100% Whole Plant Based Diet - Come again?

Today, Friday 6/23 is day one that I commit to follow a plant based diet. NO, not exactly the same like vegan as I learned the hard way: Most bagels are vegan but nope, not really a good food to plan your plant diet around, especially not if you, like me, try to improve your A1c and lose some weight.  A bagle is a good item to ease into the vegan lifestyle though as long as you keep it a rare diet ingredient. First rule: Do not replace organic meat with processed vegan junk food. Rule number two: Focus on what you can eat rather than what you can't eat. I found a great article explaining the 100% plant based whole diet

I decided to start today because following the dietician's simple recommendation to avoid carbs and rather eat protein did not really work for me so far. Not only can't I get my A1c down to a manageable level, I also experience joint pain when I follow a no or low carb diet. Increasing the daily insulin dose to get more hunger attacks and gain more weight does not seem the way to go, at least not for me. I am also blessed that my physician encourages me to not consider pills the best option. I eat Non Gmo, free range, and organic and still feel like crap, tired, and not in control of my glucose. I read up about plant based whole food diet and decided to go for it although I do not think that eating everything but with moderation is a bad rule. I just think that my diabetic lab results need to be improved by a more focused approach and what doesn't kill a elephant, won't kill me either. For three weeks I will follow the whole plant based food concept and then check lab results for any change. This is the only way to find out if this is right for me.

Now, how did I get started this morning? I made up a list of basic ingredients which I always should have at home such as tofu, frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, barley, oats, beans, rice, hummus, little microwave potatoes, and fresh vegetable that lasts a little longer such as carrots and brussel sprouts.

I spent 90 Dollars at Nob Hill and have pretty much everything to get started for a week. I might have to get some extra this and that from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods if I want to try a new recipe. For now I have about five days covered with breakfast, snack and dinner for the whole family. This does not include the meat and dairy, the rest of the family consumes. I hope they will join me soon but I am not forcing these changes on them. I am happy that they eat my food and just add their dairy or meat for now. My daughter is already on board, now we need to convince the granddaughter and Big Kahuna, my husband Clay who is already 75 % into my new plant based lifestyle but it takes more than a day to convince a Texan like him to stay away from steaks.

Today's dinner was Mushroom Stroganoff, a recipe from Whole Foods. The creamy cashew sauce was to die for. My husband gave two thumbs up!  He grilled himself a grass-fed Angus burger with it. Just eating plant based whole sides instead of processed food will be better for him already. I have a good feeling that one day, there will be no meat or dairy in our fridge anymore.