My Reason Behind Transitioning To a Plant-Based Diet

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed I did a 7 day vegan challenge at the end of January. I would take snaps of my vegan meals for the day and tag @MyaPlanet9 in the process.

Day 3 complete on @myaplanet9’s #veganchallenge. Started the day with water and mango ? followed by a tasty spelt & oat pancake (recipe courtesy of @tishwonders ?) topped with blueberries and a drizzle of organic maple syrup. Ended the day with ackee and banana with a side of salad ??

A post shared by Sherese Nicole (@sherese.nicole) on Jan 27, 2018 at 6:16pm PST

The reason I did this challenge wasn’t so much about winning anything, instead it was to share a little bit of my journey with followers and also to claim this transition into eating a plant-based diet.  Also, for those who know me, you guys knowww I consider myself a “wannabe vegan.” And it’s not because of the persuasive pro-vegan documentaries I’ve seen or because I want to be “trendy” but it’s based on the account of real-world people who have improved their health upon following a vegan diet.

I consider myself to be a health enthusiast and extremely health conscious but given those standards I don’t always live up to the name lol. It’s really hard making a change but I know that health is wealth and I believe I can get there through what I eat. Health is a choice* (for the majority of us living in a first world country), just like how happiness is a choice, so I’m choosing in my favour to become a better person but in order to do so I had to make some dietary changes.

I’ll explain a little bit about what brought me to this point in the first place because I wasn’t always like this. I once repulsed at the sight of vegetables and had no idea what kale was or how to eat it lol. I used to drink sugary fruit juices on a daily basis in addition to over-consuming meat, deep fried foods, frozen foods etc and supported that behaviour with the whole “you only live once” nonsense. Then life handed me lemons which threw me into this health focused direction.

I later found out I was dealing with a digestive issue that can lead into a plethora of other illnesses and can become fatal if left untreated. I’m not sure what caused it with me and at this point it’s irrelevant, all that matters is that I’m working towards healing. I’m usually inclined to take preventive measures so I sought out natural ways to heal the root cause of my illness. That in itself has taken me down a long, uncertain, doubt filled road but I know that I’m better off doing this the hard way.

The day I had an appointment with a Naturopath I started to learn the importance of holistic health which brought to the surface the dissociation I had with certain foods and my health. I discovered that I had to develop new lifestyle changes which were obviously met with reluctance because it challenged everything I knew before. I had to, for lack of a better word, reject the life I knew which consisted of eating all the foods I wanted in order to improve my health. It was so hard at first but I really started to see improvements so I kept going (although I have some cheat days here and there). Looking back on it now, I’d say that whole process was eventually leading me up to this transition into a plant-based diet. I’ve changed so much since starting this journey and if it’s truly for me then I can’t say I’ll see myself going back to old eating habits.

I started eating plant-based since January 1st 2018.  The first couple of days were so rough I was always hungry lol but I pushed through by learning how to prepare filling meals and just kept going from there. I want to keep up these good habits and continue to challenge myself partly because I’m curious and I also want to see the outcome. It’s hasn’t been that hard not eating meat but I’m finding out that I have to continuously recondition my mind about what is considered a meal… honestly, there’s levels to it. I won’t go into detail with this post, I’ll save that for another time. I’m still surprised and proud of myself for keeping it consistent this far.

Thx for reading xo