Weston A. Price Foundation Diet and Weight Loss

I first began implementing the principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation dietary guidelines in January 2010 after following a mostly vegetarian and sometimes vegan lifestyle for many decades.  I never had a weight problem with my former high carbohydrate lifestyle and so I believed that I was swimmingly maintaining my health until my heath suddenly and mysteriously broke down in September 2008.  I found Sally Fallon's cookbook "Nourishing Traditions," oddly enough, one month into the health breakdown, October 2008, while I was living with my brother trying to recover and still clinging to the belief that I must not be following a vegetarian diet completely enough.

What I read in Sally Fallon's cookbook went SO against the grain of everything I had been taught to believe about food and nourishment that I bought it on the spot and took it back to my brother's home to read.  It was, however, too difficult, too threatening for me to believe that I many have, unwittingly, harmed my health and especially the health of my children because of my allegiance to popular dietary teachings.  I literally lost sleep from my chagrin and worry over what I many have done to my children.  I had always been considered a "health nut" in my family and so it wasn't as if I had not "tried."  I had made all our food from scratch and I baked our bread and grew a garden and spent a significant amount of time and energy trying to give my children a good start in life.  Because I wanted so much to believe that I had given my children the best it was very hard to come to terms with the idea that I might have been mislead or wrong.

It took me an additional 14 months of suffering before I decided to give the WAPF guidelines, as described in Sally Fallon's cookbook, a try.  Since I was already an avid cook and had built a personal chef business called "Serene Cuisine" in California, based on the current vegetarian dietary ideal this new found and rather revolutionary information not only called into question my dietary choices at a personal level, but, also cut to the very heart of how I made my living.

I had become so adrenally depleted and fatigued that I could no longer tolerate the environment that I had lived in with my husband without wheezing.  I had tolerated that environment for four years and suddenly I could not.  This was particularly disturbing because I had no prior history of allergies or asthma.  Every time I tried to return I would experience bronchial constriction.  I visited various friends and members of my family until I settled in an apartment not far from where my husband lived.

In January 2010 I began to follow the WAPF diet.  My daughter, Carrisa, who was attending college out of state and who had a significant weight problem phoned me one day and asked if she could come and spend the summer with me and "re-learn" how to prepare healthy foods.

I was thrilled.  Delighted.  She joined me in May and stayed until August when she returned to school.  She did not know what she was getting herself for when she asked to come visit.  I think she thought we would most likely re-visit the macrobiotic diet that I had taught her when she was young.  That is probably what she thought I had to offer.

I shared the WAPF dietary guidelines with her instead.  I decided to put them to the test.  She really took to the diet.  Never complained once.  Never craved her former junk foods.  Never lapsed or "cheated."  We had a wonderful time cooking, gardening, and visiting all the local markets together.  She ate and ate and ate and so did I.  Our summer together was all about celebrating REAL local food and nothing about deprivation.  When she returned to school she continued to cook for herself and seek out real food, raw milk, and grass-fed meats.  Within 8 months she looked like a different person.

Please check out her before and after shots.

Carrisa has changed her life.  Two years later she looks terrific, has more energy and has resolved myriad health complaints.

Even though I continue to work with  my own personal health - Carrisa's life altering dietary changes are the accomplishment I am most proud of.  When I see how radiant and healthy and happy Carrisa is - and how she thrives - it does my heart good!  And Carrisa is influencing my daughter-in-law an my son to make positive changes in their health, as well, and that makes me very happy.

Emphasizing nutrient-dense foods, which include plenty of protein, saturated fat, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D E, and K has been an important step in reclaiming my health.  Though changing my diet has brought improvements diet alone has not been enough to resolve all of my heath concerns.  I think my healing will take patience and time.

Incidentally, I work with Theresa Vernon, L.Ac., who will be speaking at the Wise Traditions Conference in Santa Clara California November 2012 on the treatment of mineral imbalances.

I am very grateful to the Weston A. Price Foundation.  I promptly joined and became a member and I got a  membership for Carrisa too.

Thank you Sally Fallon from the bottom of my heart for all the good work that you do.