How I Went From Depressed and Overweight to Thriving
Vibin Veggies is a Lifestyle Blog that focuses on living a positive, balanced and healthy Life. This site is all about healing; healing the body but also healing the mind and the spirit.
My name is Lauren and my intention with this blog is to share the information that I have learned, which I have personally used to reverse health issues, lose weight, eliminate depression and become a far more positive and balanced person. Information which I have also taken into the world of Dog Rescue to heal Terminal and Hospice Dogs.
Until finding the Raw Food Lifestyle, I had struggled with my weight and a negative self image for as long as I can remember. Nutrition was never something that I thought about in my younger years, food was merely the stuff my parents put in front of me, canned vegetables, heavily processed meals, snack cakes, microwavable everything.
Weight, however, was always on my mind.
Most of my influences in my formative years came from TV and Magazines, where the waif look was always front and center. In middle school and high school I struggled with eating disorders, living most days on a chocolate bar or snack cake and sugary iced tea, frequently only eating one meal a day because it was the only way I knew how to stay thin.
Calories In, Calories Out is what they taught in school and since sports was never something I was encouraged to participate in, Calories In was what I could control best. From my 8th grade year until my sophomore year in college, this is how I lived. Hyped up on caffeine and sugar, frequently skipping meals and constantly depressed.
In college I met my Fiancee and shortly after we moved in together. At the time, my self esteem was just about zero, my self image extremely negative. He helped me to feel better about myself, whatever my weight, he made me feel wanted for the first time. His support was and always has been the thing that I am most grateful for in my life.
Things changed, but not in a healthy way. I no longer starved myself but instead my weight ballooned, from 105 lbs up to 160lbs in the first year we lived together. I spent the next 12 years battling to get my weight down. We exercised, we ate “healthy” (based on the Food Pyramid and all the “health” articles) but the best I did in those 12 years was to get down to 140lbs. We ate our whole grains, we were both vegetarians, I became Vegan and still I struggled with my weight. What I realize now is that I was really a starch-atarian, processed food addict and cheese head.
It wasn’t until a friend passed along the book Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It that I even began to think about Health and how what I ate affected my health. This book set me off on the path to health, but it took me years of reading and research to get to where I am today.
I have found along the way, that the reason most people are so unhealthy and so confused about health, is because there is a lot of contradictory information about health out there. So over the last 12 years I have read hundreds of books about health, nutrition, self esteem, relationships, diet, fitness and every other self help concept you can imagine.
I have waded through countless contradictory statements and spent sleepless nights trying to figure out which book is right. I have been my own guinea pig and as I said struggled with my weight, struggled with depression, struggled with self esteem for most of my life. But it was worth it, because today I no longer struggle.
Today I am truly happy, strong mentally, have a fulfilling relationship, love myself and I am healthy. Finding the biologically appropriate diet for our species has allowed the weight to come off effortlessly and stay off for good. In the six years since I found the Raw food Fruitarian Lifestyle I have maintained my weight and recovered my health while feeling satisfied, never deprived. I love food, I love to eat and I am nourished by what I eat, and that makes all the difference. I am never hungry, I don’t “diet”, my skin is clearer and softer and my mind is clearer. I am, without any effort, a more positive and happier person and I no longer suffer from depression.
But even greater then healing my own health both mentally and physically, Fruitarianism has given me the great privilege of taking in hospice and very ill dogs and turning their lives around. We have healed dogs with Terminal Cancer, Seizures, Dementia, Blindness, Hearing Loss, Hernias and so many other health issue.
I hope to share all of this with you. My hope is to help as many people and dogs as I can to find health and happiness and a more fulfilling life. To help people heal from unnecessary and reversible diseases like Cancer, Heart Disease and Diabetes and to help our beloved pets thrive. My hope is to change the way we all think about health and disease, so that no one we love needs to suffer.