Guest Blog from Robin Asbell

Robin Asbell is a masterful recipe creator and the author of books including Big Vegan and the brand new Sweet and Easy Vegan: Treats Made with Whole Grains and Natural Sweeteners. Her website is www.robinasbell.com.

It’s an honor to be writing this guest blog for Victoria. You see, I feel a certain kinship with Victoria, beyond the fact that we both spend our days spreading the word about the joys of eating more plants.

You see, like her, I grew up on “Main Street,” living in a series of smallish Midwestern towns. In junior high, we lived in  the glamorous big city of Akron Ohio, where I met some vegetarians and knew I was going to give up meat. Then, fate took us to more rural areas, where people raised or hunted animals, and fast food was bringing the joys of hamburgers to the masses. When a lone, frizzy-haired girl with glasses started questioning the whole meat thing, well, it didn’t go over well.

I’m glad now, that I grew strong in my time as an outsider, and my aversion to eating animals only grew.

But I also share membership in an exclusive club with Victoria.  Like her, I was once struggling with my weight. By the time I left graduate school and started my first full-time cooking job, I weighed sixty-five pounds more than when I left for school. I was miserable about it.

So, when I started baking bread and cookies, and cooking delicious food for a living, it seemed that I was on the path of being a jolly, fat chef. I met my husband, who loved me, big or small, and I could have used his acceptance as an excuse to just keep gaining. Instead, I made a bigger realization. He loved me for me, and maybe if I did too, I could start taking better care of myself, and treating my body with a little more love.

I set my intention, and planned the wedding, and I planned for change. The day after the festivities and cake, I would start a whole new life. I know, most women starve to get ready for the dress. I chose to start my new married life living as the adult I had always thought I might become. I switched over to eating all whole grains, ate plant based food, limited drinking, added exercise classes. All the anxieties I may have had about being a grown up married person were channeled into the new habits.

When I lost a few pounds, I’d ask my husband how I looked. “You look great, you always looked great.” he would say.

By the end of the first year, I had lost 40 pounds, and within a few months after that, another 10. I had adopted all the healthy eating and exercise that I was willing to make a lifelong practice, and my body was the result.

That was twenty-seven years ago, and there have been times when the scale crept up a few pounds, and I had to re-adjust, but overall, I weigh about 5 pounds more than at the end of that process. I’ve learned, like all successful weigh-losers, to keep a close eye on the scale, to keep exercise on the schedule, and to eat lots and lots of plants.

I’m no underwear model, but I think more about feeling healthy and strong than about ever being skinny.

So, you might wonder, why is this woman writing a dessert book? Well, because I believe that life is as much about happiness and fun as it is about how you look in pants. And that you can make great, whole food treats that are perfectly in balance with maintaining a healthy weight.

Thanks to Victoria, more people are learning that losing weight is not best fueled by self deprecation, it works best when it’s about love. Love yourself with good treatment and good food, and only good can come of it.