Until about 5 years ago, I was not eating in a conscious way. I never questioned what I ate, if it’s good for me, if it’s good for others or if it possible to eat something else.
That is mostly due to the fact that I depended on my mother to provide for me, I was still in school, and cooking was not an option.
One summer , my brother asked me to watch with him a documentary called “Forks over Knives”. He didn’t try to convince me of anything, since it was his first time watching it also.
I watched the whole documentary breathless.
All the information stated there made so much sense to me, and I felt so blind for so many years. How could I not see these things??
I drastically decided to become vegan, so I did. I was in my last year of collage, and started to prepare my own food and make more time for shopping and cooking.
I also gave up all processed foods gradually, giving up chips, replacing them with nuts and seeds, giving up chocolate and processed sweets , replacing them with dried fruit.
What I noticed after this transition:
-I was spending a lot less on food – the amount of money I spend on chocolate was enough to buy 1 or 2 kg of fruit, that lasted me more.
-My digestion started to work properly, and I eliminated a lot of toxins.
-My skin looked clearer.
-I lost some weight.
-I had a lot of energy- at least a lot more than before.
After entering this vegan field, and reading a lot on this topic, inevitably I stumbled upon the animal cruelty topic.
Honestly this topic motivated me a lot more to be vegan, than the idea of being healthy.
I realized all these animals don’t want to die, and after a life of suffering, they are killed, and all that pain is transferred to my body, by me eating them.
I followed a strict vegan diet for one year, with no exceptions!
Once collage ended, I started to work full time, in a larger city, as a Software Engineer. My free time and food options became more limited . Cooking became a weekend activity mostly. Social gatherings were more often.
On top of that, in my country, restaurants offer very weak vegan or vegetarian options.
Because of these obstacles, my diet became over time more flexible, so currently I eat 60% vegan, 38% vegetarian and 2% meat (whenever I am forced by necessity or lack of options). I also eat a moderate amount of sweets, enjoying a chocolate from time to time, or a bag o chips. (Sugar is really hard to give up)
After a lot of diet experimenting and reading some books, I found some ground rules regarding food , that turned my focus more on how I eat, instead of what I eat:
1) Never cook with anger
Japanese writer Masaru Emoto showed in his amazing book “The Hidden Messages in Water”, that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. He also was able to measure Hado in other substances, apart from water, where Hado means: The intrinsic vibrational pattern at the atomic level in all matter.
By this, resulted that a hamburger prepared even with meat, but in a positive manner, with kind and loving words, can be more beneficial for your health than a vegetarian one, prepared with anger and ugly words.
So no matter how much you fight for a great health, eating the most fruitful, vitamin and mineral rich foods, if you keep fighting in your head with your boss, since this morning, you might creating a poisonous meal for you and your family!
2) Give thanks
I already consider animals to have souls and even consciousness, especially after spending a lot of time around humans, showing more devotion and love than a human can ever show , but recently I became to think the same about plants too!
In the book , ” The secret Life of Plants” by Peter Tompkins Christopher Bird, it is shown how plants respond to your words and thoughts, acting fearful and defensive even if you consider hurting them, before actually doing it, how they suffer whenever you rip off a leaf, or pour something harmful on their roots.
This book almost made me cry each time I had to prepare a soup, and pealing off the carrots and parsley roots.
The solution? say thank you. ” Thank you little carrot for giving your life so I can prepare a delicious soup, and be more healthy, thank you for taking the time to grow, and offering me so many vitamins”. “Thank you farmer to take care of this carrot and watering it, and making sure it grows”
If you eat meat : ” Thank you mister fish, for giving your life, so we can eat, and have a nice meal. Thank you so much!”, “Thank you supermarket, for bringing this fish from such a long distance so I can buy it and eat it!”
This practice not only works very well in nourishing your body, but also your soul, and you can apply it on other aspects of your life as well.
3) Always Read the Ingredients!
I get it’s really hard to give up processed foods, with so many options in the stores, with so many colors and flavors! OMG!
But if you are still going to buy them, try to find the best ones, avoiding some ingredients that can be toxic for you.
First rule of thumb, if it’s too long or complicated to pronounce, don’t buy it.
They should contain ingredients that you recognize like : oil, sugar, wheat, cacao powder, eggs, milk, and so on.
Every compound that ends up in your body, and the body doesn’t recognize, ends up stored as fat in your belly or other areas!
That may be the reason why you don’y eat heavy, but you are keep putting weight. It must be because of all those crackers!
Be careful also when buying BIO products. BIO means that some ingredients are certified, like organic certified cacao powder, but that doesn’t mean it can’t contain some nasty other ingredients in there.
I use this practice on cosmetics too, not just food. The downside on that is that on cosmetics, all the ingredients are hard to pronounce, so one day I searched on Google for each one, and discovered that even tho some may sound toxic, they are actual safe for you, and vice versa.
4) Eating Fat is not that bad
There is this trend lately that fat should be avoided at all cost, that it’s bad for your health, with a lot of marketing around diet soda, low fat bread, low fat yogurt and so on.
For me an eye opener was the book called “Fat for Fuel” by DR. JOSEPH MERCOLA.
The main thing I learned is that I should include in my diet more saturated fats. Besides the well known mechanical pressed olive, coconut oil, and avocados he also recommends eating matured cheese and fat rich heavy cream. That’s why I love Cheddar and Parmesan so much! Especially combined with some steamed vegetables. Yum!
For a long time I avoided eating too fatty, because I thought it will be bad for me, but now I know how vital is the right type of fat for your body, how to make a difference between the types of fat, and how to include them in my diet.
That’s about all my thoughts on food. Thanks for reading so far, and I hope you found it helpful.
Lots of love to you all!
Laura Dogariu 