About The Purple Potato

To fully understand how this blog came to be, I have to tell you a quick story about a dear friend of mine. I am sure you will relate in some way to her story...

My friend was born in the Pacific Northwestern United States.

She was thin as a small child, but around the age of 8 began gaining weight.

By the age of 10, she was 184lbs and considered obese. She always told me how different she felt from her friends. She was also the only one of her siblings that was overweight.

Over the next couple of years, whenever she spoke to me she would tell me how she felt something was wrong with her. She felt disconnected, hopeless, and alone. By the time we were in high school, all of those feelings had transformed into Bulimia.

When we were 15, she approached me with an emptiness I had never seen in her eyes before and told me that her mom had passed away after a very short battle with cancer. I watched from a distance as what was left of her immediate family fell apart. I would have stayed closer to her, but she struggled letting anyone in during this time. This trauma she later told me, was what she felt brought her Bipolar 2 disorder out of the wood work. Although it would be a whole 10 years before she would receive a diagnosis.

Not all was lost during this time though, as a matter of fact, much was built. Including a very strong young woman. Unfortunately for her though, she would reach a new low at the age of 25. She felt, after 2 traumatic and life threatening births, new mom exhaustion, severe mixed bipolar episodes, PTSD, morbid obesity, horrid medication side effects, an eating disorder that was now on a restrict and binge schedule, and an excruciating back injury, that her life was over already.

I was so concerned for her, but didn't know how to help. She confided in me one day that she couldn't take it anymore. She felt her brain was so far gone and foggy from prolonged opiate use for her back that she wasn't even really here anyways. She felt like she couldn't utilize the skills she was learning in therapy due to all the other things moving so fast in her life.

Don't worry though, it was touch and go for a couple months but somehow she decided to give it one last go. She told me she had been reading about plant based nutrition. She said it could reverse heart disease, maybe if it could do something that powerful, it could help her too.

She started with just 50% of her meals being plant based...

She told me excitedly 2 weeks in that it was working!

She had decreased her need for pain medication by half!

She continued her journey by eating plant based on weekdays, then plant based on weekdays and vegetarian on the weekends, then eventually she would only eat off course when out to eat. She kept that last phase for a while. She lost about 60lbs doing so, and reversed her back pain. She was able to start running in early 2018 and started to feel hope for her future.

In March of 2019 she read a book and watched a film that changed our lives. She read How Not the Die by Dr Michael Greger and watched Dominion for free on YouTube.

By March 28th she stopped all animal product consumption. She never looked back.

Over the next 6 months although she still had her share of troubles, but she approached them with an unmatched spark of determination. She went from not wanting to live, to being passionately alive at a cellular level. She lost an additional 20lbs and smiles from the inside out. She no longer has to use medications to manage anything in her life. She instead uses her food, exercise, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy to manage her mental health.

You see? isn't she incredible?

Now are you ready for a plot twist?

My dear friend I told you about just now? She is the old me. She risked EVERYTHING for me. She changed EVERYTHING, for me. I wouldn't be here without her.

I may be the one running half marathons for fun, but she was the one who went outside with an extra 72lbs of fat on her body every Tuesday morning and ran 17 minute miles while feeling that the whole neighborhood was laughing at her. When she got tired, or self concious, she would talk to me. She would tell me that someday I would run faster and further than she could, and that it would all be worth it. She was right. She was brave. I am proud to carry the torch that she worked so hard to light.

Which leads me to the Why for this website. To only use the torch she lit for myself and future self transformations would be selfish. You remember the traumatic child birth I spoke of earlier? The second one I lost well over half my blood. My Dr "miscalculated" how much had been lost and I should have received a transfusion. I was informed 2 weeks later of the "miscommunication" and that I should have died or at least suffered brain damage. Interestingly enough my blood tests didn't reflect my blood cells regenerating healthily until a few months into my entirely plant based transition, just over 2 whole years later. The fatigue was real. Anyhow, I came extremely close to not existing.

For whatever reason, I am here. So are you. We are existing together, we are in this together. I cannot just sit idly with life saving information. So I am sharing it. I am sharing all of the recipes I built to make plant based eating not only the most healthful option, but the most delicious option. I am also writing a blog covering an array of different lifestyle topics in order to share more of what I have learned.

I also want to say that I believe firmly in slow transitions. I believe in having "stepping stones" and I believe in having some less healthy plant based options in your tool kit. A less healthy Plant based option after all is still going to be healthier than a non plant based option. These recipes were an important and empowering part of my experience. I think that it is important for me to share those because it is authentic and honest. I am not here to impress anyone with how "flawless" I am, I am here to be of whatever help I can be to my fellow earthlings. So I hope you will come along on this journey of shared experience with me.

I am still losing my last 25ish pounds and would love for you to celebrate that journey with me as well. Maybe you have some weight to lose too and we can lose it together! Either way, enjoy this website. I made it just for you, and come on over to my Instagram to see my daily journey.

Raise a glass with me - Here is to our past selves, and our current selves, and all that they have and will sacrifice bravely for our futures!