Whole Food Plant Based

Black bean salad, purple yam, mushroom, dragon fruit, jack fruit

Eat them colours ya'll!

Hello! Here I am again and today I wanna share with you an interesting experience or should I say.. Experiment? That I did last month. I went Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) in July! I've been wanting to try this since I went vegetarian. Cause to in the vegan community, from the vegan nutritionists and doctors, they recommend WFPB as the healthiest diet. Yes, we can still eat unhealthily on a vegan diet. Going vegan doesn't guarantee you top notch health.

Anyway the reason why I decided to go WFPB in July is because I was eating like crap back in June haha. It was the Hari Raya holiday and yeah I eat whatever I wanna eat. I snack a lot, I drink lots of sweet drinks, eat pasta and this and that. And also I've been curious about it! But well I didn't go fully WFPB in July. There were 5 days which I stopped going WFPB (Still vegan tho) as I was out of town and it was also my birthday. So I decided to treat myself heh :P

Purple yam, black bean and lentil salad and kailan

Okay first of all what is WFPB. To put it simply it is a diet in which we eat plant based food, while keeping the food as "naturally intact" as possible (thus the word whole food). So no processed food like flour, noodles, sugary drinks etc. And also we're supposed to avoid additional sugar, oil and excessive salt. Instead of white rice we eat brown rice. For carbs we can have root vegetables and fruits and everything else. As long as it's "whole" and not processed.

So my food revolves around lots of vegetables! I rotate my carbs with cassava, sweet potato and yam. Also the past few weeks I've been eating jicamas as we were planting them and they were on harvest. For proteins I have tofu, tempe and lots of beans. Also lentils. As for fats... I don't have much of them. I know we're supposed to avoid oil but I did have deep fried tempe/tofu. Cause that's how most people have them here in restaurants. That's one of the cheat I did heh.

I am very proud of myself that I actually didn't eat white rice for the whole of July! I did eat brown rice though... Seriously I can't live without rice. Perhaps I'm too Indonesian. I also didn't drink soft drinks (AKA my beloved teh botol and Pokka green tea), but I did have... 3 soft drinks. 2 in my birthday and one while I was in Jakarta. The rest was either fruit juice and... Beer oops.

Made some lentil soup with chopped tomato

I cheated by using Marks and Spencer canned chopped tomato heh

I didn't "count" my calories. I did read like the amount of servings I should eat for beans etc. But I only stopped when I'm feeling full. And trust me on a WFPB diet, you will feel easily full! Like I would just have 2 medium sized cassava/sweet potato/yam and I'll be damn full. Most of the time I saved the rest of the food for the next day. This rarely happens when I eat rice. Usually I crave for more.

And trust me... This WFPB diet really made a difference in my body. Here's a few changes I noticed while going through this diet. It's pretty interesting! Although generally I feel normal.

1. I easily feel full, but I don't easily go hungry

This is most significant thing I noticed. I really feel easily full even though I don't seem to eat "a lot". But I don't feel hungry at all, even after hours since I last ate. And also I don't have the tendency to snack. Like usually I would go munch on things in between meals but not now baby!

2. I feel lighter

Pretty obvious I would say. I never feel bloated/full after meals. There was no lingering feeling of bloatedness/fullness in my stomach. Also hey hey I lost 3kgs from 92 to 89 whoop.

3. My mood improves

I've been reading a few articles how our gut actually plays an important role on our mental health, as there are hormones which are produced in the gut. And there are a lot of cases where people show a tremendous improvement in their mental health after going WFPB. I don't know how to explain this personally but yeah. I feel better, and my mind feels "clearer" too somehow.

4. Sadly, I might be sensitive to gluten

I might do a separate post on this but yes, I might be sensitive to gluten.

5. I enjoy my time in the toilet more mmhmm

My usual breakfast is overnight oats!

Oats, goji berries and raisins (pre-mixed) with dates, and unsweetend almond/soy milk

Now the question is will I continue WFPB...? The answer is yes and no haha. Hmm I don't think I'll continue WFPB 100% but I'm thinking of doing it like 70% of the time? My plan is to eat WFPB for breakfast and dinner. As for lunch I might or might not do it. The reason is simply because I have more ease to cook/plan my dinner than to cook for lunch heh. Since my mum and dad eat together with me. But I am definitely going to switch to be a vegan now. Whoop!

Alright that's all for this random food post. I recommend you to give WFPB a try. Even for a week, or one day a week etc. And feel the power of the plants. And the difference! Have fun :)