Archive for weight loss

“When I realized that whole food plant-based eating is completely in-line with the Word of Wisdom, there was nothing left to think about”

By: Jeannine Winkley

When we first married, a great meal was frozen spinach ravioli with Alfredo sauce. Over the years, I incrementally improved our family’s diet. I stopped buying items with certain ingredients and made other improvements.

We began our plant-based journey when a friend recommended watching Forks Over Knives soon after it came out in 2011. It was very convincing! We didn’t change our diet immediately, but it planted a seed. We continued to watch other documentaries and read about and researched this way of eating. I knew we should do it and began to call myself a “wanna-be-vegan” because I WANTED to eat that way. I just didn’t want to EAT that way.

I tried at least once to switch to meat substitutes, but that was doomed to fail because they just aren’t that tasty or good for you. I switched my breakfast to a Rip’s Big Bowl somewhere along the way. I loved it so much that if I missed it for breakfast, I’d have it for lunch or dinner.

Six years ago (2015) between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, I watched a YouTube video called “Return to Sparingly.” That was the final straw. When I realized that whole food plant-based eating is completely in-line with the Word of Wisdom, there was nothing left to think about. I made the change immediately, which was awkward with a refrigerator filled with Christmas leftovers. My husband was completely supportive and made the switch with me.

It was hard enough to figure out what I was going to eat the next day, but I was also feeding a family of nine. Read More→

“I’ve battled depression most of my adult life and been suicidal on multiple occasions”

By: DaNae Dayley

It’s been just over a year since I started eating a whole food, plant based diet. I wanted to wait until I had spectacular before and after photos to share my story, but the main theme of my story isn’t about weight loss, that’s just been part of the journey. I feel like what I have to share is important enough that it needs to be told. Right now.

Depression is not the absence of happiness. I would describe myself as an optimistic, fun-loving, happy person—with Major Depressive Disorder. Having MDD is like wearing an invisible backpack full of heavy rocks all the time. No matter how much you want to do something, those rocks will make it a whole lot harder, and some days, they make it literally impossible. I still get emotional just reminiscing about it. For me, being suicidal was when those rocks were so heavy that I didn’t even have the energy to breathe.

In many ways, my life has been ideal. I have lots of people who love me, a beautiful home, plenty to eat, and many friends. My circumstances had nothing to do with my depression. I didn’t understand this for way too long. I have battled depression most of my adult life, and I’ve been suicidal on multiple occasions.

In my 30s and most of my 40s, I was exhausted and in pain most of the time and there was nothing medically wrong with me. Doctors weren’t helpful because all my tests came back normal. We were all mystified.

Up to that point, I felt like my diet was pretty healthy most of the time, and I was very active. I loved to be outside and exercise was a high priority for me. A list of my favorite things to do included hiking, camping, jeeping, and karate.

But the more tired I felt, the less healthy our meals became and the more weight I gained. I was devastated that my kids would have memories of me as an overweight, practically bed-ridden mother that never had the energy to do fun things with them. During this time, I actually remember looking at the Word of Wisdom and wondering why I couldn’t “run and not be weary” and “walk and not faint.” (D&C 89:20) It never occurred to me that I needed to cut down my meat consumption or even eat more fruits and vegetables. When I had the energy, I felt like I was making very healthy choices. Small servings of lean meat, veggies, and whole grains. The problem was that the worse I felt the more that turned into take-out or frozen prepared meals, and the less I even cared.

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“At the end of my 30-day experiment, I could never go back to eating the way I used to”

By: Rachel Echols

I grew up in a typical Latter-day Saint family in Orem, Utah. We ate the standard American diet. We always had a garden and fruit trees, but we ate a fair amount of meat, cheese, and other dairy products and our vegetables were always covered in butter or cream. When I got my patriarchal blessing as a teenager, I remember being surprised that it specifically mentioned the Word of Wisdom and that I should be careful about what I take into my body. I had never had a problem with the Word of Wisdom, which I considered to mean abstinence from drugs and alcohol, and I wondered why it was specifically mentioned. It did not occur to me at that time that it might not be referring to drugs and alcohol, but to food.

I was always thin until I got married, but soon after I started having problems keeping a healthy weight. After having my two children, I struggled to get the weight off, especially after the second one, and as the years passed, I become more and more overweight. I also experienced frequent migraines, sugar addiction, and food cravings.

I knew the Word of Wisdom counseled us to eat meat sparingly and that grains are the staff of life, but I often tried diets that did not go along with that counsel. I always excused it and thought it was a short-term thing just to help me get back down to a healthy weight. Some diets worked and some did not, but whenever I lost weight, I could never keep it off. I tried Weight Watchers, Sugar Busters, the hCG diet, and eating as little as possible while exercising excessively. Over the years I started using food as a crutch. I was addicted to sweets and other rich foods and was an emotional eater. If there was chocolate anywhere in the house, it never lasted long around me. Sometimes my husband would buy treats and hide them from me because I would finish them off while he was at work.

At one point I remember following the hCG diet and I absolutely knew I should not be doing it. I had read about several women following the diet that ended up having heart problems because of it. My mother and my maternal grandmother both had some heart problems, and I knew that it was not wise for me to be following that diet. Every day these thoughts plagued me, and I felt I was doing something Heavenly Father would not approve of. But I desperately wanted to lose weight and told myself that after I got some weight off, I would stop the diet. I thought I would be able to maintain my weight loss, but that was never the case.

I decided to start a new career after many years of being a stay-at-home mom and ended up starting pharmacy school at the age of 40. I found that my weight problem got worse in grad school. I sat all day in class, then came home and sat all night to read and study. I was staying up late to study for exams, and I was stressed out. I was also working a part-time job, and we ate out often. At school, they fed us unhealthy foods, like pizza, subs, cookies, and chips. By the time I graduated in April 2017, I had gained another 35 pounds. I was at my highest weight ever.

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“I love eating this way because I am not hungry ever!”

By: Tish Lambert

I have been overweight if not obese my whole life. I have been on a lot of different diets, including straight calorie restriction, Body For Life, and Atkins. I’ve also just tried eating a healthy diet (aka eating less junk food and less processed foods). I exercised regularly, biking 6-8 miles to and from schools I attended, played soccer, and was on Church sports teams.

By high school I was tired of the fad diets and just exercising wasn’t working. I remember researching the Word of Wisdom in high school. I wanted to stop doing everything man’s way and start doing it God’s way. I read it over and over. It was hard to understand all the components, like what does herb mean and what exactly is sparingly? How do I know what seasons everything grows in? So, I went back to calorie restriction/counting and trying to eat less processed food. I had success on a diet that balanced carbs and protein or meat, but I was hungry a lot, and my cheat days frequently extended to cheat weekends. I felt like that diet taught me to starve and binge.

In 2014, I stumbled upon Forks Over Knives on Netflix. It felt like the spirit was screaming, “THIS IS THE WORD OF WISDOM!” It felt like the Word of Wisdom explained with medical proof. I wanted to change right then, but my life was too crazy. In the next two years I ended up moving three times across the country, finishing one pregnancy, and starting another. I continued researching how to get nutrients like calcium, omega 3s & 6s, vitamin B12, and probiotics on a plant-based diet.

About 5 years ago, post-partum, I was obese. I needed to lose 50-60 lbs. I knew that being in the obese category meant my risk for every disease went up. I believed in the Word of Wisdom and Forks Over Knives, but I tried the ketogenic diet next as a vegetarian. I lost weight, but I was so hungry all the time, and I got sick of tofu, eggs, and cheese.

After reading The Forks Over Knives Plan, a 4-week transition program, I jumped into a whole food, plant-based or WOW way of eating sometime between July-October of 2016. I discovered I love eating this way because I am not hungry ever. I can eat as much as I want and as often as I want. My first indication that anything was happening was when my skirt fell off while I was walking around my house. I threw it out. I thought it was the elastic until I measured myself.

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“I told God I wasn’t going to do another diet”

By: Tricia Braunersrither

I grew up in a large family of four sisters and two brothers. I always felt overweight because I was a bigger build than my sisters. I thought it was something that needed to be fixed. Consequently, I spent my lifetime looking for diets to shrink my body. I tried diet after diet and was never successful. After each diet I would gain more and more weight.

In 2010, I started a diet that seemed to me to be the Holy Grail to Weight Loss: hCG. I would take a hormone and eat 500 calories a day, and I would lose weight. I lost 75 pounds! For the first time in my life, I felt like I had some control over my weight. To keep that weight off, I had to continue taking the hormones and keep my diet at 500 calories. I would do that for three weeks, then I would eat low carb for the next three weeks then go back to 500 calories. I did that for eight years until finally I couldn’t do it any longer. I told God that I no longer was going to do that. I told him I was going to wait on him for an answer of what I should do because I definitely wasn’t going to do another diet.

I gained 25 pounds right away because I finally was giving my body the nutrients it needed. In July 2018, I was visiting my kids in Idaho. A family friend was there who is a doctor. I told her my frustrations with many of my health issues. She did a full bloodwork panel on me. She even did an insulin-fasting test. She came to me and told me that I was “insulin resistant.” I had never heard that term before, but I later learned it is the first stage of type 2 diabetes. She gave me Metformin and told me to exercise and to eat a low-carb diet. I told her that I had done keto for seven months, and I knew how to do that diet. She said, “Oh yes, that would be great. Go ahead and do that.” So I headed home with much hope that this was the answer from God I had been waiting for. I even had my dad give me a priesthood blessing. He blessed me that “I would be able to discern what was the best path to healing my insulin resistance.”

I went home and immediately pulled out my keto cookbooks and started watching keto YouTube videos. I thought it was interesting that keto would be God’s answer. When I ate the keto diet, which is heavy in fat and meat, I often had thoughts that this was not following the Word of Wisdom. Despite these misgivings, I knew I wouldn’t gain weight eating keto, and I would have refuge from my 500-calorie diet, so I assumed it must be healthy.

While watching one of my keto YouTube videos I fell asleep. I woke up to a YouTube video that had continued to loop while I napped. I woke up to a bald guy with no eyebrows giving a talk on how eating Whole Foods can reverse insulin resistance. I had never heard of this. It was the exact opposite of what my doctor told me. I started researching right away. I found Dr. John McDougall who had the same message. He was telling me to eat all the things that are in my Church food storage under all my kids’ beds! Oats, rice, and beans! I found that super interesting! I found one plant-based doctor after another saying the same thing. But why do they not teach this to diabetics? I was terrified to try eating this way. The things they said to eat were what I avoided my whole dieting life because “carbs make you fat.”

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“Trusting God has made all the difference”

By: Tiffany Mortensen

My challenges began at the age of 13 when I started to put on weight. Although my mom had studied nutrition in college and was a wonderful resource and support to me, my struggle to achieve and maintain a healthy weight would continue through the remainder of my teenage years. Although I was young, my observations of other family members who struggled with their weight and similar health issues was a great motivating factor in establishing healthy patterns of living and learning to take care of my body.

My devotion to health and my effort to eat in a healthy manor was valiant, but the results did not match, leaving me, and at times my parents, perplexed and confused. As a result, I began to believe that my body was unable to achieve a healthy weight. Although I did notice a positive difference in the way I felt when eating wholesome, healthy foods, eating became a daily ritual largely centered on self-denial and self-deprivation, not to be thin, but to avoid becoming more overweight.

Then I began having children.

Each of my pregnancies began the same: with a commitment to healthy eating for my baby and to stay within the recommended weight gain range.

Each of my pregnancies ended the same: with a confusion as to what I did wrong and how my eating habits could have resulted in so much excessive weight gain.

My second pregnancy with my son was especially difficult as I struggled with wide fluctuations in my post-meal glucose levels, the excessive accumulation of amniotic fluid, excessive weight gain, and a very large baby. I received diabetic counseling with a registered dietitian, but after looking over my food journal and reviewing my eating habits she was just as perplexed as I was and commented that I not only ate healthier than any patient she had ever worked with, but that I ate healthier than she did.

After my son was born, I was advised to lose weight and change my lifestyle habits to avoid becoming diabetic. I was also diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome).

I was confused. My only beverage of choice was water. I did eat treats, but not on a daily basis. I avoided sugary cereals, chips, crackers, and most prepackaged foods. I typically ate a large salad for lunch with some type of animal protein, and I was careful to not drench it in salad dressing. I predominately ate whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables, and thought my dinners (which were typically made from scratch) were a healthy balance of all of the food groups, including meat and dairy.

Not knowing where else to turn, I decided to read the Word of Wisdom, a law of health given to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although cultural practice of the principles found therein centers on abstaining from the don’ts (alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea) there is an incredible list of do’s that is unfortunately largely ignored.

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“If you know it’s harmful, why are you feeding it to your family?”

By: Lesli Dustin

I am grateful I grew up with a mother who cooked from scratch and fed us healthfully for the most part. My school lunches of whole wheat bread, fruit, and homemade cookies looked a lot different from my friends’ Wonder Bread, Twinkies, and fruit roll ups. I decided to try being a vegan as a teenager. Since it was more a statement than a decision, it didn’t last long, but I did remain a vegetarian for about six years. When I got pregnant with our first child and had an intense craving for meat, I took that as my body’s message that it needed meat and that was the end of my vegetarianism for many years.

I continued in my mom’s tradition and tried to cook and eat healthfully, always aware of eating enough fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and making most of our food at home. But we ate animal foods and lots of sugary desserts. I was inspired to eliminate dairy from my diet when I was in my 30’s and was excited to experience a dramatic decrease in nasal congestion that I thought was normal because it’d been there my whole life. All of a sudden, the chronic sinus infections I’d been suffering from my entire life stopped. It felt like a miracle.

Over the years I cut down on the amount of meat I was feeding my family. Shortly thereafter I decided to stop eating it altogether, except for rare occasions, but I still cooked it several times a week for my family. That year I ate turkey on Thanksgiving and discovered that it tasted awful to me. I have always been interested in health and nutrition and reading books on these subjects, and after reading The China Study I knew the lifestyle that I was flirting with had to be right. But I also wanted to be right with Heavenly Father and not get sidetracked from the gospel by following down strange paths. As a vegetarian teenager, I had a bishop who told me that refusing to eat meat was wrong and that always bothered me. I couldn’t deny the revelation I was receiving that was pushing me in this direction, but I wanted to be sure. I went to the temple and asked Heavenly Father if being a plant-based eater was right. I opened the scriptures there in the celestial room and read the Word of Wisdom and knew I had my answer.

Though my husband is an adventurous eater and would eat my vegetarian meals, he has always loved cheese and meat, and wasn’t interested at all in changing. One night at dinner, he sat down and said, “You know, if you want to cook vegetarian all the time, I’d be okay with that.” I almost fell off my chair.

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“I’m healthier at 35 than I have ever been before”

By: Brandon Berrett

I’ve been a “larger fellow” all my life. I simply chalked it up to genetics. I watched my father and grandfather be diagnosed with diabetes and saw them struggle through everything that comes along with obesity. After years of seeing this happen, I didn’t want to be that person.

So I took action and 15 years ago I started to do everything that traditional medicine and weight loss advocates say to do. I went on a high protein, low carb diet filled with as much meat as I could handle.

I saw a lot of success. I lost about 50 pounds. I looked great. It was suddenly an option for me to pursue a career in the military, which I did. Even in the military though, I was always at the high end of the weight scale. I had to constantly count my calories. I found that pounding back tons of protein every day was no longer effective.

Despite my high level of physical activity, I was gaining weight. I was distressed and depressed at the same time. And it never sat right with me that I was told to avoid certain fruits and vegetables. How could carrots and fruit be causing my weight gain but unlimited steak and bacon were perfectly fine?

My health was also suffering. I was diagnosed with chronic recurring pleurisy. I had terrible chest pains that would leave me incapacitated for days or weeks at a time. Needless to say, this was not good for my military career, and I was medically discharged.

Over the next 7 years, I watched my weight gradually increase and my health steadily decline. I felt 30 years older than I was. I found myself weighing 320 pounds and was constantly sick from ailments doctors couldn’t diagnose. I was in my early 30’s, and I had to walk with a cane.

Despite my pain, I decided it was time to make a change. For the second time. I decided to skip the high protein route though and after a year of really hard work, I dropped myself to 300 pounds with pure exercise.

During this time, my mind kept returning to my patriarchal blessing. In it I am specifically admonished to remember the Word of Wisdom and the principles of taking care of my body. In my wrecked physical state, I wondered what that could mean. It told me specifically to “only take into [my] body that which is pleasing to the Lord.”

I, of course, thought this only applied to the Word of Wisdom in a traditional sense. I took special care, more than most, to avoid harmful tea, alcohol, tobacco, etc. I thought I was keeping that admonition in my blessing because I was keeping the worthiness aspect of that section of the Doctrine and Covenants. I wanted to run and not be weary and walk and not faint. But somehow that promise was elusive to me.

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“I’m thankful the Master of the universe cares what I have for breakfast”

By: Charles Cranney

When I was on the local youth swim team, the only indoor pool during the winter was at BYU. For the morning swim we arrived at 5:45 and swam until 7. My mom would always pick us up after visiting Winchell’s donuts. My favorite was the buttermilk one. After that I would go home and usually have French toast or pancakes for breakfast. My favorite meal was roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy. I drank tons of milk, thinking it was healthy. Lots of juice too.

I remained fit and trim during my mission and throughout most my college career, but little did I know my diet was laying the foundation for some challenges later in life. As the children came and I got a desk job, I started gaining weight. The joke was that every time my wife had a pregnancy, I would be empathetic and gain weight with her—but not lose the weight after she did. (We had seven children.😀)  I remember that for family night, we would often go to McDonald’s, where they had Big Macs for $1 each. I would usually eat two. I also loved ice cream. When I would go to social gatherings, I would try to be discreet about how much I ate, but I always felt I ate about twice as much as everyone else, if I was honest (especially the meat and sugary things). I did play racquetball several times a week and rode my bike to work, and we had a garden and many fruit trees, which I enjoyed. Fresh peaches drench with cream and sugar was a favorite—or peaches with Wheaties. I ate meat with nearly every meal. During food discussions I was fond of saying, “I didn’t spend a million years climbing the evolutionary ladder to be a vegetarian.”

I became more and more of a stress eater because of all the challenging church callings that seemed to come my way, including a couple of stints as bishop almost back to back (BYU and then the home ward). I remember sometimes thinking my “ticker” felt a little odd, but I never had it checked out. Later in 2006 when I was serving as young men’s president I hiked Timpanogos and King’s Peak with the young men, even though I was about 250 lbs. at the time and 49 years old. My wife had me get a heart stress test before those hikes since I was so overweight. It was shortly after that that I was called to serve as a mission president in the Russia Moscow Mission. There was, of course, lots of stress associated with that. It was one of the largest land-mass missions in the world. My farthest branch was a five-hour flight to southern Kazakhstan. My ankle hurt quite a bit during that time from an earlier extreme sprain.

When I returned from Russia, I was 264 lbs. At the doctor’s soon after, I was sent for a battery of uncomfortable tests and diagnosed with prostate cancer. Before the surgery, I went on Weight Watchers and lost 50 lbs. The robot-assisted surgery was very successful, and I was able to maintain weight of about 215 lbs for a couple of years. I was eating more fruits and vegetables than in the past but still plenty of other not-so-good stuff and meat. I also started running more.

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“I had to have a health crisis to get the ball rolling”

By: Darin Francom

It all started back in the early 2000’s. I had returned from serving a mission, started a new job, went back to school and met and married my sweetheart. Over the course of the next few years we started our family and added two of our three kids to the mix. Up to this point I had enjoyed great health. I was very athletic and played several sports growing up. I had never had to worry about what I ate and never dealt with weight gain, until one day in early 2005 I woke up and looked down and noticed I was starting to get a gut. The process was so gradual that I hadn’t even noticed.

So what did I do? I decided to start working out! I also borrowed a book from my brother called Body For Life. This required me to eat six times a day with an animal-based protein, a starch, and a serving of vegetables in each meal. Ultimately the diet was heavy in meat and dairy and limited in grains and vegetables. I also worked out six days a week alternating between cardio and weight training. I can’t forget the free day once every week where you were permitted to eat whatever you wanted. I would eat myself sick! I did lose weight, and I looked like I was in great shape, but I knew deep down I couldn’t maintain this lifestyle. I spent all my time planning and prepping meals or working out. I was also perpetually sore from the workouts and had the hardest time recovering. Needless to say I eventually burned out, and between 2005-2011 I went from 200 lbs to 259 lbs. As with most weight gain, my cholesterol and blood pressure also went up. I suffered from acid reflux and chronic sinus infections. I also started snoring, which robbed sleep from both my wife and me. I was a mess!

Then one day in 2011, I was watching good old KBYU while lying sick in bed from a sinus infection. Their annual fundraiser featured Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I was intrigued to say the least. I watched the whole thing and then bought Dr. Fuhrman’s book, Eat to Live and read it from cover to cover. I went cold turkey from eating the Standard American Diet to whole food, plant-based (WFPB), eating 1 lb of fresh vegetables, 1 lb of cooked vegetables, 1/2 cup of beans and 4 fruits a day. I was so sick for about 3 weeks straight! I felt like I had the flu. I was weak, tired and had a perpetual headache. Everyone around me thought I was crazy! I started to lose weight rapidly and eventually I didn’t feel ill anymore. Over the course of 6 months I went from 259 to 192, I also felt fairly good.

One of the things that drew me to this way of eating was how closely I felt it aligned with the Word of Wisdom. Eating this wasn’t difficult for me, but the pressure from others was intense and my own sweetheart, who is a nurse, thought I had an eating disorder! Family and friends thought I was being radical and without the proper support group I threw in the towel. I felt cold all the time. I had lost muscle weight, and felt considerably weaker than I was used too. I slowly and painfully went back to the SAD. From 2011 to 2018 my weight went from 192 lbs all the way up to 270 lbs.

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