Midterm Report Card

I have been doing the Eat to Live Challenge for three weeks now.

That feels like a lie because I went off-plan A LOT this week. Peanut butter straight from the jar to fast food, I went off the rails.

Today was the worst. I ate Burger King for lunch and then Taco Bell for dinner. I felt awful after lunch. And the so-called "food" didn't even taste good. Except for the first few French fries, everything was either flavorless or tasted faintly of plastic. But that didn't stop me from making a run for the Border a few hours later.

My lunch and dinner tasted about like what I imagine plastic play food might.

It was as if I had to test it; I had to see if I could really feel a difference so soon, if it was really the food making me feel gross.

TMI alert: After my Taco Bell dinner, I felt so bad I actually contemplated making myself throw up. I felt like crap. The ability to avoid regurgitation is a point of pride for me, so thinking of doing it on purpose shows just how disgusting I felt. I expected to feel some effect after eating well for two-and-a-half weeks but I didn't expect to feel the impact so immediately. Headache. Nausea. Grogginess. And my skin felt tingly for a while.

Though I'd like to beat myself up for deviating from the plan (again), I'm looking at this experience as part of the grand experiment.

It's hard to get back on once you're off but not impossible.

Has eating a mostly plant-based diet changed my body in only three weeks?

The answer is an unequivocal yes. My body loves eating a plant-based diet and "cheating" has helped me to see what a vast difference eating primarily whole foods has already made in my health. Though I don't enjoy feeling sick, it has helped me recognize some of the "symptoms" I'd been experiencing for the past several months/years that have disappeared in the past couple of weeks.

Going into this challenge, I was not expecting to come out the other side a vegan but, with each passing day, I am increasingly convinced that it might be the best option for me.

I'll do my best never to make people feel like this around me.

Here's to renewed commitment for the next three weeks.