Taking the plunge and deciding to eat a plant based diet has never been better. Living the way I have for the last 6 years (SAD diet) has really been a blessing, and luckily I didn't receive a major disease that was life threatening. I hit rock bottom with inflammation and a cough that lasted 3 months. I took control of my own health and now I feel alive and invigorated five weeks into a high raw and all plant based diet. I feel like I have finally faced my major food issues and taken control. I don't miss a single food, because I don't miss how I used to feel. I miss certain flavors but not the way the SAD diet foods made me feel. I am about 90% raw and 100% most days. I am still in transition and taking it slow. This time around, I want to transform my lifestyle instead of diet.
Yesterday I had a moment where I felt I was finally through the first phase of transition. I ate 2 grapefruits and 5 oranges for lunch. Satisfied. My fellow colleagues watched me with jaws dropped. This is not a show, this is me gaining control of my health. "What a weird way to eat, are you crazy?" This is not a question I have not heard before, it's this time, I don't care. I am not crazy, though, just different. We all need different things to sustain ourselves and stay well. For me, it's a plant based diet. No matter what I do, it always comes right back to that conclusion.
Last time I was raw, about 6 years ago, I was young, stupid and had no idea what I was doing. I ate a high fat diet and little fruit. About 9 months into raw 6 years ago, I began to discover fruit based dieting. I left the diet at about 11 months or a year. It is crazy I did this. I had come so far. But I hadn't faced myself and what diet meant to me. I hadn't faced going out to eat and being alone on this diet. Now I could care less. Sure, it's nice to have friends who eat a high plant based diet, but I would rather be alone and happy then with folks eating out and fat with pain.
So, my first mono meal went well and I am off into the land of high fruit as I go through the second phase of transition.
I should also mention I have not given up cooked vegetables, baked sweet potatoes or fish at this time. I don't eat them often, but it's my 'go to' as I transition and I find that it allows me to go out to eat with my family and fiancée. It just makes sense to go slowly and allow myself to do this if I need to instead of going 100% uncooked overnight! Silly to do that. This is a much better option. Life is good. I feel in control and I finally feel I can do this safely and with success. This blog was started about a year ago and my goal was to be raw. I stopped blogging when I went back to a cooked food (SAD) diet, only I kept a mostly vegetarian diet gluten free. Honestly, it seemed like I had lost my way, in fact, I had just truly started. With the knowledge I gained from jumping in about a year ago, I relized a plant based diet was for me. Going through the "elimination diet" really proved to me that it wasn't just gluten, or just dairy, or just meat, that caused my issues, it was all of them and that was meaningful for me to experience. I got to really see the effects of each food on my own body and it confirmed for me I was correct all along. A plant based diet was for me. So I took a year to make baby steps toward raw.
In that year I found peace with this diet, and I found out I didn't have to be 100% to be 100% well. I just needed to be high raw most of the time. I also faced my issues with eating out, and with my family. I learned to cook and found the strength to learn to prepare healthy foods both cooked and raw. I learned to make dressing! It was a happy day!
This is the beginning, but it's been a year of slow changes that has lead up to this transition and I am proud that I took a whole year to get here. I only wish I would have blogged through my challenge months. I suppose I was afraid to write about facing the emotional parts of eating. But coming out on the other side, I am so glad that I kept as much of a journal of my journey back to a plant based diet. I know my body now and I understanding my mind. I am not afraid to fail. I won't ever zig zag back to a SAD diet. I have been gluten free a year, dairy free two months, and I have been moving toward this for months. I can't go back, I have changed from within. I suppose I will have to explain this to others. I will have to explain why it's different this time around. It's different because I am ready to be healthy. This is something people don't realize. You can't just want to be thin, want to feel a little better and then go back to eating a SAD diet. You have to want to be healthy and believe you are worth that. This is the emotional part of this diet that some people have to face and it's what I had to face. FACED, onto the BLISS.
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