Has your doctor warned you about changing your eating habits? Have you been noticing that your body is slowing down and you’re getting tired more easily, just because?
I noticed that in myself. Despite the fact that my message advocates eating all foods, it also balances the importance of paying attention to how those foods make you feel. And being self-compassionate with yourself every step of the way, because let’s fact it. Change is hard.
Over the past year I’ve gradually become more aware of how food affects my body. Now I eat less pasta, sugar and processed foods because I noticed how they make me so tired. About six months ago I made a decision to go meatless.
The first month eating as a vegetarian was so tough because I didn’t know how to prepare vegetables as the main dish. I’ve done fabulous sautes, but I was craving the bite of a piece of steak or chicken. So I had to expand my culinary know how, and I’ve been doing that by watching several cooks on YouTube. As my curiosity and interest grows, my repertoire of meatless recipes expands.
About a month ago I watched the Forks and Knives documentary. It showed a group of people with a variety of diseases who switched to eating a whole foods, plant-based low oil, vegan diet. By making those dietary changes, all of them lost weight, were able to stop taking their meds and their diseases were cured.
The foundation of the documentary showed the findings of what is known as The China Study. Conducted over almost 20 years, The China-Cornell-Oxford study showed the link between eating meat, dairy and processed foods and obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. That got me thinking about my family’s history with cancer and heart disease.
I knew that I didn’t want to go down that road. That movie motivated me to want to go the next step to make even more changes in my eating. I’m fine with eating vegetarian when I go out for meals, but my goal is to cook vegan meals whenever I’m at home.
Over the past 6 months, my eating has changed radically. And I don’t feel deprived at all because I see my changes as being more in line with loving myself more.
I’ve found really great substitutes for all foods that I used to love with the exception of eggs. My biggest challenge is that I love eggs in all forms. As you can see from the photo below, I love my breakfast tortillas with hubby’s scrambled eggs and sliced farm-fresh tomatoes and medium hot salsa on the side. Yum!
I realize it’s better for my health to let go of my dependence on eggs. I know I can do that. I’ve already made big changes like eating less pasta, drastically reducing my salt intake and going meatless. But my breakfast burritos. Love them! But I love myself more, and I deserve to live longer, and get thinner so I can be happier and healthier.
My next goal is to look for great recipes for scrambled tofu. What healthy changes have you been making? How ’bout you? If you want to make some food changes, what’s your motivation for making the switch?