Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Plants: #4 Maintaining a Healthy Weight Doesn't Have to be an Uphill Battle

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There's no question that exercise is super duper important to our long-term health. I don't think I need to dig up any facts here to support that claim, it's something we all commonly know. But, I think many of us (or at least pre-plant-based-me:)) have come to think about exercise as necessary for maintaining a healthy weight. I remember as a kid looking at this beautiful picture of my grandmother and her sisters. All were so beautiful. And at this moment in time, all carried their weight in their hips. I knew someday I was destined to be a beautiful pear-shaped goddess just like them. I always thought genetics was a pretty big factor in our body-type/weight. And to a greater extent exercise. Sure, perhaps genetics play some role and of course physical fitness is important, but what I've experienced is that the biggest influence on how I feel and how much weight I carry is in the food I eat. It's (almost) all about the food. I now firmly believe that I can let exercise be for fitness, strength building, fun, meditation, flexibility - or whatever reason that most connects me to an exercise routine at a given time - by keeping the foods I eat whole food, plant-based. It doesn't have to be an uphill battle to maintain a healthy weight.

My Experience

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Going vegan helped me loose some weight naturally. But, me oh my, shifting into a whole food, plant-based lifestyle (vegan minus the oil and highly processed foods) was a game changer. I have found that my weight is super dependent on what I eat. And it's not a "carb" thing. My two biggest roadblocks to maintaining my feel-best weight are 1) animal based foods (contributing to, as I call it, my "extra cheese layer") and 2) processed oils. In the past ten years, I have been soooooo many sizes, going in and out of three pregnancies and three different eating styles. Right now I am a bit of a pear coming out of my third pregnancy. And I'm loving it (for the most part;)) for the time being as it's an extension of a special journey that I've been on this past year - but also I know by sticking to my plants I can work my way back to my feel-good weight more easily. So here's been my experience.

Before and during my first pregnancy, I was a classic cheese-a-holic omnivore. I started at the highest weight of, maybe, my life. And to top that, I gained by far the most weight during that pregnancy (40+ lbs).... Oy. I shifted to veganism, literally on the day my first child was born, transitioning from vegetarian to vegan eating over the following few months, and then went from vegan to whole food, plant-based over about the next year. I reached my lowest weight since high school leading into my second pregnancy, and I felt awesome.

During my second pregnancy, oil began to make a regular appearance about half way through and I definitely noticed a change in my weight gain later in my pregnancy as compared to the earlier days. And following that pregnancy, I shifted back to a primarily whole food plant-based diet, which brought me down to my feel good weight much, much quicker than before. Mind you, my weight gain came from using just a bit of oil on cooked vegetables at night and maybe in my salad dressing at lunch. When I shifted back to whole food plant-based, the pounds tumbled off waaaay more easily. And this was without a really crazy exercise routine. I walked. I tried to squeeze in yoga. As a mom with a new baby and working full-time, I was not super consistent. What I found is that my weight was mostly connected to what I ate.

In my most recent pregnancy I gained just under what I gained in my second (about 30 lbs total), eating whole-plant based throughout. But just following the birth I found myself in birthday season where I indulged in some yummy (but surely oil/shortening-laden) cakes, vegan pizzas, and more processed vegan foods and I suddenly came to notice, once again, that these foods are super fun, but don't serve me in maintaining my ideal feel-good weight. I am confident as I make sure to stick to a 95-100% oil-free diet moving forward, I'll be back to my old feel-best self in no time.

No other eating style did for me what a whole food plant-based diet does. Taking out animal meat made a huge difference. Taking out cheese, dairy, and eggs made a huge difference. And taking out oil made a huge difference.

I don't want to confuse finding my best feel-good weight through what I eat with deprivation. I'm not limiting my portions. I eat until I'm full and high fiber foods help my body stay in better tune with my full queues. And I totally enjoy eating whole food plant-based. I especially love it because it makes me feel the best. Limiting foods like animal products and oils doesn't mean I'm depriving myself, it means I know what foods make me feel good and I focus on those foods as the foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

Experiencing a wide range of sizes, feels, and eating patterns in a relatively short amount of time made me realize how DIFFICUUUULT we make it in America to maintain a healthy weight. On the one hand, we learn that in order to be trim you have to exercise a lot, focus your diet on protein (particularly from animals...and definitely dairy, but be careful, it has to be just the right amount! Not too much. Not too little. But what the heck does that mean??). And yes, eat your veggies. But not white veggies. And don't forget to blame it on gluten. And sugar. Aaaand too much fruit and carbs in general will make us larger in life than we may like. And the family-style restaurants we gather at with our loved ones all have servings of heavy oily - animaly foods in triple the amount we really need (of any food) in one sitting. I remember pre-plant-based-me always feeling so confused about what to eat and constantly feeling guilty that I wasn't exercising hard enough to balance out my calories. So what's the deal? Why do we have to feel so guilty about our habits while the traditional guidance we're getting is so dang confusing and unclear? And doesn't serve us well? It's crazy-making.

So What I'm Saying Is...

I don't think it has be so hard. We can make exercise about fun, health, stress relief, meditation, activity, longevity, or whatever moves you to move and by literally just focusing our plates on plant foods, as close to their natural forms as possible, we can take the guilt, stress, and mystery out of eating.

When I was first learning about plant-based nutrition, I remember hearing that diet was 80% the driving factor in weight loss/management and 20% is fitness/exercise. I believe that. Once I shifted my plates to nutrient rich foods and away from calorie rich foods, everything changed. My main food philosophy is to eat 97-100% whole food, plant-based at home (all plant-foods, limited-to-no refined foods and oil) and when I eat out/take out, I try to maintain the same, but oftentimes some oil sneaks in. Sometimes a Crushcakes cupcake with my kids or Mesa Verde pizza with my husband is just soooo good. So I try to worry about oil a bit less when eating out, it's just the way of most restaurants at this point. But I'll almost always try for an oil-free option or at least limit oil where I can - and because oil-free options can be a bit more challenging (although not impossible!:)), I try to eat most of my meals at home so oil-rich foods don't override my diet.

What I eat is completely relative to how I feel - the more whole food plant-based nutrient dense foods I eat, the better I feel. The more animal foods and oils (calorically dense foods) I eat, the more weight I gain and the crummier I feel. Here's a visual from Forks Over Knives that paints a pretty good picture of filling up on calories from animal and processed sources vs plants.

So where do you start if you're thinking of plant-based eating to find your feel-good weight? As you'll find on Plant Based SB, I'll share what I've experienced and a lot of what I've learned but also some resources that I've found to be super helpful and credible in their approach to nutrition because we all need trusted resources to add to our toolkits and to help build our foundation of knowledge. I share some great resources in BASICS and throughout THE VINE on plant-based eating, but to help make it super simple to start, here's what the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) says about what to eat for a healthy weight loss, to get you started (and check out the full article in the link):

GRAINS - Eight servings a day, 80 calories = one serving. At least six servings should be from whole grains. (i.e. brown rice, whole grain pasta, quinoa, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, etc.)
VEGETABLES - At least four servings a day, 35-50 calories = one serving. At least one serving raw, at least one serving dark leafy greens. (i.e. leafy greens of all kinds, cruciferous veggies like broccoli, squash, root veggies like carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes)
LEGUMES - Three servings a day, 100 calories = one serving. (i.e. beans of all varieties, lentils, soy products)
FRUIT - Three servings a day, 80 calories = one serving. (i.e. berries, stone fruit, apples, citrus, etc. Focus on whole fruit rather than juices.)
SWEETS - No more than one serving a day, 100 calories = one serving and limit to one gram of fat. (i.e. fruit, smoothie, sweetened cereal, baked fruit, etc.)

The Physician's Committee also recently came out with a podcast all about weight loss/management and plant-based eating. Yes! They cover everything. I super love PCRM. Find the podcast by clicking here - PCRM's Exam Room Podcast - Weight Loss on a Vegan Diet: How Going Vegan Causes the Pounds to Melt Away.

Enjoy what you eat. And eat so you feel satisfied, but make it nutrient dense foods, not calorically saturated foods. For healthy living and feel-good-weight, it's (almost) all about the food. :)