Here is a story for you about a family of six deciding to go plant based. A family of six that, at the time, were living in a 105 year old house that was undergoing a year long renovation. A family of 6 that work from home and homeschool. A family of six and their eleven pets (it was twelve but the sheet rock dust did not bode well for the beta fish. may he rest in peace) making a change that only one of the six really wanted to make.
Dave is my husband. He’s a software developer, woodworker, wife website builder, photographer, musician, he’s super handsome, and that’s just a drop in the bucket. We have been together for over twenty years and have four kids. Our kids range from a year and half to fifteen years old. That’s a big range. We were vegetarians for years, but we allowed our kids to eat meat on occasion. Dave eventually wanted to go vegan and I fought it. I liked dairy, and the kids were always begging for chicken fingers when we ate out. I was tired from raising all these kids, and wrangling all these pets, and didn’t want to fight them on what they ate anymore. I did not want to cook three different dinners every night.
Fast forward to our last daughter being born. She was not like the others, and had some pretty serious food intolerances and allergies. And this is where our family finally gave up dairy and eggs. As I mentioned before, we were renovating a giant old, broken house, and actually didn’t even have a kitchen for close to four months. We had to jump right into this new diet with nothing but a crock pot, hot plate, mini fridge, and a microwave. This is proof that you don’t need a fancy kitchen, a ton of kitchen gadgets, or even a full size fridge to pull it off. If a family of six, living in a construction zone, with the equivalent of a dorm kitchen, can manage a plant based diet, anyone can.
You might not know how bad you feel until you finally feel good. This is what I always tell people. It's not more expensive than eating meat, eggs, and dairy. Those things are not cheap at all. Packing a PB&J is no more time consuming than sitting in a fast food drive thru for lunch. There are plenty of foods that are easy and plant based. It just takes a little time, some new pantry staples, and the willingness to learn something new. Educate yourself. There is so much proven research on the benefits of a plant based diet out there. Its not propaganda, it’s research, and data that can't be disputed. We truly are what we eat, and what we eat has the power to positively or negatively affect our health. I hope I can help you and everyone else that might be questioning making the switch, to see how easy and beneficial it can be. If this hot mess of a family can pull it off, I’m pretty certain anyone can.
My last piece of advice in this ramble is to remove all fish from a home that is getting new sheet rock. Also make sure all cats are accounted for before the contractor closes up holes in your floors. But that is a story for another time. Don’t worry, the cat was rescued and terrorizes our house to this day, and we have accepted we are maybe not the best with fish. Also, after a year we finally got the kitchen all done, along with the rest of the house. I mean, it's a never ending process when you own a house this old. Not one room is actually all done. I think we may be working on this until the end of time.
