CHERYL NAPIER
Cheryl recently retired, returned to Maine where she grew up, and is new to the Farmington area. In her free time she loves gardening and researching the benefits of a whole food plant-based lifestyle.
1. How long have you been eating plant-based? I was vegetarian for many years and then became vegan. For the last two years I have been living a whole food plant-based lifestyle with very little added oil.
2. What made you decide to go plant-based? I was overweight and probably headed towards diabetes. I also had arthritis. I didn’t feel well, and knew I had to change something, and then I saw the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead on Netflicks and that changed my life. I immediately went on a whole food plant=based diet and started juicing.
3. What are the benefits eating plant-based have done for you? The weight just came off when I started juicing. My arthritis pain got better and the juicing cut the cravings. I was getting nutrients faster and I was feeling better without noticing any blood sugar spikes or lows. Now I still do juicing and eating a whole food plant=based diet. The juicing helps when I get food cravings.
4. What did you find to be the biggest challenge of eating plant-based? Finding information about how to eat a whole food plant=based diet. There was no one around who was eating this way to help me but that is now changing. The other hard part was cravings. I would crave a sandwich and you have to have chips with a sandwich. Since starting this I have started following these doctors on youtube: Dr. Colin T Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and his son Rip, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Joel Furhman, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Terry Mason, Dr. Garth Davis.
5. What are your go to foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Breakfast: Oatmeal, dried fruit of dates or raisons, and chia seeds. For lunch I usually snack on fruit. For dinner I will have tofu, rice, and veggies, spaghetti and a salad , or a baked potato.
6. Do you have a favorite cookbook, tip or recipe to share? Drink a big glass of water and then shovel in the good stuff before you shove in the bad stuff. That way you will crowd out the bad stuff. For recipes some of my combinations for juicing are: 1. Beets and grapefruit which is a great combination. 2. Kale, lemon juice, apples, cucumbers, ginger, and celery. 3. Carrots, apples, and sweet potato. Here are some books I like: Veggie Burgers Every Which Way by Lukas Voiger. Reboot with Joe Cross Juice Diet by Joe Cross, The New McDougall Cookbook by John McDougall.
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