| On March 1, 2021, I stepped on the scale and found my weight at 350 pounds. I was mortified. I made a firm decision to do whatever it took to get back to my ideal weight of 205 pounds. I created a success plan for myself that I titled “Think and Grow Thin” and I said a prayer for Divine guidance. At the time, I didn’t have a specific diet in mind but I knew I would have to change the way I ate. A week later, I was at Barnes & Noble in search of a new book when suddenly, for reasons I can’t explain, I turned my head sharply to the left, and my eyes locked onto a book about whole-food, plant-based cooking. I rejected the idea of eating that way, kept walking, found a new book, purchased it and left the store. For three days I couldn’t stop thinking about the incident that caused me to look at the whole-food, plant-based book. It was as if someone took my head and turned it to that book. I now believe it was Divine intervention; an answer to the prayer I spoke at the start of this weight-loss journey.
I began researching whole-food, plant-based eating. My research included a number of YouTube videos featuring Dr. John McDougall. The evidence was overwhelming so I switched to whole-food, plant-based eating. One of the cookbooks I purchased, and the one I refer to most often is Dr. McDougall’s The Healthiest Diet on the Planet which contains my favorite new recipe: Beany Minestrone Soup, and many others.
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