I met Kind Lifer Arisa at a book signing in Pasadena. She has a great story about switching to a kind diet during pregnancy. Check it out!

“I grew up believing meat and dairy were an essential part of my life. I couldn’t live without my bacon cheeseburgers. I was sure vegetarians had no clue what they were missing otherwise they wouldn’t give up meat. And I figured vegans had to have had a serious brain injury to willingly give up cheese. Despite my high protein diet, I was sluggish, suffered from frequent colds, had been diagnosed with reflux of the esophagus, allergies, and severe headaches from TMJ. I thought since I was in so much pain as a teenager, I probably wouldn’t live past thirty.

When I was in my third trimester of pregnancy with my first daughter, my health spiraled even further downhill. I wasn’t sleeping at night; I had heart burn, pain from my reflux, and no energy. Although those are all “normal” aches and pains that go with pregnancy I believed that with life growing inside me, I should be feeling my best. So I decided to change my diet. I remembered a raw diet I had come across when I was in high school, and switched to it immediately. I had lots of juices, salads, and beans; soon my pain disappeared. I felt better than I had in years. The head aches from my TMJ even lightened up, because I was sleeping so well at night. I felt light, something I never imagined I would feel while being pregnant. My belly grew, and I continued to gain weight, but fat on my love handles and legs disappeared, all thanks to my improved diet.

I had a home birth, and it was the greatest experience of my life. It felt right. Like that was the way I was meant to give birth, in a place where I was comfortable, with few rules and no one pressuring me to get the process done a certain way. I was allowed to trust my body. Sure, it was totally painful, but the midwives and my husband had so much faith in me, that I was able to deliver naturally and it was such an overwhelmingly beautiful bonding experience for our new little family. Our daughter Thérèse was born not breathing, and the midwives handled it with ease. We have pictures of my husband cuddling our newly born baby and feeding oxygen through a tube to her, not even an hour old. We were glad we weren’t in a hospital where they would have whisked her away immediately and we wouldn’t have been very involved.”

Arisa also shared this update with me:

"Both my in-laws have become vegan and they love their new lifestyle! Their cholesterol and weight have dropped so much with just the change of diet, that my mother-in-law's doctor wanted to know if she had been exercising more. They are such an inspiration to me and help me stay focused."

What a beautiful family! You guys look like teenagers! Your picture is so great - like an ad for cuteness. For more about Arisa and her family, you can check out Arisa's blog here.

If any of you Kind Lifers have a success story you’d like to share, private message me, or publish a note to your profile and “like” it. I may feature you on the homepage of The Kind Life!