Ah, Spring! It couldn’t have come soon enough. Since it’s official arrival, I am ready to get some seeds planted – indoors of course since I’m in Ontario. This growing season takes on a whole new meaning as Handsome Husband (HH) and I are now Whole-Food-Plant-Based (WFPB) participants. We made the switch just over a year ago with a goal of getting HH off of cholesterol drugs. We have achieved that goal and have reaped SOOO many more health benefits as a result. There’s no turning back now.
My kids seemed pleased with this decision and lovingly make fun of how immersed I have become. They ask me if I have consulted ‘my prophets’ regarding my recipes or food choices. While I have several ‘prophets’ to consult, there are so many worthwhile options for adopting this eating lifestyle. My go-to online/book consultants are the Esselstyn family. The patriarch of the group, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, is a medical doctor and author with a wealth of experience and knowledge (www.dresselstyn.com). His wife, Anne, is a sparky firecracker and also contributes to my understanding of WFPB eating. Their son, Rip Esselstyn, is the core contributor for a WFPB program, Plantstrong (www.plantstrong.com). The Plantstrong program offers a podcast, online health rescue plans, meal-planning services and virtual services/information (some free, some for a reasonable fee). Plantstrong also has a limited line of food products (not available in Ontario yet) that are the healthiest prepared foods (Engine 2) that I have been able to find. Rip also has authored a wonderful cookbook with his sister, Jane (www.janeesselstyn.com), who is a nurse and also has a WFPB Youtube channel with her mother, Ann, that provides easy-to-follow instructions and suggestions on preparing WFPB foods. Jane also offers conferences offering continuing education sessions for medical professionals in lifestyle medicine.
Through this family’s assistance, I learned so much about nutrition, food, groceries, health and more. As a farmer, I quickly learned that I was absolutely ignorant about food and its significant influence on my body’s ability to avoid and/or reverse chronic diseases and to minimize the use of medications! Upon my first exposure to this information, I admit that I was defensive. After all, I am a farmer, I am a good cook, eating out rarely, exercising regularly, etc. Once I opened my mind and listened, researched, went back and listened again and again, it was just too hard to ignore what they were saying! Here’s a list of the programs that I watched, the books that I use as references, and the places I frequent for my ‘continuing education’ of WFPB.
My first education came from watching:
- The Game Changers on Netflix
- What the Health on Netflix
- Forks Over Knives on Amazon or Itunes
I read:
- How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn
- How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Gregor
- Fiber Fueled by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz
- The Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Diet by Rip Esselstyn
There are thousands of recipes that are either vegan or plant-based but as I have ‘matured’ into the WFPB-eating, I have the following go-to sites for recipes because they tend to match my requirements of no/or little added oils and no/few minimally processed ingredients:
- Forks Over Knives (forksoverknives.com)
- Minimalist Baker (minimalistbaker.com)
- Pass the Plants (passtheplants.com)
- Plantstrong (plantstrong.com)
- The Vegan8 (thevegan8.com)
Recently Plantstrong launched an ‘ambassador’ program and I haven’t jumped on board with that formally yet, however I feel that I am an ambassador for WFPB already and am happy to do so. I have ‘converted’ several folks to this healthy way of life and will likely share some of those stories here on this blog in future posts. I even got a couple of my redneck brothers to adopt this lifestyle – I just had to figure out a way to ‘dumb down’ the program as my brothers are not famous for their cooking skills! I am happy to share any of the information that I have learned, will share recipes and tips and provide support for anyone who is reaching for success on the WFPB journey. Send an email/question to thayerthoughtsemail@gmail.com and I will try to help as I can.