About Me
Welcome to This Plantiful Life! If you’ve made it to my site, then you are already taking steps to living a more nutritious, healthy, and plentiful life! I’m Lora, and I am the blogger behind This Plantiful Life.
There are many reasons why I have taken the journey towards plant based goodness. I have always been interested in food and the relationship it has in fueling our bodies. As a child my mom called me her “meat and potatoes” girl. I was never a picky eater and always cleaned my plate like I was taught I should do. I had typical teen/college years of eating junk, fast food, and anything that tasted delicious and like most young people, never thought twice about it.
When I was pregnant with my first child I became more conscious of how what I ate affected my body. I turned to all the health advice I could get my hands on. Little did I know that this advice was being funded by special interests and not likely to be the best practices for nutritious living!
I turned to organic eggs, milk, cheese, and grass fed meat. I loved to run and felt that these foods would properly fuel my runs from 5ks to half marathons. I was in my late twenties and three kids later I felt like I was super healthy and living the good life! I did not yet know that getting rid of all of the animal protein would have made me feel even better than this.
A few years later I experienced some devastating news when I found that my loving husband of 11 years had been having an affair. The divorce was extremely painful and I turned to anything but healthy practices to help me cope. I was now a single mom of three working a 50+ hour a week job that paid next to nothing and receiving very little child support. I threw out my ideals of organic food and healthy lifestyle and turned to foods that were convenient and quick just to get a “meal” on the table.
Fast forward to 7 years later and I met Troy. By this time I had done some serious soul searching and trusting in God. I was so thankful for God’s care through all my difficult struggles and I was ready to reclaim my life.
But with being so busy with kids, a new marriage, and a very demanding job, my eating was still not what it should have been. After my wedding I gained about 20 lbs and was feeling physically drained, bloated and miserable. I got back into working out only to find that now in my late 30s, the weight did not seem to fall off as easily as it did in the past. Still I continued, believing that my animal protein rich “healthy” diet would prevail!
It wasn’t until my son struggled with severe acne that I stumbled upon the plant based diet. He had tried every medication, cream, and potion and nothing worked. After 5 months of Accutane and many severe side effects later I stumbled upon a podcast by Dr. Michael Greger about acne and diet that changed me. I had my son listen to the same podcast and our research into the plant based world exploded.
I was entranced by Dr. Mc Dougal, Dr. Esselstein, and Dr. Campbell and all of the research they had done proving that a plant based diet could not only prevent our top diseases and health issues, but actually REVERSE them! Furthermore, their research was unbiased and they did not receive a penny from special interest companies to report their findings.
After reading Dr. Furhman’s book Eat To Live, I was convinced that this way of eating was superior to any other “diet” I had ever been on. I decided to try Dr. Furhman’s advice on how to change my food addictions from the standard american diet to a more nutritious plant based one.
My son was with me. After a few weeks of Dr. Furhman’s 6 week plan, his acne had dramatically improved. A year later, and my high school athlete son is acne free with no medication and living a healthy nutritious plant based diet!
As for me? I have never felt better in all my years. I lost 25 lbs, my skin is clear and I have more energy than ever before. I feel so mentally clear and free of any depression or brain fog. How had I never know about any of this before!
It is now my mission to share the plant based message. I want everyone to know that they can live a happier, more healthful life and enjoy it more than they could have ever imagined.