My adventures with eating, and not eating

Five years ago I was 195 pounds. I ate mostly processed, crap food. I ate a lot of meat, cheese, bread and sweets of all kinds. My body felt really gross, and lethargic all the time. I felt that I didn’t have enough energy to make changes in my life. I didn’t have enough energy to create a life that I wanted to live in.

I have never felt, along the way, that dieting and cutting calories were the best strategy for me. I wanted to deal with what was causing me to indulge in such a destructive way of living. I knew that for me, cutting my calories was not going to fix my life, and I knew that my extra weight was just a symbol of my underlying unhappiness and unease with my life. I felt addicted and hopelessly attached to a toxic lifestyle but did not know how to get out of it. I felt controlled by my attachments to foods that made me feel crappy.

Somewhere along the way I started taking little steps towards being a healthier me. I am an educated and informed reader, but I felt I lacked the courage to put my thoughts and beliefs into action. For me, there is one truth. I know that eating processed foods, animals (and their products) and sugar were not good for my body. Not good for my energy. Disease causing in my body.

I started by giving up all meat and fleshy things. This happened a few years ago. After I gave up meat, felt better energetically. I started getting sick less often. I felt more vibrant and lively. I learned my body actually becomes more healthy when I give up eating things that I grew up learning are essential for my survival. I grew up on a farm, and I grew up with the belief that eating animals and their products are essential to good health. I have been somewhat astonished to learn that much of what I have believed about food is not true, and it is in fact the opposite of the truth for me. When I discovered that I did not need meat to survive, I did not feel I could any longer justify to myself the using of animals to serve my own needs. This no longer felt right to me, and I felt it was not in alignment with my desire to make the world a better place.

My next discovery about my body was the realization that gluten was dragging my energy down. I reduced my gluten intake and felt more vibrantly connected to life. Gluten is a difficult thing for many peoples body’s to digest. I have realized that the food we eat is very connected to how we feel about ourselves. I urge you to experiment with your own eating habits with the intent to develop more inner knowing about what will make your body thrive. For me, changing my food has created a more joyful ability to be a more vitalized participant in my life. Your discoveries may be different from my own, but I feel we all benefit by taking a close look at our eating habits and taking steps to eliminate that which no longer serves us.

Eliminating sugar was the most difficult thing ever. I really thought about sugar a great deal of the time. I was possessed by my addiction to sugar, sugary things and the energy imbalances connected with that. I was a sugar junky. There would not have been a time that I went without dessert. I planned my days around finding my next baked good. My strategy for helping me with this transition has been using stevia. It is made from a leaf, and it is naturally sweet. It doesn’t elevate your blood sugar levels therefore eliminating energy crashes and it also is free of all the negative side effects of sugar. Sugar is an exhausting addiction. Your tastes and cravings do change as you change your body, and your food. My food attachments have changed and evolved into things that serve me better. Some of things that I have given up in my diet, I could never have imagined not wanting them everyday for the rest of my life. It may seem like a life of constant sacrifice, but the things I have become attached to instead are now just as appealing to me as things now gone.

this image is from http://www.flickr.com/photos/stojak/4683601928/in/faves-claireyoung/

A few weeks ago I did a five day juice cleanse. I have a super juice making machine and I used that to make myself cleansing green veggie juices and give my body a rest and rejuvenating time out. I gave up my daily coffee at the same time as I started the cleanse; and I suffered through some dandy caffeine withdrawal headaches. If you have ever cleansed before, you already know that the first three days are the most difficult. Your body detoxifies and gets rid of a lot of inner and energetic crud. A cleanse is also a great time to help you break food attachments that are no longer serving you.

After I finished my cleanse I decided after much inner searching and research, to adopt a vegan lifestyle; free of all animal products. I feel really quite wonderful. Through each stage of my eating evolution, I feel that I have also evolved mentally and spiritually. I feel that I have freed myself from excessive energetic crud with every change that I have made. I always thought I could never become a vegan because I felt I could never give up ice-cream and cheese. But these attachments have been easier than I thought to eliminate from my mind and my life. I feel this is because I know I am making the best choice for me, and I can refer back into my mind at any time and confirm to myself all my reasons for doing this. I eat such delicious food when I am at home! When I am away from home, I take extra precautions to plan my meals and then I am not in a situation where I have limited food options. I made delicious things at home and bring them with me when I go away. And I also love sharing my new foods with my friends. I love sharing food with the people I love, that is going to make them feel good.

I have discovered a passion lately for gluten-free / sugar-free / vegan baking. I started doing this so I could still have tasty treats for myself, and I wouldn’t feel deprived, but it has blossomed into so much more than that. I don’t feel that I am lacking in any way with the new lifestyle I have adopted. I feel that I have discovered a way of treating my body that helps me thrive on every level of my being. I feel more like the me I am supposed to feel like everyday. I have lost 35 pounds this year, through actually stuffing my face with awesome food; and I am so grateful to feel so vibrantly alive.

The message of this writing is not that you should all become gluten-free, vegans. I felt it would be beneficial to share my own ways of making positive changes in my life. I started by taking one small step in the direction I wanted to go, and I didn’t know exactly where I was going or where my path would lead me. I felt overwhelmed by the state of my life, but I started by taking one small step forward. Don’t believe everything you think you know for sure. Have a loving look at your life and find ways of taking little steps forward in the direction you want to be going. Take care of your body. Nurture your soul.

this image is from http://www.flickr.com/people/claireyoung/

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