How did I feel at forty? Drained, foggy, and moody!

My doctor assured me it could be blamed on heredity. I struggled with IBS and ADHD all my life, and then my blood pressure and cholesterol was rising. I had tried prescriptions and diets in my twenties and thirties that helped me little and offered undesirable side effects. And I did not want to be forced to take more of them!

The tipping point came the summer my family spent with my parents on their cute little farm in Ohio. Mom and Dad were both recovering from recent surgeries, and we kept them company and tried our best to help them out. Five weeks later, we drove home to begin school again. All four kids jumped into their routines, and all I settled into was angst. It dawned on me that I was inside a failing jet. It was high in the sky, smoke pluming from the back, as one engine failed. And another. I was just so angry, and I denied it when Adam asked what was wrong. I took it out on everyone. All I could do was sit and tell my family to buckle in? NO.

This anxiety was unbearable for me and my family. I have helplessly watched my parents suffer. A lot. They have battled as rockstars and both defeated colon cancer. They have gone through far more surgeries and treatments than I can name. Selfishly, I was asking myself, “When will my kids have to see me in pain, too?” I realized that they were already seeing it!

I was filled with determination. I had to do something. I took a deep dive, beginning with a book I found at the library. I finished Dr. Michael Greger’s book, How Not to Die, and then I moved on to as many books, podcasts, and articles I could find. I shared every interesting fact with my partner, Adam. We made a huge decision and decided we’d try a whole food, plant-based lifestyle. After a “sit-down family meeting” with our four kids, I went to work in my kitchen to purge processed foods, sugars, meat, and dairy.

Changes were visible to me within a week. I remember driving to my teen’s high school open house, something I would usually dread because I was on empty. As I held the wheel, a thought popped into my head, “Why do I feel–amazing? Strange, but I feel alert and awake at seven-thirty in the evening?” I began to notice more changes. Within months, my IBS disappeared. (Seriously!) A year passed and my doctors agreed that I didn’t need my medications. A transformation was happening, and it was all because I chose to alter what I was putting in my body.

Honestly, making these changes with kids was hard. I couldn’t blame them–I had been raising them on dairy, meat, sugar, and packaged goodies with an afterthought of veggies. I received push-back from family, too. I have elementary and high school children, and like adults, they face their own challenges and opinions. I stayed up night after night, re-learning how to cook and serving dishes we’d never considered. Kale? Completely foreign to me. It took time, but now my children eat things like tofu and hot dogs made from carrots. The best part is that I even get help in the kitchen!

Something else happened. I began to meet others, like me, faced with similar struggles and a desire to make their own changes. Plant Your Family was created to spread this community and offer a way for us to find one another. This is a space for us to share, trust, and connect. I’m happy you are here! Please reach out to tell me your own story and join us!