My Journey to a Plant-Based Diet, and the Benefits I’ve Experienced

Hello beautiful being! I hope you're having a glorious day!

I just finished having a delicious lunch, of fruit (papaya and dragonfruit), and sourdough bread topped with vegan “cheese” avocado, hummus, and tomato. YUM! The meal left me feeling so satisfied, and also left me reflecting on my food journey over the past few years.

I started thinking about how I came to be eating a nearly vegan diet after growing up eating tons and tons of meat and cheese, and I thought I would share that story here with you beautiful people.

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Before I moved to Thailand 3 years ago, I was a heavy meat eater. Meat, cheese, dairy... all of them were staples in my diet, along with a healthy amount of veggies, and some fruits. But when I moved to Thailand all of that changed.

First of all, in Asian cuisine there is very, very little, if any, dairy or cheese. And the prices of cheese in the supermarket are insanely high. So this was the first to find its way out of my diet, but it has also been the hardest to cut out because my cheese addiction was very real. To be honest, I haven’t been able to eliminate cheese entirely from my diet, and I still eat the occasional pizza, or cream cheese bagel. But back in the day, there was cheese present in almost every meal I ate, so this is a very big improvement!

Secondly, the abundance and availability of fresh tropical fruits here in Thailand really changed the fruit game for me. Back in Michigan, there just isn’t very much fresh fruit. I enjoyed strawberries, blueberries, and the occasional apple or watermelon, but to be honest, fruit was not a very big part of my life in America. I tried to enjoy it. I would buy it when I went grocery shopping, but it very often just rotted away on the counter, because I was never excited to eat it.

But once I moved to Thailand I became obsessed. I had never even had a papaya before moving here, but now papaya may be my favorite food of all time!! And the mangoes! Holy shit, the small, yellow type of mangoes that grow so abundantly here…. They are so good! And so sweet! I was also introduced to dragonfruit, custard apples, durian, guava, pomelo, coconuts, mangosteen, rambutan, lychee, longans, and jackfruits! All of which are AMAZING!! And the bananas here are so good! There are so many different kinds of bananas, too, and they all look like they've actually grown in a tree, not like the questionably perfectly yellow, perfectly shaped "Chiquita" bananas I find in America, that seem very much like they were manufactured in a facility rather than grown on a farm, but that's just a thought, not a fact.

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Nowadays, I start almost every morning with a smoothie bowl, as you can see from one of my previous posts, and fruit has become the biggest food group in my diet. I’ve even had some experience with fruit fasting! But that’s a whole other story!

And thirdly, many of the first friends I made here in Thailand were vegetarian or vegan, and I was often eating out with them. One day I made a list of my favorite restaurants in town and realized that almost all of them were already vegetarian. I was already making the natural switch to a more plant-based diet, so I decided to officially give vegetarianism a go.

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However, I’m not one of those people who made the switch and never looked back. I was gentle with myself, and I listened to my body. There were easy days when the thought of meat didn’t even cross my mind, and then were harder days, when I really had to focus to get meat off of my mind. There were also days when the desire for meat become so strong within my body, and I couldn’t shake the idea from my mind no matter what I ate or tried. On these days, I listened to this call from my body. On these days, when the desire to eat a cheeseburger consumed me, I went out and happily ate a cheeseburger. These days were quite infrequent, and I felt it was a good idea to listen to my body when these urges came up.

I’m not one for labels, so I wasn’t referring to myself as vegetarian. The term I was using for a while was “meat-minimalist” because of the times when I would allow myself to eat a little bit of meat here and there. What ended up happening to me, was that over time, the desire for meat came less and less often. The days when I would feel so compelled to eat meat (usually in the form of a cheeseburger), came less and less frequently. Eventually, about 8 months in, I started to get uncomfortable at the sight of meat, and then the smell of meat starting making me nauseous and uneasy. Finally, one day I realized I had absolutely no desire or yearning to eat meat. I pretty much wanted nothing to do with it! I had won the battle over meat!

But again, this day did not come right away. I allowed myself to have the occasional cheat day. By simply cutting out the majority of meat in my diet, I knew I was making better decisions for my health, and much more ethically conscious choices for the environment as well.

If you’re thinking of going vegetarian or vegan, I recommend trying this for yourself. Eliminate the biggest sources of meat/dairy from your life. But allow your body to speak to you, and don’ be too hard on yourself. Make sure you’re getting enough protein and nutrition from eating a variety of vegetables, grains, and fruits, but on those days when you really, really, really want to eat meat or dairy, allow yourself to do so! It’s better to allow yourself the occasional cheat day, rather than pushing yourself to the limit, and ignoring the signs from your body that you need some extra nutrition (HOWEVER: I feel it is important to note, that you do not NEED to eat any meat or animal products to get a complete diet, full of all the nutrients and protein you could ever need. It just takes time to learn what foods to eat. But until you learn what your body needs, and where you can get it from, just listen to your body and be gentle with yourself. ) If you don’t allow yourself these (INFREQUENT) small cheat days, you may push yourself too far and eventually just give up altogether!!

My Top Reasons for Eating a Mainly Plant-Based Diet

There are so many reasons to make the switch to a vegetarian/vegan diet. Health reasons, ethical reasons, environmental reasons…. So I’ll share a few of my main personal reasons with you here.

Health Benefits - Vitality, Weight Loss, Clear Skin

Firstly, I have noticed an insane amount of health benefits from eating a plant-based diet. I have much more energy and lasting stamina throughout the day. Eating a diet heavy in meat was making me slow, heavy, and lethargic. I also always start my day out with fruit these days, because even eating a vegetarian breakfast with breads/cooked veggies/eggs makes me feel more heavy in the mornings then I would like. Fruit has been my savior in this regard!

I also noticed my weight rapidly dropping from eating a diet free from meat and cheese. I think cheese is one of the worst foods you can eat. It’s basically coagulated cow puss…. Yuck! I always find that cheese goes straight to my belly, and makes me feel very congested and stuffy. When I started eating more vegetarian and plant-based meals I lost about 15 pounds (~7 kg), and gained clearer skin, clearer sinuses, a flatter stomach, and more energy!

Sadhguru’s Powerful Opinion on the Matter Really Speaks to Me

When asked about eating a vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet, Sadhguru always has the same answer. He explains that whatever we eat, our bodies have to break that food down, and convert it and transform it into ourselves. What we eat, thus becomes us. If I eat an apple, I have to turn the apple into a 29-year woman. If a pig eats the same apple, it needs to turn that apple into a pig. So, if we have the choice of what to eat, he suggests we should be choosing foods that are most “simple” and don’t have such a strong “identity”. The stronger the identity and the consciousness of the thing we eat, the much more work it would take to transform that thing into our own cells. It is much easier to turn a fruit or a vegetable into our own cells than it is to turn a cow, or a chicken, with a much greater sense of “self”.

”Your body is just an accumulation of the food that you have eaten, after it has been transformed and assimilated. There is a certain intelligence, memory, and genetic code in the body that determines what the food that you eat is converted into. For example, the same apple, depending on who eats it, becomes part of the body of a woman, a man, or a cow.

”As life evolves, the information and memory an organism carries get increasingly complex. In the yogic tradition, we always said you must eat what is furthest away from you, genetically. In that sense, plant life is furthest away from us. If you must eat non-vegetarian food, we advised the consumption of fish, because among the animals, it is furthest away from a human being, if you look at it from an evolutionary perspective. As the first animal life on the planet is thought to have evolved in water, the first avatara was matsya avatara or the fish.

“If you eat a simple memory-code... like a vegetable, it is very simple. In the evolutionary scale, whatever is furthest away from you, that’s what you must consume. In other words, you never consume a mammal, because it is too close to you, and it’s memory is too complex, and you will never be able to break it down 100%. If you consume this, partly you break down the genetic code, another part of it remains. Gradually the animal qualities will enter your system, and annoyingly, these things will find expression. People are going through anger, stress...this is simply, or one of the main reasons for this is because of the food they are consuming.”
-Sadhguru
Quote Source

I love this explanation, and it just resonates within my soul. I don’t want to eat anything that has its own identity and it’s own emotions and consciousness. Especially the way livestock are raised these days, in such horrifying conditions. Their entire lives are full of stress, sadness, anger, cruelty, and abuse, so it’s no surprise that eating a diet high in meat creates excess anger, pain and stress. We are all completely made up of energy, so make sure you’re putting high-vibe, good energetic foods into your body too!

I Don’t Want to Support Animal Cruelty

As I began mentioning above, the conditions for raising and producing livestock these days are insanely awful. There is so much video footage of animals being treated poorly, raised in small cages, with barely any room to move their entire lives. Their babies are always stolen from them soon after birth, and you can visibly see the pain in the mothers when this happens. The animals are often kept in closed warehouses, never getting to see the sunlight or feel the breeze of the wind on their skin. The conditions are incredible inhumane, and unsanitary. Where do you think all the animal fecal matter goes? Right down into their cages, where they get to sleep and stand in for their whole lives...and eventually when their bodies get horribly massacred and chopped up (at alarming rates, by the way. Some factories kill 4,000 cows a day, and create 3,000 steaks per minute) that fecal matter gets put directly into your future cheeseburger or BLT. Yum! I love my steaks with extra poop!

I also heard once that in a typical burger, the meat come from about 100 DIFFERENT cows! So not only do you get 1 cow’s lifetime of sadness, anxiety, and fear when you eat a burger, you get the personal emotional baggage from 100 cows!

McDonald's has confirmed that its beef patties can contain the meat of more than 100 different cows.

Quote from the McDonalds Q&A:

“In the blending process, we do mix beef from different delivery batches and the resulting batches can be made up of the meat from more than 100 cattle.”
Source

Once I started opening my eyes to the cruelty of the meat industry, I couldn’t continue eating meat. Films like Fed Up, Cowspiracy, What the Health, and Food Inc. were really helpful in opening my eyes to the horrors. I highly recommend taking the time to watch these films, or just browse YouTube for an endless supply of videos on this topic.

Environmental Sustainability

If you’ve seen the film Cowspiracy, then you will know what I’m talking about with this one.

There’s a lot of info in the film, and it is very eye opening. I highly recommend this one. It’s not about animal cruelty, which so many films are about. This film is showing why eating a diet high in meat is actually hurting our environment and it actually the leading cause of greenhouse gases and climate change. Here are a few facts:

It turns out, that animal agriculture uses about 55% of our natural water usage, while home usage is only 5%.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 65% of the Nitrous Oxide emissions in the air, thus being the NUMBER ONE factor in climate change.
Every MINUTE, 7,000 pounds of animal excrement are produced

Infographic Source

I Love Creating Vegan Junk Food out of Plants!

The last reason that I love eating a mainly plant-based diet, is because I get to experiment in the kitchen, and am always discovering new ways to manipulate vegetables, nuts and spices to create the most amazing flavors and meals.

Some of my favorite vegan dishes to make are: Vegan Mexican food! -- burritos, tacos, quesadilla, and my favorite, Mexican queso (cheese) dip (recipe found here); vegan burgers (black bean or chickpea base), Bolognese pasta, and as a lover of sauces, I’m always making delicious vegan sauces to put on all the things!

_{My vegan Mexian Queso dip (recipe in link above)}

Cashews have become one of my favorite foods. You can blend them up into a creamy base, and turn them into amazing things like vegan cheese, Ranch and Caesar dressings, garlic aioli, spicy mayo… the possibilities are pretty much endless.

Plus, now I can gorge myself on “junk” food and it really isn’t all that bad for you. Late night munchies have never been better, for my taste buds, and for my health!

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There are plenty of reasons to make the switch to a more plant-based diet. I truly believe we are meant to be eating mostly in this way. We are not herbivores, like tigers and bears….tigers and bears eat RAW meat….do you have a desire for RAW meat? Probably not, because you’re not a true herbivore. But regardless, for me the benefits speak for themselves.

Some final Fun Facts

• ALL protein comes from plants….the only reason we get protein from meat is because the animal ate plants first, and then you receive that protein when you eat the meat. But ALL protein comes from plants. Skip the middle-man and just eat more plants to get your protein!
• The “nutritional value charts” you may have seen when you were younger (those triangle diagrams telling you how much meat/dairy/grains you should eat) were created BY the food industries… so I don’t really think we should look to these as the “correct” way to be eating. The people who made the charts want us to eat meat and dairy, because that’s the product their selling!

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This is just my personal experience.

I just want to take a minute to say that this is the story of my own journey to changing my diet. I am not passing along any judgment to any other diets, or ways of life. But I do think it is important for everyone to be aware of the truths pertaining to the meat and dairy industries, and the effects they can have on our own bodies and the environment. And I do think it is important for everyone to embark on their own journeys of finding a diet that helps them be their best selves.

While I do think a healthy debate can be good for a person every now and then, I am not trying to start a debate on this topic. I simply wanted to share my PERSONAL story and journey to eating a more plant-based diet, and my PERSONAL experience and benefits. I’m simply reflecting on my own experiences, and my never-ending journey to finding a diet for my highest, greatest self.

I am hoping this blog can illuminate some ideas surrounding vegetarianism and maybe inspire some people to make the change if they have been considering it. If anyone is curious in learning more about my journey, or questions about transitioning to a plant-based diet, I would be happy to talk more with you. Feel free to reach out.

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I will admit, that I am not a true “vegan” nor do I claim to be. As I mentioned in my beginning of this story, I allow myself the occasional pizza with cheese, and sometimes I eat fish when my body is craving it. I'd say I'm about 90% purely plant-based these days, and eating foods that are healthy and nourishing.

I think it is important that we all take the time to figure out what works for us. By trying different things, by doing research, and by listening to our own intuitions. What we eat is playing a huge role in our energy levels and mood, whether we think about it or not, so I encourage you to try to find a diet that suits your lifestyle and needs. One that is good for your HEALTH, your HEART, the PLANET, and your overall WELLBEING.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story. I hope you found it inspiring, or at least interesting. If so, I would greatly appreciate your UPVOTE and invite you to follow me here on Steemit at @rainbowrachel 🌟 🌟

Until next time. I love you.
🌈 Rachel

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