My name is Kristin Reichert. I am the mother of 3 little kiddos and the wife to a wonderful husband.  My family has been eating a plant-based/ vegan diet since Christmas of 2011. Although we aren’t perfectly strict with this way of eating, we feel that every little change helps to support your body in a new, healthy way. My mom and I started this blog in February of 2013 to share our ideas for healthy and happy plant-based living and to help support you with your own lifestyle changes (she has since left the blog but we have gained my cousin Danielle and my husband Joel).

In December of 2011, my husband and I saw the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” and loved the ideas it had to offer, but had no clue what to do with that new knowledge. We then went to visit my parents in Kentucky and saw that they had just recently made a lifestyle change to eating plant-based. I was intrigued. We then also saw “Forks Over Knives”, and “Food Matters”.  I was lucky too, because I then got to watch and learn about what my mom cooked for the family over the next 2 weeks while we visited with them. When we left to head home, my husband and I discussed whether or not we wanted to make this change as well. We came to the conclusion that we would give it a trial run. The plan was to eat this way in our home for 3 straight months. We also decided that in order to make this sustainable we would go out to eat once a week and we could eat whatever we wanted, meat, cheese, ice cream, you name it. We quickly ate up the rest of the meat and cheese that we had in our home and started shopping for a plant-based diet.

I’m guessing you can predict what happened next. When the 3 months were over we were so happy with the way we felt that we decided to make this a permanent change. Growing up, I always had an issue with feeling tired all the time. I had been affectionately titled the “wilting flower” by my boyfriend’s mother who is now my mother-in-law. When on this diet I notice a strong difference in my energy level and love the extra energy I now have. My husband and I also lost some weight. We were never overweight or anything, but apparently we had some extra “meat” on us that didn’t need to be there. I lost 15 lbs. and my husband lost 20. This was without exercising. Yes, we should have been exercising, but we weren’t. Just goes to show how much diet really does play into weight loss! These are just a few of the great benefits that I have noticed since we decided to change our lifestyle.

We still go out to eat once a week and eat a non-plant-based meal, but that was what we decided would work for us and our family in order to keep us on track. I have recently been trying to make even healthier choices when we go out to eat however and have loved the way that even that has even made me feel. Maybe someday we will make the full jump to an all plant-based diet, but for now a 95% plant-based diet works for us.

Everyone has a different story and will approach a healthy eating lifestyle differently. We are here to support you in whatever way you choose to incorporate plant-based eating into your life.