I had usually been pretty good about taking care of myself…well sometimes. It would really depend on how I felt. You see, I am a person who is very in touch with their emotions. That would tend to translate into my eating habits. I would eat my emotions. Anyone else feel me here? If I was experiencing negative emotions, I would grab the most unhealthy food item to devour. On the other side, if I was feeling great, I would tend to eat healthier. Is that weird or is that normal? I’m not sure, but that’s what I would do.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…”
1 Corinthians 6:19
I grew up hearing that my body is a temple based on the bible verse above. I never really perceived my body as such, I just knew that my body was my body and I could do whatever I wanted. I ate whatever I wanted and as much of it as I wanted. I didn’t really care about how the food I was consuming would affect my body. It was all about the momentary pleasure of biting into the greasiest, cheesiest burger or getting a sugar high from the piece of cake dripping with icing.
Over the past few years, I would entertain the idea of eating a decent diet. Here and there I would experiment with cooking vegetarian meals because I was trying to lay off of meat or was doing a fast of some sort. However, I didn’t have any real motivation for doing that. I had no “why.” So none of these methods would stick and I’d just go back to eating horribly.
In the more recent months leading up to my 30th birthday this year, my mindset started changing. I was getting older and entering into a new decade of life. I wanted better for myself and it was important to me to become disciplined and treat my body like the temple that it truly is. Plus I was following Dave Ramsey so I was forced to cook more to save money.
During this time I was beginning to actually like cooking! As I began exploring recipes, I started favoring the meals that didn’t have meat in the ingredients. I can’t even tell you how or why…it just happened. Exploring recipes online lead me to Tabitha Brown, America’s favorite vegan auntie. She had mentioned that watching the documentary “What the Health” caused her to give the vegan diet a try. I had never seen it, so when she said to watch it, I did…”cuz that’s my business,” as she would say.
So yeeeaaah that documentary was just what I needed to give this lifestyle change a try. I had decided that June 1st would be my first day (yes I’m one of the weirdos that like to start things on the first day…so?). Ironically, I didn’t go on a food tour to binge all of my favorite foods one last time. I immediately went onto the PETA website to research ingredients that I could purchase to jumpstart my journey and I hit the ground running. My pantry became a grocery store for my family members. I gave away SO much food that I was committed to no longer eating. And y’all, giving away recently purchased, unopened Sargento cheese hurt my very soul.
*insert deep sigh*
So for me at this point it was no longer about the temporary pleasure of eating foods that tasted good but were hurting my health. I had to discover ways to make plant based meals that were so tasty that I didn’t even think about consuming animal products. This is a challenging process that I am still learning through, but I have found some real gem recipes that I am thankful for. Plus, eating vegan is made so easy these days with so many resources highlighting the eating style.
Check out the list of links below for some people I follow for recipes:
So yeah, that’s pretty much my journey! I became plant-based for health reasons. I wanted a better body, more confidence, a more beneficial life. I must say I have gained all of those and more because of my new lifestyle. It’s really been a great journey and I’m committed to sticking with it. You may be wondering why I say terms like “plant based” or “eat vegan.” Well the truth is, I don’t claim the vegan lifestyle because it’s too intense for me personally. I love vegans and support them, but I can’t act like animals and the environment were my motivation for making this choice. Heck, I still carry a leather purse (got to tell the truth). Maybe one day I’ll graduate to that level, but for now I’m really thriving where I am.
Thanks for stopping by! Tell me a new journey you started this year in the comment section below!