Love 90% of the Time

My fiance and I were chatting recently about how I stay on track with my healthy eating.  He is working away and a few kilos have crept on him and his question made me stop and think how I got to where I am today.

When I say my fiance is living away...he's-closer-to-Papua-New-Guinea-away

If someone said to me two years ago you will be eating a clean vegan diet with very little fructose I would have told them they were as nutty as nut mylk!  When I look back at the changes that have happened in the last five years to my health it has been a considerable journey. 

It all started in a somewhat smelly hot room...enter into my life Bikram yoga.  My first class was early on in 2010 and straightaway I was hooked and gradually reduced my gym attendance in preference for hot room attendance.  After class one day I picked up the free magazine, Profile, which featured Jessica Ainscough, known on the Sunshine Coast as the Wellness Warrior and the latter explains the impact she had in her short time.  Jess' passion for a healthy, clean lifestyle was very inspiring and following her on Facebook lead me to discover the Food Matters folks.  I noticed that Food Matters were endorsing a nutrition course offered by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and offering $1000 off the tuition fee if you signed up through them.  So I looked into the course and by September 2013 I was un-learning everything I had been taught about "good" nutrition.

There were many key messages that lead me to dramatically change my relationship to food but the two which had the most impact were:

1. Before you eat anything ask yourself "If I eat this am I showing my body love?".
2. Eat well 90% of the time and indulge the other 10%.

The first of these key messages lead me to embracing a vegan lifestyle.  I learned a great deal about the health benefits of a vegan diet during the course and once you start on that journey you soon start realising the positive impact that a vegan diet can have on the world let alone your own body!  December 26th this year will be my second year anniversary of choosing a vegan lifestyle and what I have noticed is for me it allows me to show my body that I love and appreciate it with every meal.  It also makes eating well 90% of the time a piece of cake...mmm vegan cheesecake - white chocolate is my favourite!!

The overall message that the course founder, Joshua Rosenthal, reinforces is: we all have different bodies with different needs so the food that fuels one person may poison another.  I appreciate that a vegan diet may not be suitable for everyone, I do believe, however, that if you start to integrate these two key messages into your approach to food you may very well change your life in more ways than you can imagine.