JOURNEY TO PLANT-BASED.

There is one question that I get asked more than any other, and thats about my diet. 

I’ve struggled with my weight from a young age, not necessarily being overweight or eating lots of junk but I have just always felt the need to slim down and watch my food intake. I can still remember being 15 and only eating no breakfast, a cookie for lunch followed by a small dinner and thinking it was too much. My teenage mind was overwhelmed with the thought that ‘low calories would make me skinny’ and that 100 calories in a chocolate bar meant it was the same as eating 100 calories in an avocado. To cut a long story short, there was no knowledge behind my decision other than wanting to be smaller.  As I have grown up and started to understand food, my tastes have changed and I’ve realised how important good food is along with a healthy exercise routine. 

My entire diet overhaul happened around the time when I was most unhappy with my weight and realising that pot noodles and curries were not giving my body what it needed. I was a typical student and I desperately wanted change. After lots of researching and looking into various diets, I attempted Veganism. I soon realised that whilst entirely possible for me to do so, I couldn’t opt for the lifestyle which fitted with it so it wasn’t fair to consider myself as Vegan when I was still using a couple of products tested on animals and owning leather shoes. Blogs like Deliciously Ella and The Minimalist Chef have helped me a lot along the way and I couldn’t thank them enough for showing me a way to finally enjoy food.

So, the burning questions - why don’t I eat meat or dairy?

This question bugs me a lot, purely because its normally followed by ‘what on earth do you eat then?’ with many people considering meat and dairy to be the main (if not only) things we can eat. I can essentially eat exactly the same as any other person but I remove these two factors so that my food is wholesome and nutritious.

I have never enjoyed the taste of red meats, my parents will remember the constant battles with lamb, pork and beef being left on my plate because I really didn’t like them. I soon resorted to only eating chicken and fish to realising that Quorn and meat alternatives are much tastier and give me similar nutrients (with the missing ones being replaced in veg or supplements). My diet has been considered ‘vegetarian’ for years so cutting out the remaining meat wasn’t much of an issue to me and the idea of animals being ill-treated to feed man kind angers me - but thats a debate for another time. I now only eat ‘meat’ in the form of Tofu or Quorn products.

Dairy is another tricky one for me to explain. At a young age, cheese gave me a strange reaction so I have avoided it ever since and continued to indulge in eggs and milk. However with my brief time as a Vegan, I realised that I was lactose intolerant. For years I’ve become bloated after eating and finally realised it was dairy causing the problem. I will admit to still having the occasional egg because my body needs the protein with my workouts, but I only buy free range. For milk, I only drink nut or soy milk and both taste much better than cows milk!

Sorry if this post wasn’t completely your cup of tea, I just felt that it should be addressed as I post a lot of food on social media with questions. I think diet is a personal preference so it shouldn’t concern others, but I also wanted to explain why I made the decision to be much healthier in my diet and explain what it is I actually eat. If you want me to post recipes in the future then I would be more than happy, as I do have various posts coming up based around food. IE; what I buy from the supermarket, various green/detox teas, etc. I’m sorry if this post went on a bit, I just wrote it as I thought and kept it natural to my way of thinking and explaining.