In January of 2008, when she hit 30, she was 5’7” and weighed over 200 lbs. At the time, she was
going through a really rough patch in her life and knew that she needed to make a change and do
something. She just didn’t know what that something was.
Then fate intervened and she found herself at the gala. Shortly after arriving, Tracie and her pals
befriended two other people they had met outside, and spent the afternoon hanging out with them.
At one point, one of them started talking about a book that he had recently enjoyed called Skinny
Bitch, and suggested that she read it. She laughed at the title and remembers thinking, “Why would
someone name a book Skinny Bitch?” However, she filed away the information in the back of her
mind so that she could look into it when she got home. It was in fact a great book title because the
name stuck with her, and she purchased it the very next day.
In addition, a party guest who had an extra “goodie bag” because both he and his wife had received
one randomly handed his to Tracie on their way out. Inside the Matt & Nat vegan shopping bag
were tons of vegan goodies, including cookies and other treats, a water bottle, a copy of Veg News
magazine, a shirt, some chocolate, and lots of other items.
A few hours later, after meeting some of the celebrities that she had wanted to meet, Tracie and her
crew lost track of time and found that the parking garage in which they had parked had closed at 1
a.m., which meant that they were stuck overnight in the city. Not too worried, they found a place to
wait it out until the garage opened in the morning. To pass the time, Tracie went through the
goodie-bag, immersed herself in her new copy of Veg News, and checked out all the other items it
contained.
The very next morning, after Tracie rescued her car from the garage, she went right out and bought
Skinny Bitch and devoured all the information it contained. She was inspired by the plant-based
eating information she discovered inside, just like John Allen had been inspired reading The Health
Reporter. Suddenly she wanted more—more information, more out of life—just more!
Not one for jumping into anything blindly, and having endured many prior failed attempts at
dieting, she spent the next two weeks doing her own research. She studied plant-based eating,
weight loss, and general health and nutrition before making the decision to stop dieting and change
her life by changing her lifestyle—starting with the way she ate.
Tracie began to pay attention to what she was putting into her body, learned what a “normal”
portion size looked like, started choosing healthier food options (including fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, legumes, nuts and other plant-based foods) and made numerous other little changes that
added up to something much, much bigger. Without realizing it, she had made the switch to rich as
part of an overall lifestyle change. One year later, she was down 70 pounds.
Everything was different for her. “I was truly, genuinely happy for the first time in my life,” she says.
“My weight was no longer holding me back, and I was getting out there and trying new things. I
discovered a love of clothes shopping. I became more conscious what was going on around me, as