Over the years I have tried many food diet concepts. In my early college days, most left me feeling like I wasn’t receiving enough nutrition. Atkinson Diet, Cookie Diet (lol, yeah, really :/) , South Beach diet, and Keto have been detours, that helped me to learn what works and what doesn’t. I do believe fad diets CAN move a person in the direction of being able to sustain a whole food diet that is plant based with its trial and error approach. The body really has to be tuned to accept health and to maintain a truly wholesome food lifestyle. It takes time, it takes “what works for my body, what doesn’t work for my body type” discovery, and it takes the ability to want to feel good from nourishing ourselves with foods that are better for us. We may want it badly, but will our body wisdom allow us? We have to train it until it becomes natural. That timeline varies from one person to the next, so we take steps toward that freedom.
There have been many times, even after being vegan for 12 years, where I fell out of attunement. My life became increasingly stressful, to where I was vegan but my body needed more sugar as a way to stay “lit”. I “fell off of the wholesome wagon” so-to-speak. So vegan junk food crept in more. It really is about tuning the body to sustain a more healthy lifestyle. But how do we do that?
Below are food concepts I tried over the years that DO embody wholefoods, healthy, plant-based living without sactificing being able to go to the fair and have a funnel cake. As we know, exercise, spiritual nutrition, and food lifestyle nutrition go hand-in-hand. We must earn it by doing the work. I encourage you to incorporate these food concepts in one at a time. Work with one for a month, than move on to the next. Take longer if you need to depending on your stress levels. Soon, they will all come together naturally. Here they are in the order in which I learned about them.
Vegetarianism: What sparked my match to eliminate meat from my diet was my yoga practice. A yoga teacher I had been practicing from for a few months at 24hr fitness in Orange County, Ca, talked to us about how we purify the body through yoga and nutrition. She looked great and mentioned that not only was it kind for the animals, but also, helps getting inshape. At the time I was studying to be an actress in college, so this sparked my interest as I needed to find a diet I could stick to that would help me to keep the weight off. So I did just that, became vegetarian. You have to understand that before I transitioned to become vegetarian, I was failing at fad diets, eating meat inbetween like porkchops wrapped in bacon and stuffed with blue cheese. My boyfriend at the time ate meat, so I wanted to impress him with meals I knew he would love. To my suprise, as I became vegetarian, he slowly did as well before we moved in together.
Being vegetarian is completely eliminating meat out of your diet. Animal products such as eggs and dairy are still allowed. It really is a great way to eat to shed weight and still order things on the menu at restaurants. I’m vegan now, yet occassionally have cheese or cream in a desert if at a party etc. The key word is occasionally. Becoming vegetarian is a stepping stone to living a more wholesome lifestyle. It truly changes you in the many layers of what you attract and how you lead with your heart and soul. It is such a beautiful journey knowing you are saving animals lives everyday in every meal choice.
Vegan: Becoming vegan did not happen until 6 years later when I went to the Jivamukti Teacher Training in 2010. I had been flirting with the idea of this lifestyle since I started the JIvamukti Yoga Method in 2008. For two years I went to yoga classes 4-5 days a week listening to Jivamukti teachers talk about animal rights and how fun it was to learn to cook more compassionately. They had cooking classes, workshops, and documentary movie nights. It all was building up inside of me to want to open up a studio, become vegan, and live compassionately like the teachers I looked up to for so many years. So as I was encouraged to go to the Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Training at the Rhinebeck, NY Omega Institute, so did I long to just make the switch to becoming vegan.
As luck would have it, The 21 day YTT intensive training had a gorgeous vegan buffet. I mean, just like, lasagna, tacos, salads with eclectic organic vegetables and fruits etc. The flavors were so robust…I longed to cook like that and show off to my boyfriend at the time, friends, and family. This is what lit the fire to finally live the life to become what I was there to teach. Fortunetly, I havn’t looked back since then. I have been vegan for 12 years now. It is a badge of honor I where that has stuck with me.
You must remember, however, that being vegan is a total lifestyle shift. It means buying vegan products, eliminating leather and fur, as well as having to go out of your way to find vegan restaurants. It takes resiliance as, in the beginning, people will test your faith in it or, even worse, tease you. You have to have conviction and wit to rebuttle their questions. There are several books I went by to arm myself with that left my meat eating opponants with a glazed look over their eyes… like they would say, “It says in the bible to eat meat. Our ancestors ate meat.” To them I simply say, “well our ancestors didn’t have Whole Foods and a thriving metropolis full of vegan options like Trader Joe’s that offers delicious vegan food sooo… when in Rome.” They went on with other questions, I went on with my witty answers. Then, they just nodded their heads in, “okay, I understand now”. So you do have to get resourceful for those conversations to help others understand.
These days it is easier as many stores as well as restaurants have embraced more vegan, cruelty free products, still, learning to read labels is a must. You learn to sniff out the bullshit because there are a lot of products that claim they are plant-based, yet have animal products within’ them. So the vegan name on the product is essential. And this is what I teach people in my diet transition course, how to navigate the waters of this new way of living. There are suppliments you have to take like B12, amino acids, making sure you are receiving whole foods nutrition. Which brings us to our next topic. Knowing I would need to nourish myself more with whole foods, it set me on a journey to learn more about micro/macro nutrients and where to get them.
Whole Foods: um, not the store, but actual Whole Foods. Lol. Foods that are not packaged or with additional ingredients or preservatives. So for example whole grain brown rice with a rainbow of vegetables and marinated tofu or watermelon salad with mint, strawberries, and blackberries with a squeeze of lime or lentil and walnuts in a taco seasoning with black beans, kale, pico, avocado, and a little vegan sour cream in tortillas. The key to a whole foods diet is that majority of the ingredients are homemade from scratch or very little ingredients. Adding sauces, vegan butter, oils, and seasonings to jazz up flavor is encouraged. Usually that will only account for 50 calories or less anyway. I still eat prepackaged meals if I’m busy and don’t have the time to cook from scratch. What I love to do is find easy meals, 30 minutes or less, that are whole foods based, vegan, organic, and gluten free as much as possible. I’m not always successful in every meal to do that, but it’s the standard I live by.
Organic: Most of us know by now that pesticides cause inflammation. If not organic, over time, you will notice the difference in your body. When I learned about the difference between conventional and organic, my mouth dropped. The taste alone is night and day. Organic just tastes better. Why? Because it’s not laden with all of the garbage they put on conventional produce. This is why most people who switch from a meat and dairy diet to a vegan organic, mostly gluten free diet, lose weight and feel better all around. Organic is more farm to table, natural, wholesome, and protects the essential micro nutrients we need from the soil. Pesticides kill off the biodiversity in the soils leaving them stripped of the additional mineral intake we are supposed to be getting from them. So, the more we buy organic, creating that demand, the more perhaps it can be made easier, less costly for farmers, to make that switch while also saving their soils. As of now, it is still costly to farmers to become an organic farm. We really need to lift those fees so that farmers who would like to become organic, can do so.
Eating with the Seasons: There is nothing better than curling up on the sofa on a cool autumn evening with a homemade bowl of pumpkin soup, crusty, crunchy bread, and a delicious glass red wine. It just feels sooo goood. It feels good because when it’s cold outside our bodies crave warmth. There is something primal about it. In the summer it is hot outside so naturally, we crave cooler, lighter meals like Watermelon Salad, fresh green juices, and eclectic salads. But it takes attention and care to eat seasonally.
There is this wonderful cooking show, which is definitely NOT vegan, called Barefoot Contessa. BUT, her show is what got me thinking about eating seasonally. And I loved watching it just for that. The way she cooked with warming spices, wholefoods, the way she described the ingredients… it all was so seasonal that I just wanted to jump through screen and have a meal with her. It brings us back to hearth and home when we take the time to buy things that are in season. It brings all of the senses to the table.
There was also a book I read, I can’t remember the name of it now, but it went on to talk about the 80/20 rule. In the fall/winter months, eat 80% cooked ingredients and 20% raw. In the Spring/Summer months, eat 80% raw and 20% cooked. Not always easy to follow this rule to a T, but it is a way to eat with the seasons as well as your digestive fire called Agni. Your digestive fire is cooled down in the winter, so a seasonal natural approach is to eat more cooked foods in the winter that preserve your digestive fire. Spicier foods can be helpful as well to create more heat for digestion. The opposite for the warmer months.
Buying produce that is in season is fun as well. Majority of the time we do have access to all fruits and vegetables through out the year, however, when you fine tune your sense to learn what is in season, usually you can find it organically grown and the flavors are more robust. It gives a little more of being in the moment, in the season, relishing what is coming in naturally.
Eating For Your Chakras: At the time, I was about 4 years deep into my vegan journey when I started thinking about how to eat for my chakras. I was struggling with my digestive fire and needed a better way to balance the elements in my body through my food. I came across a chakra elixir book which was a small little book that went into elixirs, potions, and tonics to balance the aspects or centers of each chakra. I felt like a little witch, concocting these potions that turned out to taste so unique, delicious, and herbal. I began to connect the physical yoga practices in my method with foods for the chakras to learn the deeper lessons of body alchemy.
This fascinated me so much I bought more books on chakras, food, and the body. I learned that denser foods for blood, bones, and grounding like red foods such as beets and root vegetables as well as protein and proper mineral intake were meant for those purposes. They were heartier, therefor more dense in relationship to the root chakra. Fats and orange foods for the second belly chakra, Svahisthana (Sanskrit), yellow and carbohydrates for the solar plexus chakra plus foods that are spicier etc.
At first you can be meticulous about it, then, it becomes second nature, bringing an additional knowledge to food prep and planning. I find that it has helped me to feel what my body needs more, taking more care into my meals. This is a wonderful way to heal using the power of plants.
SuperFoods: superfoods are foods that are packed with more nutritional density. Foods like adaptogens, which naturally relieve stress, fatigue, and anxiety. These foods go above and beyond. Foods like cocoa, ginseng, medicinal mushrooms, coconut oil, hemp seeds, chia seeds, aloe etc. They have more health benefits than most other foods and they are perfect to add into your favorite dishes. I started using chia seeds in my tofu scrambles to aid in circulation. Cooking with coconut oil instead of olive oil as it is more clean. Hemp seeds in salads. So little additions like that can make a huge impact.
Ayurveda: Is known as the sister science to yoga that is over 5,000 years old. A life science on how to take care for yourself and others using natural everyday practices in body and mind. Eating with the principles of Ayurveda can turn around health concerns in a matter of days. I’ll just touch on a few changes that made the most impact.
The first is drinking enough purified water in the morning, throughout the day, and before you go to bed. It really does help insulate you from stress and inflammation. It also keeps you glowing your beautiful chakra aura colors consistently, if your eating a rainbow of mostly fruits and vegetables. So, grab a few water containers you love and drink at least 8 8oz glasses per a day.
Next is learning to eat for the seasons based on your Agni, digestive fire condition. If you are not feeling a steady streaming of heat energy coming from your solar plexus region, then eating spicier foods, breath of fire pranayama, as well as sweaty exercise, can boost your metabolism, stoking that fire.
Eating at certain times of the day. The main thing for me was to have my biggest meal at lunch then having dinner before 7pm. This also helps with rhythms, weight gain, and overall feeling good. Eating too late leaves you feeling bloated which can also disrupt sleep cycles. Sometimes I have to eat late because of this or that, but these are the rules I try and live by.
Enzyme Factor: More live foods equals more clean energy in your system. If your in a thriving garden do you see fresh fruits and vegetables or do you see pizza boxes and burger king wrappers??? Lol, I know, I do junk food too when I’m just craving something greasy. But how often? I notice my complexion changed to a brighter glow when I started drinking more fresh organic juices and eating fresh fruit salads. I’m currently trying to incorporate more raw foods in the spring and summer months. Enzymes fight free radicals which cause aging, sickness, and death. So, boosting more raw foods will usher in a host of benefits.
Blue Zones, Mediterranean, and Theme Nights: I’m grouping these all together because they are similar in their content. They’ve have had an impact on my food choices, but not as much as the other concepts.
The Blue Zones Diet is from the book Blue Zones. The author, Dan Buettner, traveled to various cities all over the world that were considered blue zones to unlock the secrets in longevity. These cities become blue zones because studies have shown people are the happiest, healthiest, and live longer lives in these areas. The food choices people make in Blue Zones turns out to be mostly an extension of their agricultural in which they live. So mostly fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Some cities did include meat, but mostly lean meats like chicken and fish. They also included a lot of red wine, red wine vinegar, dark chocolate, and fermented foods. I started to incorporate more of these foods into my diet which ultimately gave me better blood flow circulation, better gut health, and relaxation. They key here is to learn to feel your food. Feel what your body needs and make a Whole Foods choice.
Mediterranean foods are similar to the Blue Zones diet. Because I’m vegan, falafel, hummus, olives, lemon, tomatoes, fresh pastas, cucumber and herbs in salads show up quite often in dishes I prepare. I love unique white wines, cavas, and bolder red wine with a long finish. herbs and ripe vegetables, homemade sauces give a strong vibe of the Mediterranean.
Theme Nights. My ex fiancé and I would have fun movie nights occasionally where we would pick a movie with a cultural theme and then make a spread of dishes of that country. So for example, The movie musical Mamma Mia! Is set in Greece. I made a Cucumber/Tomato salad with fresh herbs, homemade hummus with pita bread, falafel, and baklava for dessert with a fantastic white wine. It’s fun to jazz up movie nights or parties with themed vegan dishes. Makes it more exciting.
There are a few food concepts I left out, which I will touch on at another time. These are the major influences in the meals I prepare. Becoming vegan really has been such a blessing. It’s been a fun journey discovering all the ways to still enjoy favorite foods with a healthier twist.