Worth it

One year ago today, April 1, 2018, I started my whole food, plant-based journey. You may have followed my blog and all my crazy rants, outbursts and "why the hell am I doing this" posts. You also may have seen that the results I wanted coming in quicker than anticipated and then I started realizing that maybe this was not so bad after all. What started out as a 30-day challenge to see if I could do it, and if it would yield positive results, turned into a lifestyle. It's not a diet. It's not a fad. It truly is a lifestyle and it is one that I am so incredibly grateful I embarked upon. Here is my original post when I first started that challenge and what it entailed:
https://winefoodie.blogspot.com/2018/04/back-to-basics-30-day-food-challenge.html

When the self-imposed challenge ended, I kept on going and decided that I would go 90/10 instead of 100% because there were foods that I truly enjoyed that I missed. For the most part, that still is the case but the foods that I used to crave, I am finding that I don't crave anymore. If anything, I am leaning closer to the 100% now.  The food I was used to eating I don't even want anymore. I would rather have a baked sweet potato with roasted spiced chickpeas and basil pesto than a grilled marinated chicken breast or a steak. I think one time in the last six months I really wanted a big, fat, juicy burger and my stomach paid for it, but I still enjoyed the instant gratification. I used to eat burgers once a week. One thing I can't even fathom giving up and don't plan to though is Hubs' smoked brisket. Now, I'll make the hell out of plant-based sides to go with it though.  And cheese. I was told I'd never want cheese again after this, but I still do. I don't crave it and I don't eat it as much but I still love cheese. But if I had to, for health reasons, I'd kick it to the curb in a heartbeat.

What I have realized, among many things, while on this journey is that it's truly about making better choices. Reading labels is paramount on this journey.  Doing things such as making my own vegetable broth instead of buying the sodium-laden carton crap makes a huge difference. Using broth or water instead of oil when cooking is major. Snacking on cherry tomatoes and hummus or a handful of raw almonds is better than sucking down a bag of Doritos or a Twix candy bar. Cutting out all processed foods, dairy, eggs and red meat have been the key for me. But everything is a choice and sometimes, I make a wrong choice because I am human. Because I want that damn chocolate cupcake from my friends cupcakery when I go home to visit Mom. Because I want to indulge on a six-course wine dinner at my favorite Salt Box Cafe. Because my Beef Wellington kicks ass. Because I want the flipping pizza. But those are choices that I make and I have to live with them. And you know what? When I stray? I make up for it in spades for a week because I know how it makes me feel and I know what it is doing to my body in the long run. As a result, those poor choices don't happen very often.

Why am I bringing this up again after a year? Because today, as if I needed any more reasons, I had confirmation that this whole food, plant-based journey is completely worth it! I began this journey because, for the first time in my life, I was told I had high cholesterol (total and bad) and was pre-diabetic. I am not a medicine girl. I will always choose everything else over shoving a pill down my throat. Had I been provided these results with most physicians I would have been expected to go on statins and God knows what else. Well, I wasn't going to let that happen. I was taking charge of my health!

Today, I went to the clinic to have the same annual testing done (as part of a health insurance requirement with my employer) and guess what?

I am no longer pre-diabetic and I also do not have high total or bad cholesterol!
In fact, all of my numbers are not only in the normal range but are excellent!!!
Oh hell, yeah!!
There was only one thing I changed in the past year and that was starting a whole food, plant-based lifestyle. And you know what?
It was absolutely worth it!