My Story

Hi I’m Jo and this page is a place to find out a little bit more about me. In a past life I was a broadcast graphic designer and now I’m a mum, blogger, and plant enthusiast. I went plant-based about five years ago and it really did change my life. I didn’t have a miraculous cure of an illness, except for maybe my hanger (hungry + angry!), but my health really did improve, even though I didn’t realise that it needed to.

About twelve years ago I stopped eating meat after reading a book about factory farming in America, I didn't eat a lot of meat anyway so this wasn't that hard for me to do. I did however still eat a lot of fish and sea food. It wasn’t until reading another book about the ethical implications of eating animals that I became a ‘proper’ vegetarian about five years ago (book info here). I really should have been called a dairy-tarian though, as all my meals had dairy in them - milk and yoghurt with cereal for breakfast, coffees with milk during the day, cheese on my sandwiches for lunch and some kind of dairy with my dinner. I didn’t realise it at the time but I was often anaemic, suffered from chronic sinus infections, had really unstable blood sugar levels and was often constipated. I had to eat every few hours and would get the shakes if I missed a meal. Missing a meal wasn’t really an option as I just couldn’t cope, I got really hangry and often had my husband telling me to stop being grumpy at him and go and eat something. And did I mention that I really loved cheese? This is important to point out because if I can give cheese up, anyone can!

My breakup with cheese happened in a two part process. Becoming fully plant-based or vegan wasn’t even on my radar when a friend of mine mentioned they were doing a six week liver cleanse. It basically cut out meat and dairy over the course of a few weeks and I thought, ‘this shouldn’t be too hard, I don’t even eat meat, lets see how it goes’. So I committed to the liver cleanse and the first couple of weeks were fine, but as time went on and my body wasn’t getting the cheese fix it was used to, I started to get really bad withdrawal symptoms. These included quite severe headaches (which I don’t usually suffer from), nausea, upset stomach and diarrhoea. The withdrawal was so bad that after the liver cleanse was finished I never returned to eating the same levels of dairy that I previously did. My reasoning was that if my body was reacting this way, perhaps dairy wasn't actually the best thing for me. 

My investigation and thoughts about dairy stopped there until about a year after my liver cleanse I watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives. This movie blew my mind! So much easily digestible information about how animal products are so detrimental to our health, backed up with so much scientific research over a significant amount of time. Forks Over Knives is on Netflix and I implore everyone to watch it.

One of the doctors featured in the film is Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. and I ordered his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure. It was a really interesting read and had a very thorough recipe section at the back. I spent a few weeks practicing recipes, as I’m not great in the kitchen, and once I felt confident I had enough to eat I made the change and went plant-based. I loved the recipes because they were all very simple and it was obvious they had actually been developed in a home kitchen. The ingredients were super simple and most of the meals could be made in half an hour or so without much clean up. That’s my kind of cooking! And for the first time in my life I was making delicious food and not struggling and burning things in the kitchen. 

Now almost five years down the track my love affair with cheese is well and truly over and the thought of it even makes me a little sick. I haven’t had a sinus infection since dropping dairy, my iron levels are much more consistent (I do supplement to ensure this as I can now feel when my levels and energy are lower than normal) and the biggest change for me - no more hanger! I also love the portion sizes of a whole food plant based diet. There is no more calorie counting and I can eat until I’m full, which is usually a giant portion of vegetables, grains and beans of some kind. I often get comments about my portion sizes and even though I am consuming a lot more food than I used to, I have lost a little weight. This was never the intention but a happy side effect of having more plants in my life. 

I’ve also become a mum since going plant-based and have had no problems with conception, pregnancy or nursing, even though I was in my mid thirties when we had Jensen. I didn’t take any extra supplements while I was pregnant besides what I was already taking (iron, B12 and omega 3) and my blood tests were always at healthy levels. I had no pregnancy complications, a natural birth and my little man is super healthy and happy. He is also plant-based and thriving. He has had a few colds, especially last winter and had real trouble teething but has never needed antibiotics and so far has tended to bounce back from illnesses quite quickly. He is still nursing at two years of age and isn't showing signs of stopping any time soon!

Besides my enthusiasm for plants I also love running and dogs and have two little pooches that I do agility with. One weekend a month I am the crazy dog lady that gets up in the wee hours of the morning to go run around a paddock in the cold with dogs, and I love it. Running is my stress relief and I try to squeeze in at least one run a week and sometimes even two and enter short runs (5-10km) every few months to keep the motivation up. I was trying to train for another half marathon but it seems running and toddler germs don’t really mix. I’ve found the shorter distances a great compromise and am working at getting my pace up instead. It’s really motivating to start coming in further up the pack, and all fuelled only by plants!

Thanks for taking the time to join me on this journey and I hope to spread the amazingness of plants one blog post at a time. Carbs for life!

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