I strayed from my plant-based diet for three years and what I noticed was eye opening.
My path to a plant-based lifestyle was an intuitive one. From having a poor relationship with food and dealing with an eating disorder to better self-awareness and an overall more educated understanding on food and nutrients.
A choice I made that served as a catalyst in my journey to building a better relationship with food and ultimately an act of self love.
Marsha Warren
Cutting meat out of my diet was one of those decisions that I never looked back on. In fact, it was very easy for me to make that transition being an individual that never enjoyed the taste or texture of meat. What I didn’t anticipate was the breaking down of beliefs around consuming meat that were passed down that was more challenging to adopt. Growing up, most of our dinners and lunches revolved around meat- cold cuts, roast chickens, stews with cubed meat in it, pork chops, schnitzels, meat balls, steaks, fish. Meat was always presented as the main with two sides. So now, I had to find vegetarian cookbooks to inspire me and better educate myself on how vegetarian dinner plates looked like. Protein sources and if plant-based protein sources could compare to meat protein sources. The quick answer to that is yes (however a loaded question that this blog post will not cover) and fourteen years into my meat free lifestyle, I’m finding myself still dealing with some of those same challenges, misguided energy and ultimately ignorance from society and family.
Not consuming meat made me feel more aligned with myself, like wearing a pair of uncomfortable shoes and putting on a better pair. A choice I made that served as a catalyst in my journey to building a better relationship with food and ultimately an act of self love.
It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I eliminated dairy and eggs from my diet. I was living in California and with the lifestyle I had there, I found myself no longer enjoying or craving eggs and cheese. Being in an environment and community that was accommodating with my lifestyle choices was definitely an added plus. One major change I noticed with removing cheese was I was no longer getting pimples and breakouts.
However, seasons change, lifestyle and circumstances change. I’ve moved back to Canada and have been living there for a few years now but it wasn’t until recently that I re-introduced cheese and eggs into my diet. I always said “if I have a craving for (cheese or eggs) and it’s not stemming for boredom and laziness, I will absolutely listen to those cravings.” At first, I noticed no positive change. The breakouts came as I expected but justified as worth it because I believed the exchange was a positive one. In the last few weeks I have faced a lot of criticism around some micro-nutrients I may be lacking due to not consuming meat and dairy and despite my ongoing study of food and more importantly my energy levels have been excellent, my focus, energy, even period cramps have subsided, I second guessed and said maybe they’re right, maybe I can eat a little more cottage cheese for iodine purposes.
I believe that it comes as no surprise that the last few weeks I’ve dealt with more anxiety than I have in years. Anxiety to me before came in bouts and I recognized the triggers. It would come around major unknown events and it was very manageable with breath work, a walk, meditation, a bath and usually short lived. The anxiety I was experiencing this time was different. It was as though it was coming from an unknown source inside as opposed to the outside influences and factors that would affect me in the past. It was an anxiety that was quickly triggered and wanted to bring in innocent bystanders in and that often happens when the individual cannot pinpoint the cause of anxiety, cannot pause to reflect. Caffeine would trigger an anxiety response and even upon waking up it felt like anxiety was looming just around the corner. Although this form of anxiety is new to me, I am thankfully aware of anxiety as a whole and over the years have found coping mechanisms.
And then it dawned on me…a new and possibly even a major change that I had in my daily habits was, the introduction of cheese and eggs. Consuming food is consuming energy. One of my personal beliefs to choosing a plant-based lifestyle is compassion and the energy exchange we have with one another including animals. For me, slaughtering an animal can never be done in an ethical manner no matter in what fashion you do it. Especially in the larger scale such as, factory farming. I have been blissfully ignorant to the dairy and egg industries because, being a highly sensitive person it’s hard to watch.
I really want to emphasize that, this is my personal and unique experience, and the sole purpose of this post was to be a storytelling one. A conversation starter and hopefully one that invokes some self-reflection and a curiosity.
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