their eyes, and my grandmother found it rather unacceptable that I had yet to replace my new baggy clothes.
I didn’t get substantially more exercise or eat any less than I ate before: I just ate differently. I’m virtually the same weight today as I was in my sophomore year of college, when for the first time in my life I finally felt good about my body, because I’d made changes in my diet that made me feel good about myself.
I love Ben’s story because he got an unexpected benefit when he changed his diet to vegan. He made the switch because he loved animals, and the weight loss just came naturally, as a side effect. He demonstrates so well that “leaning in” to a new way of eating—in his case by “veganizing” his favorite foods—works easily.
I decided to lead with weight loss because it’s an issue on so many people’s minds, and they don’t always know how easy it is to lose weight by cutting out animal-derived foods (and processed junk). That’s the truth of it; when we choose to eat in ways that support our health and vitality, our bodies naturally find their ideal weight. (And if you don’t need to lose weight, you won’t; remember, your body has an inborn system of checks and balances that, once unburdened by the unnatural fatty diet full of animal protein, will keep you right where you are supposed to be.) The really great thing is that eating plant-based foods means you can ditch the scale and stop worrying about controlling every calorie and carb. On every level, your body will feel the difference. And, as you’ll see when you turn to Promise 2, you’ll be arming yourself against the great killer diseases of our time. Doesn’t get much better than that!
PROMISE 2:
You Will Lower Your Risks for Cancer, Heart Disease, and Diabetes—and Even Reverse Diseases Already Diagnosed
Did you know?
One out of every three children born after 2000 will