What Makes You Feel Amazing?

I feel amazing when I eat healthily.  As a ploy to get my boyfriend to change his diet, I decided to change my own. As I’ve been mentioning lately, I’ve started this gluten-free, wheat-free, soy-free, diary-free, refined sugar-free, (already) vegetarian diet. My aim is to avoid nearly all processed foods that have ingredients that I don’t know what they are. Essentially all food that isn’t cooked at home has been banished from my diet.

And as challenging as that may be, I feel amazing. I’ve lost weight, I have more energy, and I recover from illness with lightning speed. Who knew that eating all natural, organic foods could make me feel so great? However, since the week before my vacation, I’ve been a little lax with my diet. I’ve been eating processed foods, wheat bread, and pastries; those foods have made me feel so bad.  I’ve never been so aware of how food makes my body feel.

When they say food is fuel, who ever “they” is, they weren’t kidding. Once you have REAL food for a while, its kind of hard to go back to the processed junk.  I mean, it’s not hard at all, as processed junk is readily available to jump down your throat at a moment’s notice. People are always throwing it at you. Last Friday  a kid offered me a chocolate cupcake, for free! Yet, when I look at the processed food, (today I made a naan pizza with sliced tomatoes and Daiya cheese), it doesn’t seem as appetizing as before. The flavor isn’t rich and fresh, and I don’t feel like I’m doing myself any favors.

My mom always says “Bless your food.”  She tells me to “not give power to the things of this world,” like food.  I believe her, but the facts don’t lie. I feel amazing when I eat natural foods that I prepare at home. I LIKE eating healthier. It’s strange, but I never thought I’d say that. And guess what? I don’t have to eat zucchini or mushrooms, either.  I eat all the stuff I love. Nit-picking chemical micro-ingredients, criticizing them, and avoiding them may seem like I’m giving “power” to those ingredients, but I’m not if I don’t focus on them. There are two ways to eat in this lifestyle. The first, is to think about all the foods you can’t have because these micro-ingredients are going to give you cancer or whatever.  The second is to think of all the possibilities that are available to you with the food you can eat. Cauliflower sauce instead of Alfredo, who knew? I’m still working on a recipe, but as soon as I develop one I like, I’ll share it with you.  There are so many foods I haven’t tried, and so many ideas I have coming to me

Of course this “restrictive” diet has many challenges and I slip up sometimes. Yet, my slip-ups give me something to remember: I don’t like the way the processed stuff makes me feel. So I work on sticking to the diet. The next step in this new dietary lifestyle is to adapt my schedule to fit the requirements of preparing these amazing foods. And this next step, my friends, is for next time.  Have a good night.