I haven't eaten meat in about 8 years. I have gone vegan for a few vegan challenges in the past. I know I should be vegan for the animals, the environment, and my health. I've seen the documentaries. I know it's the right thing to do.
However I've never been able to make it work. I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety after leaving it untreated for a decade. I've finally started seeing a therapist and I think it is helping but it just takes so much time to improve such a major problem. I don't take SSRIs or anything like that.
I am on birth control (hormone pill) currently, and the reason I went on it is to control hormonal acne. Last time I tried quitting I was covered in acne. I waited months to see improvement and saw none. I was eating low-dairy vegetarian at the time. It took me going back on the pill (since the acne made me so miserable) for at least 6 months for my skin to normalize again. Even on the pill, I get a tiny bit of acne on my chin sometimes. While off the pill I also started to experience painful ovulations, and I am fearing ovarian cysts since those are often caused by hormone imbalance (and repressed by hormonal birth control). This has gone away since going back on birth control.
I am overweight. I am constantly obsessed with food in my mind. I have no problem not eating meat at all. I rarely have meat substitutes. I've done vegan challenges in the past, but somehow the dairy always creeps back in. It starts with one small thing and bam, suddenly I can't resist anymore. I never drink straight up milk and I take coffee with soy milk, but dairy ice cream, milk chocolate, cake with whipped cream, potato chips, stuff like that is what I feel like I am seriously addicted to. I feel like it's the dairy/sugar (simple carb) combination that has me hooked, along with cheese.
I used to smoke and when you quit smoking you get these strong urges to smoke, and your addict brain is trying to trick you into 'just one' or 'let's quit tomorrow, not today'. I think a lot of people scoff at food addicts like it's not a real thing, but honestly my food cravings are so similar to when I tried to quit smoking. I had to try a million times, until it finally stuck one day. Similarly I tried cutting out all the bad stuff from my diet but I can never make it last. I live in a city and it literally takes me one minute to walk out my door to get whatever I want of my fav 'bad' foods.
I want to know what it's like to be a healthy weight.. I want to have clear skin without taking birth control, I want to feel better mentally, I want to feel in control when it comes to my food choices. I want to feel lighter so I can run more easily.
From research I know WFPB diets are supposed to help me with a lot of these things. I just seem to have little faith and I can never stick with it for very long.
Does anyone have any advice, or any personal experiences? Does it really work? How long do I need to stick with it to see changes? What do I restrict, what do I not restrict? What about fasting? I just lack some sort of 'faith' that it will help. I know that kind of goes together with 'hopelessness' as a symptom of depression, but how do I get past this?
Tl;dr: I know WFPB is supposed to be a great diet but I can't seem to make the change and to stick with it.
I haven't eaten meat in about 8 years. I have gone vegan for a few vegan challenges in the past. I know I should be vegan for the animals, the environment, and my health. I've seen the documentaries. I know it's the right thing to do.However I've never been able to make it work. I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety after leaving it untreated for a decade. I've finally started seeing a therapist and I think it is helping but it just takes so much time to improve such a major problem. I don't take SSRIs or anything like that.I am on birth control (hormone pill) currently, and the reason I went on it is to control hormonal acne. Last time I tried quitting I was covered in acne. I waited months to see improvement and saw none. I was eating low-dairy vegetarian at the time. It took me going back on the pill (since the acne made me so miserable) for at least 6 months for my skin to normalize again. Even on the pill, I get a tiny bit of acne on my chin sometimes. While off the pill I also started to experience painful ovulations, and I am fearing ovarian cysts since those are often caused by hormone imbalance (and repressed by hormonal birth control). This has gone away since going back on birth control.I am overweight. I am constantly obsessed with food in my mind. I have no problem not eating meat at all. I rarely have meat substitutes. I've done vegan challenges in the past, but somehow the dairy always creeps back in. It starts with one small thing and bam, suddenly I can't resist anymore. I never drink straight up milk and I take coffee with soy milk, but dairy ice cream, milk chocolate, cake with whipped cream, potato chips, stuff like that is what I feel like I am seriously addicted to. I feel like it's the dairy/sugar (simple carb) combination that has me hooked, along with cheese.I used to smoke and when you quit smoking you get these strong urges to smoke, and your addict brain is trying to trick you into 'just one' or 'let's quit tomorrow, not today'. I think a lot of people scoff at food addicts like it's not a real thing, but honestly my food cravings are so similar to when I tried to quit smoking. I had to try a million times, until it finally stuck one day. Similarly I tried cutting out all the bad stuff from my diet but I can never make it last. I live in a city and it literally takes me one minute to walk out my door to get whatever I want of my fav 'bad' foods.I want to know what it's like to be a healthy weight.. I want to have clear skin without taking birth control, I want to feel better mentally, I want to feel in control when it comes to my food choices. I want to feel lighter so I can run more easily.From research I know WFPB diets are supposed to help me with a lot of these things. I just seem to have little faith and I can never stick with it for very long.Does anyone have any advice, or any personal experiences? Does it really work? How long do I need to stick with it to see changes? What do I restrict, what do I not restrict? What about fasting? I just lack some sort of 'faith' that it will help. I know that kind of goes together with 'hopelessness' as a symptom of depression, but how do I get past this?Tl;dr: I know WFPB is supposed to be a great diet but I can't seem to make the change and to stick with it. https://ift.tt/eA8V8J https://ift.tt/2OkEkNu
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