My Plant-Based Story

Early Years

As a young child, I remember some of my favorite foods included Chicken McNuggets dipped in honey and cream cheese stuffed Crab Rangoon. I was a child of the late '70s and '80s, a time when processed white bread, T.V. dinners, and microwaving anything and everything was the norm. I loved candy! What kid didn't? But I really really loved it. Chocolate was my first pick while my sister gobbled up the tooth-aching stuff like, "Jolly Ranchers”. But sugary cereals and Coca Cola were not allowed in our house. Blueberry muffins were okay, so were baked chicken nuggets, margarine replaced butter, and "natural" peanut butter replaced the sweet processed brands. My single working mother tried her best when she had any control of what my sister and I put in our mouths but back then, we didn't know all that we know now.

*Photo - 5th Grade

Teens and College Years

It wasn't until I was about 13 years old that I started to associate food with body weight. I was always such a "skinny” kid in elementary school and I was never very tall for my age. However, in about 7th grade, things started to change. I remember over just one summer I gained like 15 pounds. Not realizing at the time that I probably grew about an inch or two as well, I freaked out. I had spent the entire summer at my father's beach house in Southern California boogie boarding and riding my bike. I ate cheeseburgers almost every night for dinner at our favorite restaurant and helped myself to huge, self-served frozen yogurts with rainbow sprinkles almost daily. When I returned to my mother's home for the school year, I noticed I was well over 100 pounds. This was the first time I ever saw a triple-digit number on a scale. And because of this, I was convinced that I had gotten "fat" and blamed it on the food I ate all summer. This was the beginning of my ten-year battle with food.

*Photo - Jr. Highschool 1989

I was looking pretty voluptuous at this point in my life and getting far too much attention in a tank top and not ready for that AT ALL. I was not overweight by any means but I all I knew was that I was a lot heavier than my younger sister and tiny mother and more curvaceous than my closest girlfriends at the time. Sadly, I was seriously miserable in my skin.

Anyone around in the early '90s probably remembers the fat-free everything craze. Fat-free cookies, fat-free frozen yogurt, fat-free butter ( how is that even possible? ) For obvious reasons, I jumped on board this "Fat-Free" trend quick! This is also around the same time that I read an article about factory farming involving cattle, chickens, and fish ( it was pretty gross ). I wish I could remember the publication because this article made me into a vegetarian overnight. It was 1992 and I was now a sophomore in high school.

*Photos from 1992-1994 Highschool - unhealthy vegetarian

I didn't know it at the time but I was actually on the right track going vegetarian but I was doing it completely wrong! I wasn't eating any fruit or vegetables!? I LIVED on fat-free frozen yogurt. Like, I'm not kidding, I seriously LIVED on it. I worked at a popular frozen yogurt shop throughout high school. My friends and I were there during lunch break, after school, before cheerleading practice, and after football games. All my girlfriends lived on the stuff too. We still talk about it to this day. We were so clueless.

Vegetarian to Atkins to Vegetarian

When I wasn't eating frozen yogurt, I was surviving white flour bagels smothered in fat-free cream cheese, large soft pretzels dipped in super processed fat-free Ranch dressing, fat-free cookies, and fat-free cheese quesadillas. Instead of getting skinnier, I was just getting bigger? I was a cheerleader and a dancer and I started getting extremely self-conscious. So, for a quick fix, I just started starving myself. I also turned to diet pills, diuretics, and laxatives, and then finally, during my second year of college I discovered the Atkins Diet.

I went from a vegetarian diet back to a dairy, egg. poultry and fish diet. I still avoided beef and pork but now my diet was completely void of complex carbohydrates. I lived on deli-style turkey slices, cottage cheese, chicken breasts, and I doused everything with hot sauce ( actually, I still do this ). My diet still lacked all fruits and vegetables except for an occasional salad loaded with cheese and a mayo-based dressing. Yes, the weight came off quickly, about 20 lbs of it, but I felt awful. Like, zero energy awful with bad skin, bad breath, and horrible digestion. I craved sugar like no other and I would lose control sometimes and binge on a loaf of sourdough bread or a pan of fat-free brownies.

*Photo 1996 in college during my short Atkins Diet phase

After a few years of this destructive cycle, the weight crept back up and I felt completely out of control and defeated. I had just moved to Hawaii and decided, "Screw it. I'm just going to be fat." I hated eating animal flesh and I didn't want to do it anymore especially because it wasn't working for me anyway. So I went back to a vegetarian diet very easily at the age of 23. I still consumed dairy and eggs, but this time I finally included a lot more fruit and vegetables. Living in the warm humid tropics, I honestly craved smoothies, steamed veggies, and salads. I ate when I was hungry and stopped when I was full. If I wanted a vegetarian burrito, I ate it. If I wanted a cookie, I ate it. I just stopped thinking about food all the time and started living my life again. I also started surfing almost daily. And you know what happened? The weight melted away. In about 18 months, I lost over 25 lbs without any effort. The weight loss was so dramatic that people I hadn't seen in years hardly recognized me. 

Vegetarianism to Plant-Based mostly Vegan

My road from vegetarian to completely plant-based vegan took well over 10 years. I discovered the raw vegan diet way back in the early 2000s after reading an article my mother sent me about Michael and Roxanne Klein's groundbreaking raw vegan restaurant in Larkspur, CA called, "Roxanne's". Everything about this raw or "living" plant-based diet resonated with me. Over the next couple of years, I tried being a pure raw vegan countless times but always failed. I purchased every publication on the subject, probably spent thousands of dollars on powdered superfoods, raw organic almond butter, and virgin coconut oils. But sadly, I felt like a total failure when I would cave in and eat some steamed rice. So at this point, I realized that maybe this wasn't the right way of eating for me so I went back to eating cooked starches with some dairy and eggs. But this time, thanks to my experiment with raw vegan foods, at least I was eating way more vegetables and fruits than I ever was before. Much better but still not ideal. However, something happened in 2013 that finally made me drop most animal products for good.

*Photos - Mid 2000s in Hawaii/Tahiti. Slowly making the long transition from vegetarian to completely plant-based

My entire life I have suffered from seasonal allergies, chronic tonsillitis, eczema, and sinus infections. Back in July of 2013, I got sick again. Some sort of cold that severely inflamed my tonsils enough to scare the absolute shit out of me. Three rounds of antibiotics and two doctors later I still had a ton of mucus, sinus headaches, and a constant tickle in my throat. I live on Maui and the earliest I could get in to see the ONLY ear/nose and throat doctor on the island was four months out (#WTF #islandproblems). My health insurance would allow me to fly to Honolulu to see a doctor immediately if needed, but all my blood tests came out perfect and my Maui-based doctors didn't seem very concerned. So before jumping on an airplane, I decided to try something first.

I immediately decided to eliminate as many mucus-causing allergens out of my diet as the occasional dairy I was still eating, eggs, and gluten. I also decided to cut out any overly processed foods and refined sugars. I added some supplements like B-12 + pro-biotics. My meals consisted of cooked starches like potatoes and rice, cooked or raw vegetables, beans and lentils, fermented foods like kimchi, and simple overt fats like coconut, avocado, and some nut or seed butter. After a very short amount of time, my energy shot through the roof. I lost about 5 lbs within 2 weeks and my digestion was nearly perfect. Any bloating I used to consider normal was completely gone. Mucus? Gone. Sinus pain? Gone. Tonsil inflammation? Gone. It was amazing!

I would never recommend self-diagnosing. Please, please, please see your doctor first. The fact is, I did go to my doctor several times, got a second and third option. I had all the necessary blood tests done and took my medicine as advised. However, at a certain point, I realized that I'm responsible for my health and I was sick and tired of being sick and tired so often. I decided that I was not going to take another antibiotic without trying something else first. What followed was a total surprise. Did it have anything to do with all my chronic symptoms disappearing? I don't know.? But they were now gone.

Today my meals revolve around whole plant foods as much as possible. I eat a nice balance of complex carbs, protein, and healthy fats. This keeps me full, satiated, and cravings-free. I've fallen in love with creamy yellow Japanese sweet potatoes, red lentils, sprouted organic tofu, all sorts of miso pastes, tahini, and leafy greens. I crave Macro Bowls now, like every day. Veggie Sushi or Tofu Omusubi? Yes, please! These little tweaks and discoveries over the years have helped me stay plant-based and even more importantly, really happy about food. I’m a firm believer that if something tastes really good, people are going to want to eat it. I’m aiming to show you this with this website. I really want for you to taste for yourself how absolutely delicious a completely plant-based dish can be!

* Photos taken in 2020 and 2021, Plant-based since 2013, age 44

Most importantly, the biggest reason I've maintained this diet over the last few years has changed from my health concerns to the animals themselves and of course, the planet. Vegan, plant-based diets are trending these days and it's easy to understand why. Eating foods that are colorful, flavorful, and cruelty-free is not some sort of fleeting fad diet, it's a lifestyle. And once you see and understand the connection between your diet and your carbon footprint on this planet, it's really hard to imagine ever going back to eating a diet that is dominated by meat, dairy, and eggs. 

Still, I have to remind myself that it's okay to not be perfect when it comes to this lifestyle. I'd be completely dishonest if I didn't admit that I've had a slip-up over the years. The goal for me is consistency. Did I eat some chèvre while on vacation in Tahiti? Yes. Have I stolen a bite of my husbands’ non-vegan dessert? Yes. Do I still have some leather purses that I have a hard time parting with inside my closet? Change takes time and forgiveness. Compassion and awareness are now important to me, not perfection. So that being said, I'm moving forward every day, meal by meal. I hope that you can do the same.

Northshore Maui, 2020