Any Plant Based/Vegan eaters here?

[wallace82668]

This is  my first time (my first day even) using a fitbit….my husband has been encouraging me to give this a try for over a year as it has really helped him stay motivated. 

I strive to eat a whole food plant based/vegan diet and usually do about 90% of the time...it's just been so hard to conquer that last 10%!

I am curious to know how the fitbit has been helpful to others, in what ways do you utilize the fitbit to motivate your diet and is the food log on the dashboard helpful?  Does it recognize vegan product bar codes?

Looking forward to joining the fitbit community!

[DanielleinDC]

I am vegan, but I'm not the healthiest, I admit. (I try.)

I read that fitness experts say you should go for an 80/20 balance--80 percent healthy foods and 20 percent not so healthy. If you're eating healthy 90 percent of the time, that's pretty good.

[Dominique]

Use the search function in this forum and you will find a lot of past discussions on the subject of plant-based eating:

[annschmech]

I've gone to a whole food plant based diet about 1.5 years ago.  It took me about 3 months to shift over.  I occasionally eat processed (boxed etc) foods or if I'm invited to someone's home for a meal I eat what's served.  Otherwise, 99% time I've been able to stay with it.

I think of 'vegan' as a  what not to eat, where as a whole food plant based diet as a choice of what to eat. Vegan can be whole food, plant based healthy diet or technically 'vegan'  can be potato chips and coke.  Whole food, plant based is just that, plants, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, beans etc...  a minimum of processed foods, added sugar as well as no dairy, meat, fish or eggs.  

I see beyond beef and impossible burger, fake cheese etc as more in the 'vegan' category (highly processed)  A homemade black bean or lentil patty (in my opinion) would fall in the whole food category.

This is just the way I tend to define it.  I strive to eat healthy and whole, not just avoid certain foods.

All that said, I lost 45 lbs, dropped my cholesterol 50 points and my blood pressure about 30 points both systolic and diastolic (in a very healthy range). I quit drinking years ago because it was causing heart problems like palpitations and tachycardia.  My weight, blood pressure and cholesterol was still way above healthy levels.  I was in pain from a weight related issues.  My doctor really wanted me to go on meds for BP, high cholesterol and pain.   

I had to have bilateral hip replacement and since losing that weight I and am pain free too. The surgery fixed up one issue but the weight loss basically took away the knee and back pain.   It's been a long hard journey but well worth the effort.  

This happened to work for me but everyone is different has to decide what works for them.    

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