8 reasons why the WFPB lifestyle may not be meeting your expectations?
The promise of good health is the number one reason for adopting a WFPB diet and life style! What if it is not working for you? Why aren’t you healing?
I am a member of several Facebook groups and hear questions and complaints from people trying to adopt this lifestyle. While many people tell of amazing results, some people just don’t seem to obtain the results they expect.
1. Simply a lack of patience.
If you feel as though you are depriving yourself of something, then you may expect results much faster than what is realistic.
You aren’t depriving yourself!
You are SAVING yourself and regaining health! You’re probably coming into this lifestyle with a lot of food cravings which make the diet a challenge.
Addictions to dairy, cheese, meat, sugar, caffeine, and other cravings could take weeks to subside!
It’s not the easiest food choice, you pretty much have to make all of your own meals, social gatherings are compromised, family may complain, and fresh food just might not be available. Being WFPB is not just a diet, it is a lifestyle change!
All of these new lifestyle changes and not feeling satiated can really contribute for feeling deprived. You start to wonder if it is worth it all when you are not seeing results.
2. You could be relying too much on substitutes!
A mistake I see people make is to find substitutes for animal products. This may be because people are so used to animal protein, they aren’t sure how to make vegetables into a main course.
Fake meat substitutes are a poor substitution for the real thing! They aren’t healthy and you will seldom be satisfied! Most of the time they are heavy in calories and fat just like real animal products!
Eating them is not going to help your health.
If you are concerned about protein, you will be getting plenty on a WFPB diet! Colin Campbell (Forks Over Knives and The China Study) has some interesting articles on both fake meats and protein.
Learn to love your vegetables! Try using them in place of vegetables for similar entrée’s you used to know and love! Try Artichoke Tacos! Eggplant Brats, Mushroom Rockefeller, Cauliflower wraps! One of the best pastrami sandwiches I ever had was made with eggplant!
3. You might be on a WFPB high fat Keto diet!
I’m guilty of this myself! When I found myself gaining the weight I lost and my cholesterol a little high, I realized I was eating too much plant fat! (Love those avocados)!
When fat spills over into the blood, the body does not make a distinction between animal and vegetable. It’s all still fat!
It wasn’t until I attempted Anthony William’s 3-6-9 Cleanse that I realized just how MUCH I was relying on fat in my meals. Often I had coconut yogurt, nuts, avocados and olives in just one salad! Just trying to omit fat until the evening meal was a huge challenge for me!
There is a lot of fat in coconut yogurt, nuts, avocados and olives! Seeds, tofu and plant milk too!
Dairy substitutes made with cashews are LOADED with fat and calories. You can have some in moderation, and it is certainly healthier than real dairy, but don’t expect fast results losing weight.
Eating fat and sugar at the same time is the ultimate sin because the sugar won’t get used properly by the body. The liver is tasked with doing something with all that fat! Eat like this and you will find yourself on a WFPB high fat Keto diet that will not help your health!
4. You may have a condition that takes longer to heal!
It takes at least 30 days for inflammation to go down from meat and dairy! You may be healing but the clean up has to start first!
A WFPB diet may reverse damage to your heart, liver and other organs but it could take awhile. Until your organs are healed, one or two out-of-compliance meals can put you right back where you started.
I cheated on my birthday and had a bowl of lobster bisque that nearly put me in the hospital! All that cream was too much fat! I knew better but I thought – special occasion – just once won’t hurt! Yes, it can!
Apparently my gallbladder had not completely healed. (It CANNOT heal on diet high in fat, sugar and gluten). Sometimes a WFPB diet will help you reverse a condition just enough that you feel better but not enough to revert to bad food choices.
I would hate to know where I would be if I still ate cheese three times a day or my freshly churned butter on everything.
By the way, if your doctor has recommended gallbladder surgery, you may want to do some research. Read this article about healing the gallbladder first.
5. You may be diabetic and need to regulate your blood sugar !
A WFPB is generally low in fat but high in carbs. While carbs are not a bad thing, certain types spike the blood sugar and cause issues for a diabetic.
Typical bread products are particularly high in carbs and offer little nutrition. Limiting bread products is extremely challenging when coming from the Standard American Diet (SAD). The SAD diet usually centers highly around meat, dairy and bread for every meal! One slice of bread can spike blood sugar mote than a tablespoon of table sugar!
People who complain of dizziness, weakness, weight gain and fatigue when they go on a WFPB diet are likely to be suffering from diabetes without realizing it.
When blood sugar dips low or spikes high it can be dangerous or even deadly! Fat is stored away like a squirrel stashing nuts for winter!
A WFPB diet can help regulate your blood sugar (with some types of diabetes) diet but it takes a little time and strategy. You have to heal your pancreas first and eliminate insulin resistance. Dr. Neal Barnard is one of many doctors who have a series of books and research about reversing diabetes.
When I am speaking of sugar, I refer to natural sugar that occurs in fruit and not table sugar! You should not be eating table sugar on a WFPB diet. Period!
Don’t avoid fruit but limit yourself to the lower glycemic index fruits like apples and berries until your sugar is regulated!
6. You may have food allergies.
Now that you are eating a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, you may have food allergies you were never aware of.
It may not be allergies, it may be a higher concentration of one thing since you have eliminated meat and dairy.
Personally, I do not believe I have a problem with nightshades, but I have been known to have eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers all in one meal. That high concentration of nightshades might contribute to my muscle fatigue.
Can vegetables and fruits make you sick? Maybe it is concentration of plants sugars or fiber that your body isn’t used to. A SAD diet is typically low in fiber. Fiber is a good thing but gas pain is not!
New WFPB converts generally complain about how “musical” a WFPB diet is.
7. You may experience hormonal changes.
A glass of milk is a hormone cocktail! If you were eating a lot of dairy then it stands to reason that you are going to experience a hormonal shift as your body detoxifies itself of dairy.
Animals are often fed growth hormones to fatten them much faster for slaughter. Hormone filled cows and chickens don’t look anything like their lineage from a century ago. These hormones are IN YOU!
It is great to detox yourself of these hormones but be aware of hormones in plant foods as well.
Soy is a controversial topic as soy is thought to cause issues with the thyroid. Soybeans have been tied to many health problems, especially in the form of soybean oil!
Soy mimics estrogen and often replaces the thyroid and estrogen hormones in the cells. The thyroid is thought to regulate the metabolism. Regardless, the wrong substance is in your cells results in mixed signals in your body. Thyroid Healing is a great book by Anthony William on the subject.
Personally I think organic tofu in moderation does not impact the thyroid, at least not for me. It could be an allergy or sensitivity issue for some.
8. You may have a underlying virus!
Viruses lie dormant in the body – or so we believe. We may THINK the virus is dormant or even gone! However, viruses can silently wreck havoc on the body and cause all sorts of health issues!
Research teams at Childrens Hospital in Cincinnati has linked Mono (Epstein-Barr) to seven major illnesses. Epstein-Barr Wikipedia details even more diseases including various cancers.
Anthony William has probably the most comprehensive information about the Epstein-Barr virus and what to do about it. I highly recommend his Medical Medium and Cleanse to Heal books.
Viruses “eat” and grow. It is important to know what they feed on! Scientists use grains like corn and wheat, eggs and dairy as mediums to grow viruses for vaccine research. Viruses feed on these mediums!
Heavy metals are often added to vaccines because viruses consume heavy metals and toxins.
Understand the virus doesn’t just go away. It is imperative to alleviate the virus as much as possible to subdue it’s damage.
Shingles is the best example I can give. It comes back over and over again when the body is weakened or under high stress. That is one reason why the elderly seem to have repeated attacks of the virus.
I have to be curious about the Corona virus and what it may do in it’s “dormant” state. People who had it are reporting long term effects. Fatigue, weakness and muscle aches could be caused by Covid-19 and the patient unaware they even have the virus.
(I think they should call it Covid 20-20, don’t you?).
Find your routine and what works for you!
A WFPB diet is different for everyone. Join some WFPB groups on Facebook! Follow my Snap Pea Sheep Facebook group!
Pick up a new fruit or vegetable you’ve never tried before. Eat more raw foods.
Follow Anthony’s nine day 3-6-9 plan or simply omit all fat until your evening meal.
For me, giving up meat was easy! Dairy was my downfall. When I simply could not imagine a meal without bread or cheese, I looked to Japanese food. The Japanese do not eat dairy as a rule so I was easily WFPB compliant trying this new cuisine while my cravings subsided.
Give yourself a big pat on the back for making this change in your life and don’t beat yourself up when you get discouraged. Just know you are on the road to better health and well being and give yourself some time.
This site is about making the transition – not being perfect. You are only accountable to yourself!
Is the WFPB lifestyle not what you expect?
Don’t you love this cute cate face on a giraffe? A giraffe with a cat face depicts not getting what you expect perfectly!
Thank you Koty Vezde for this cover photo! Koty is a very talented artist with an Instagram site called Cat Universe. She also offers custom photos with your cat.
