Your Health is a Journey!

I have always considered myself to be a healthy eater.
And compared to most of the Western Society, I probably have! However, my passion for fitness, turned into health, which inevitably led me to explore the relationship between food and our bodies.
Every single day for the past few years, I’ve been reading books, reading online, studying courses and watching awesome documentaries, which have subsequently led me on a massive health journey.

Piece by piece, tweak by tweak, I’ve been changing my diet and my habits. It hasn’t felt overwhelming as I’ve done it slowly and not making drastic changes overnight – to then only to go back to what I ate before! It has been absolute lasting change.

When my eldest was born, my diet consisted of porridge with sultanas and brown sugar for breakfast. Cakes or slices at morning tea at ‘coffee group’ activities with other Mums. Cheese toasties of various fillers was the lunch choice, as it was quick and easy. And dinner was either something with mince, or a stirfry or curry with a ‘just add sauce’ with meat and heaps of veges. Bags of potato chips in the evenings and whatever food was on offer when I went out.

Over the years though, there have been several monumental turning points that I haven’t looked back from, once making the changes.

  • Watching ‘That Sugar Film’
  • Doing the ‘Whole 30’
  • Subscribing to ‘Food Matters TV’

These past several weeks of doing another Whole 30 has led me to make another change that I, for the first time in my life, feel at peace completely and utterly with. I have a feeling of PEACE today when I think about what food I’m going to be eating for the rest of my life. It’s a profound turning point!

Having already dropped nearly all wheat and dairy from my diet and eating large amounts of fruit and veges at all meals, it didn’t take very much to move in my mind to this next step…. no more meat.
I don’t think I’m ready to give up my free-range eggs and be a complete vegan (by definition) yet, but as of today, no more meat, meat products or dairy products of any sort.

It’s been on my mind a lot the last weeks while I’ve been doing the Whole 30 and consuming more meat than I usually did. Watching a couple of documentaries and then a bit of research has tipped me over the edge though, for now. Despite being a meat eater and meat lover my entire life! Will I miss it? Maybe when we’re out and I’m not left with many options to buy food? At home though? No, I don’t think so.

So why now you may ask?
I feel like in my own personal journey to the best health I can create, it was almost inevitable that I reached this point at some stage. But overwhelming knowledge (and the feeling ‘I can’t keep doing this, I can’t keep eating meat’) of what meat and dairy does to the human body in terms of creating an internal environment not conducive to great health, tipped me over the edge.

I have a huge family history of disease; Rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, heart attack, coronary disease, breast cancer, leukemia, bowel cancer, crohns disease, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, melanoma, osteoarthritis…. and probably more that I’m not even aware of!
I grew up in complete fear of rheumatoid arthritis. So petrified that I’m going to get it that I specifically went and got a blood test as a teenager to see if I have the rheumatoid factor! I don’t. But that still doesn’t mean it’s not possible to get this crippling condition! What that test did do was though, was calm my mind about it and reduce the fear.

Cancer is everywhere. And the cancers listed above have been in VERY close relatives of mine. My Nana died of Leukemia in her early 50’s – before I even got a chance to get to know her amazing soul.

I am determined to keep living my life for as long as I can and in the best possible health that I can afford. I don’t want to have the threat of cancer, or heart disease on my shoulders. I want to do all I can to prevent such things happening! Maybe it’s too late for me? Maybe 34 years and growing up on margarine and sugar and meat and dairy has done the damage already? Or maybe, if I start now on a whole foods, plant based diet, the damage will be somewhat reversed.

This is just MY journey and my discovery of what makes ME healthy. It is MY belief that food is medicine. If you had told me even 5 years ago that I would end up as a vegan in life, I would have laughed you out of my house!!

Each of us are different. Each of our bodies are different. And each of us have different beliefs and experiences in life that add up to be the decisions we make about our health and our bodies. And that is great! That is normal!

Your personal health and food choices should be a journey that when you are ready, you’ll travel on. Some people like to live in the same small town for years and years, content with the same every day. Whilst others like myself, are like world explorers who can never stop discovering new places and new things!

But the great news is, when people are ready to explore, the world is right there waiting. Arms held wide open and the knowledge sitting there to be soaked up at the right time on that persons journey.

When you are ready, throw your backpack on and take that journey to better your health! If you’re not sure even which AIRPORT to leave from, let alone where to go first, I can help guide you!

And no, I’m not going to ask you to turn vegan! Hahaha. But if you WANT to, I’ll be cool with that… 😉

  • Fi