Our Journey to a Plant-Based Diet

In the summer of 2018 I saw a documentary video on Netflix that shook me to the core and helped us decide to shift our diet to a plant-based one. Hubby was very supportive of this and have done his own research on how we can change our recipes to plant-based. We invested in a number of ingredients that were hard to find and created our own vegan meats, but came too short. The taste and texture were not enough and the process of creating these are very tiring. After a month or so, we started eating meats again.

Although we have failed in 2018 in consistently following a vegan diet, we have learned a lot of things. And now we are more conscious and ready to try again.

We had a series of doctor appointments and 3 ER visits in the span of two months in 2019 and this prompted us to try a vegan diet again. I just had enough of the sickness that was just rotating in our family and we wanted to make a change. My husband was delighted to create new plant-based dishes and hoped that we would be more consistent this time.

Vegan or Vegetarian?

Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products. This means a person who is vegan does not eat anything that came from animals nor do they use products that came from animals (e.g. beeswax, milk, butter, leather materials from reptiles). They also do not eat eggs.

Vegetarians on the other hand do not eat animals but may eat products that came from animals such as dairy and eggs.

Where does our family fall?

During our first attempt in 2018, we failed to be consistent because it was a hard transition for the kids who still love their eggs, butter, ice cream, and milk. They also drink yogurt. Moreover, I love chocolate milk. We pushed so hard to be vegan right away that we eventually went back to our usual diet.

We are more ready now because we got to know ourselves better.

We don't want to push the kids to shifting to a vegan diet but we want our family to be more plant-based in what we eat at home because of the many health benefits it has.

And so we followed the vegetarian diet up to this day.


Our Plant-Based Meals

Our groceries would mostly consist of whole foods - vegetables, fruits, and nuts. We love salad so we have lettuce stored that is good for two weeks.

As for our plant-based meat, my husband continuously discovers and develops his own twist of vegan meat. He makes homemade vegan meat and although the process would take longer than the usual preparation for usual dishes, he lovingly creates these for us.

I love how our plant-based ground meat and plant-based chicken tastes! Our kids also love the taste of these plant-based meats so it's not hard for us to feed them these.


Here are some of his mastepieces (proud wife here!).

plant-based burger

Homemade plant-based mayonnaise. Yup. no eggs!


Plant-based mechado

Plant-based pancit palabok

Ginisang gulay with vegan ground meat

Cooking and preparation of vegan meat can be tedious (the other day my husband cooked for at least 5 hours!) but there are local stores where you can buy your vegan products. So far we have tried ordering from Vegan Grocer through Facebook and had our vegachon (vegan lechon) and other vegan meats sent to our house via Lalamove. There are also vegan restaurants around the metro but so far we haven't tried to eat in one yet. Hehe.


Will I Still Eat Meat?

We are still eating meat every now and then specially if we are dining out or when attending gatherings.

Our goal for our family at the moment is to make sure that most of the food we eat at home is plant-based. We also aim to decrease our intake of processed food and high-sugar treats such as cookies and cupcakes. Although we can't remove (yet) eggs and dairy in our diet, we are reducing the frequency of taking these.

These changes in our diet has given us vigor and helped us boost our immune system. We have not seen the doctor since the change in 2019 (thank you God!).

I hope in the future we can produce our own veggies but since we do not have a backyard or even a balcony, we would have to just buy at the groceries for now.

We continue to learn more about this diet and how we can adapt this to our family's palate. Hopefully we can also motivate other families to try a plant-based diet so that they can experience the benefits of this diet.




Comments

  1. Okay talaga mamsh ang healthy. Mas gusto ko pa din more veggies kesa sa mga meat. 😊

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's healthier talaga to take veggies. Daming health benefits.

      Delete
  2. Wowowowowow I learned a lot on this post momsh, I love veggies too. In fact it's all fresh since I used to plant it on our backyard. I eat meat too particularly chicken and pork but I'm more on fish and veggies. Hey mom, cheers to a more healthy us, lablab ♥️♥️♥️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yan ang gusto ko magkaroon ng backyard garden. I grew up getting our veggies at my mom's backyard.

      Delete
  3. Wow galing possible pala to Kahit walang egg or meat 😍👍

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, possible. Madaming options para di kailangan gumamit ng animal-based product.

      Delete
  4. After reading all of this, I have nothing in mind but putting my family in your position and imagining the struggle of plant-based diet especially my husband and I love chicken 😂😂 It would be a very rough transition for us once we try to follow this path. Nonetheless, it would be a really beneficial practice for all of us to reduce our meat consumption if we can't cut it out completely. Thanks for this information 😊😊😊

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We use Langka as substitute for fried chicken. texture and taste almost the same :)

      Delete
  5. Maganda padin mga healthy foods for family lalu na Ang gulay...thanks for sharing this info Mommy..♥️♥️♥️

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow. Thanks for sharing this momsh! Importante parin mga healthy foods. Good job momsh😊❤️

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, thank you for sharing this momshie I've learned a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  8. When I get on a diet (on and off 😅), I usually go on a veggie diet. Matinding disiplina lang talaga ang kailangan. Saludo ako for turning Vegan, tapos whole family pa, galing!!! 👏👏👏

    Goodluck and Godbless!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Galing naman! Nagtry ako egg diet, so far effective kaso need talaga consiatency.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow! Thankyou momsh for sharing. ❤️💙💛 Mas healthy & nutritious talaga ang veggies. 👍👍👍

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow I really love veggies that's I love plant basis diet makes me healthy and more beautiful skin

    Ig bhevtatad
    Fb bhev tatad
    YT Bhev tatad

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ng dahil dyan sa post mo mommy, nagkaroon tuloy ako ng idea. Thankyou po ♥️♥️♥️

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mukhang masarap ang mga foods na yan. Healthy at siguradong magugustuhan ng mga kids

    ReplyDelete
  14. Parang masarap yang burger ah imbes na meat patty veggies ang gamit. Mapapakain mga kids ng gulay ng hindi nila namamalayan na hindi pala karne yun ang galing

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow! Sarap naman ng mga foods na plant-based. ☺

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nice one! I love this post, kasi very informative now ko lang nalaman ito about plant-based foods. Pwede pala maging healthy at masarap ang foods natin.

    ReplyDelete
  17. How do you make your vegan meat? Ingredients please.....

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love your plant-based creations! 😋 Please share some recipes... 🙏😘

    ReplyDelete
  19. thank you for sharing this info mommy at ng magawa dito sa bahay healthy food is healthy living

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow momsh ang dami kong natutunan kung ano pinag kaiba nila .. and the food looks good

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks po sa sharing..
    Mas ok talaga ang vegetables dahil maraming benefits😊

    ReplyDelete
  22. Gusto ko narin simulan ganito mukhang masasarap na healthy pa at maganda sa katawan nating lahat

    ReplyDelete
  23. Parang hindi ko kaya to mommy. Thanks for sharing your journey.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wow! Ang galing naman mommy, yung mga naluto mo na vegan recipe looks tempting and delish. Kami naman mix po, pero more on fish and veggies. Dati hindi ako kumakain ng gulay, pero ngayon super love ko na sila

    ReplyDelete
  25. Lovely Dianne D. VillanuevaMarch 17, 2020 at 11:57 PM

    Very healthy neto Mommy Kat 🥰 Kasu baka ndi namin maachieve for now because of my baby, she love eggs too ☺️

    ReplyDelete
  26. mukang masarap yan mommy matry nga po minsan.thank you for sharing.
    Vicente Epino

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment