Eating You Alive™

With this New Year I would like to offer you a new definition of the word ‘Diet’ which has become heavy laden with uncomfortable and often unspoken associations like starvation, deprivation, sacrifice, guilt, failure, weight loss, rules and short term pain. Perhaps you can even feel a knot in your stomach or develop sweaty palms as you read that list and think about your past diet experiences.

My story is a little bit different in that I am 24 years old, have always been able to eat whatever I want and still keep a slim physique and have never suffered from any chronic disease. So, I don’t have a gripping testimonial of healing or weight loss to inspire others, which automatically turns off a lot of ears, I know.

I grew up as a vegetarian because my parents viewed that as the healthier way to live, so I was lucky that way. We still ate plenty of eggs and cheese which I absolutely loved! Macaroni and cheese with some veggies or cream of potato soup with sweet corn bread were typical dinners for my family.

While not incredibly unique, my start in life in life was somewhat different given that I was raised on soymilk. My parents also tried to keep me from eating the flesh of dead animals, even to the degree of describing it to me as such when I was just able to talk and sitting in a high chair at the Thanksgiving dinner table. 

I think like most kids I never really thought about health or what I was eating except that during my early years I was raised primarily as a vegetarian with an occasional hamburger or some chicken thrown in here and there.

I really hate to interrupt a good story, but given that the holiday season is squarely upon us, it seems appropriate to address some of the challenges that we’ve heard from others and have experienced ourselves! So, here are the 5 biggest challenges of being WFPB during the holidays:

“I was your typical American kid. Growing up in Alabama I was raised on real southern fare: meat n’ three, and the three usually consisted of mac n’ cheese, mashed potatoes and butter beans with bacon.

It seems like we all have those pivotal moments in our lives, that very moment you KNOW that your life has taken a turn in a different direction.

Do you ever find yourself wondering about the story behind the story, how a product came to life, why it was developed in the first place, or how an unknown person goes to bed one night as a regular civilian and wakes up famous?  Yeah, me neither! Ha!