Today’s featured before and after comes from Lauren Forster Walls aka Vegan Radiance. She has lost pounds and transformed her health with a plant based vegan diet. I think her story is amazing and I’m happy to share it with you all. I really believe in a vegan and/or raw food diet and I’m in the process of going raw vegan myself.Here is her story:
Like so many, I’ve tried every weight loss plan that promised me I could lose pounds and inches…and quickly. I never was a huge junk food eater, but nevertheless, could never seem to get to a healthy weight after my last child was born in 1991. And now here I was in my latter 40’s and it was becoming about more than just my waistline, but my lifeline. I had already been prescribed high blood pressure medicine and lost a friend, my age, to a heart attack in June 2011, so I was desperate for an answer.
Memorial Day weekend 2011; my only goal was to grill some 1” thick steaks and relax, but the universe had other plans. I awoke and distinctly “heard” a voice say….”You need to stop eating meat.” I did not question it, but knew I would comply and seek guidance as to the next step. That night, after a meatless day, I searched my cable guide for any kind of food documentary that might offer some guidance. I found the movie, “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”. Little did I know that movie would change my entire life. The movie itself and Joe’s journey healing himself on a juice fast was inspiring and brought me to tears. I watched it twice before realizing there was a doctor in the movie, Dr. Fuhrman, giving Joe powerful information on nutritionally dense foods and the health connection. I did an internet search for Dr. Fuhrman and I tell you, it was like sun rays shot out of my computer when I found my way to what he calls NUTRITARIAN eating. I soon discovered he had a book, Eat to Live, which lays out a whole foods/plant based way of eating. I ordered it immediately, read it as fast as I could, went to Whole Foods on June 4, 2011—book in one hand, shopping cart in the other and the rest is history. I just followed exactly what he said in the book—Eat G-BOM*BS: Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms*, Berries, and Seeds http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/gombbs.aspx
Everything he lays out in the book is true. The weight came off effortlessly with no exercise. The food is delicious and satisfying. My blood pressure began resolving and within 11 weeks eating a whole foods/plant based way my doctor “un-prescribed” me from ALL high blood pressure medication. By October, I had shed 30 lbs; something I’d never been able to do my entire adult life. All of my allergies resolved, I have no pms symptoms anymore, no headaches, no gastrointestinal distress, no stiff achiness—I can jog and jump and move effortlessly, my painful feet went away, I did not take an aspirin or any kind of cold/flu medication for over a year and I was full on good food. My mind is clear and focused. It’s an absolutely amazing way of eating. I love that one can get started without having to buy special foods, weigh, measure, count points, pay membership fees, buy chemicals to sprinkle on, etc…Dr. Fuhrman makes the information to get started abundantly/easily available to all. I highly encourage folks to buy the book as it goes into detail which really helped me succeed.
I have been following Eat to Live for 1 year and 3 months now and I still love it every day! The weight has stayed off and I’m looking forward to even higher levels of health and wellness as I continue with a whole foods/plant based lifestyle.
Here is her story:
