After the Eat to Live 6 Week Challenge: The Life Plan and Going Vegan

This is Part 3 of my three part series on my experience doing the Eat to Live Six Week Challenge. This challenge is outlined in Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat to Live. In this part, I will give an overview of how Damian and I have decided to proceed after the 6 week challenge.

No one having completed this challenge, who experienced such an improvement to the quality of their life that I did would go back to eating the Standard American Diet. Damian and I both knew we wanted to continue with a slightly less stringent version of the Eat to Live Plan, but what did that mean?

Our Life Plan:
Mostly Whole Foods
I try to exclude as much processed food as I can, and I include all the whole foods I can.

No Animal Products
During Week 6, I discovered some informational and inspiring videos on YouTube made by whole food vegans. I started learning more about veganism and plant based eating, and the more I learned, the more I was inspired to give up animal products for good. So I did. Damian occasionally (like once a month) has sushi or some other treat, but I am 100% done with eating animal products.

A Salad a Day
The HUGE salad a day keeps me feeling good, and keeps me eating right because instead of salad for lunch I would probably have something quick and easy and highly processed. I also just love salad, so it works out.

Breakfast is Boring
I keep breakfast boring. I don’t want to think about it. I have oatmeal or in warmer weather I have cereal (the less processed the better).

Cheat Days are Okay
Occasional cheat days are ok. There are vegan options in my area for eating out when we are in a rush (any one try Taco Bell’s vegan menu? It’s not half bad!), and sometimes I just want chocolate cake or french fries.

More grains!
I struggled with wanting more grains than the 1 cup. I decided that it is probably fine to enjoy a bit more than that. Most days I eat around 2 cups of grains or potato a day.

So that’s the plan! I can’t say that I am great at sticking to it all the time. I have not purposefully eaten any animal products since before the Six Week Challenge, but some days I don’t eat my salad, or I have a couple too many cheat days, but life isn’t about being perfect. So this is the plan I strive to follow, and I mostly do! And it has to be good for me because I feel amazing!

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series for more information!
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