If you are what you eat...what am I?

Everyone in the health world seems to define themselves by how they eat.  It's very common to hear "I am Raw."  "I am Vegan." "I am Vegetarian." "I am Gluten Free." This seemed quite odd to me because I am used to defining myself by "I am a teacher.  I am a mom.  I am a child of God." etc...   When I was asked:  "Amy!  Are you going Raw?"   I had NO idea what that meant!  And honestly, it kind of freaked me out.  Once I began learning about eating healthy, I spent quite a few weeks learning this entirely new vocabulary and determining how it could/would apply to my life.  What new "I am" would I become?

All I knew at that time was that I wanted to eat healthier than I already was.  I dove into this strange new world like this:  Initially I was doing Weight Watchers.  I began to find it curious that foods I knew were extremely healthy (i.e. avocados and sunflower seeds) were the highest point values and therefore foods to avoid eating.  That didn't make sense to me.  One day I remembered my sister talking about eating right for your blood type so I Swagbucksed it and found Eat Right 4 Your Type by Dr Peter J. D'Adamo.  Another click and I learned that, for my A+ blood-type, I should be eating a vegetarian-type diet. (I highly recommend checking this link and reading about your blood-type.  You'll learn a lot more than just what foods to eat/not eat.  I began to understand a lot about what makes me me through this site.)  The very next day my neighbor asked me to "like" a FB page so that she could win a free un-cookbook and so began my interest in eating Raw.  Because, I rationalized, raw foods must be vegetables, I needed to learn about this to feed my blood-type.  Then I learned that just about all raw foods are also vegan foods.  And finally I read The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno and began to learn about eating clean.  At that point I figured I was going to become all of the above!

As I settled into Clean Eating (with about 60% of that being raw foods), I began to realize that certain recipes that were vegan weren't clean.  And some vegetarian recipes weren't clean either.  Suddenly I was confused again.  Weren't they all the same?  Vegan was vegetarian, vegetarian was raw and all of it was clean?  NO it was not to be!  And so more research ensued.  Here is a summary (extremely simplified) of what I learned.

What is Vegetarian?  A person who chooses to eat plant-based foods (i.e. fruits/vegetables) and who does not eat meat (i.e. red meat, poultry or seafood).  They may or may not eat animal by-products such as dairy and eggs.

What is Vegan?  A person who is vegan is an extreme vegetarian (my choice of words).  All the above rules apply PLUS all animal by-products such as dairy, eggs and honey.

What is Raw?  Eating a raw food diet is a lifestyle choice that includes whole foods that are as close to nature as possible.  These foods are uncooked, unprocessed, and preferably organic.  By not heating foods above 104 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit (40 to 47 degrees Celsius), the inherent enzymes and nutrients are preserved enabling for optimal nutrition. (info taken from here.)  You will almost always hear Raw-Vegan used together.

What is Clean Eating?  To understand what it means to Eat Clean, click here.  Or just click on the "Clean Eating" page above.  Clean Eating was the most appealing to me because it included eating whole foods and cutting out all processed foods and sugars from my diet.  I could easily combine Raw with Clean Eating.  One simple rule to Clean Eating is: if you can't read it, don't eat it.  All those crazy big words on labels...they're basically poisons to our bodies and we need to stay away from them. The process of transition for me was not easy!  It's taken me months to accomplish this and even now there are a few things that keep catching me by surprise...or temptations that pop up that are too hard to pass by. 

What I began to discover, though, was that some vegan and vegetarian recipes would contain sugar or other ingredients that were not allowed in Clean Eating.  So I've learned that I need to read recipes and ingredient labels carefully.  And that I am not a vegetarian (I still eat chicken & pork 1-2 times a week) and I'm not vegan (I cook with eggs, and go through a TON of honey!) and I'm not Raw (I eat cooked foods).  So I determined that I am going to be a Clean Eater and this lifestyle change will incorporate some vegetarian and vegan recipes that follow the rules of clean eating.  Fortunately all Raw recipes are also clean.  So I currently eat about 95% Clean with 60% of that being Raw.  I guesstimate 5% of the time I fail in all of the above.

I will emphasize a lot in my blog that the use of the word "diet" with these styles of eating does not mean "way to lose weight" but instead it means "lifestyle of eating".  If you are considering incorporating a Clean Eating diet plan...don't do it unless you're willing to do it for the rest of your life.  It should be a lifestyle change, not a 2-week crash course to weight-loss.  But I do hope you will join me and discover how fantastic the health benefits are!

And now I'm off to my first Farmer's Market.  So much more for me to learn...and fun to be had!  (I'm sure I'll be sharing about that soon :-)

Share: What are you?  Are you a sugaraholic and processed food junkie still?  What do you hope to be and why?

*I was surprised to read that Vegans do not eat honey.  I'm not positive on that info being accurate as I know my Raw friends who are also Vegan eat honey.

What is Optimal Health? (and why do I care so much?)

            "Optimal health is ones mental and physical condition being at 100%."

All through 2010 I simultaneously began putting on weight (due to my increasing sugar addiction) and began struggling physically with asthma-related symptoms.  I've always been healthy and of average weight so it came as quite a surprise when I developed horrible allergies, Atopic-dermatitis and suddenly asthma.  Breathing became very difficult and I just wanted medication to make it all better, but after many doctor's visits (3 specialists) and more blood draws than I can remember, the end result was that my insurance wouldn't qualify me for the only medication that seemed to help.  In the end I was left on my own to figure something out.  The only words of hope my dr gave me were "if you lose some weight, it'll help ease the pressure on your lungs and you should be able to breathe better."  I was about 50 lbs overweight and, since this was my only hope, decided to run with it. 

I began with Weight Watchers in Feb 2011, and it worked for awhile.  But Optimal Health became my goal around April/May 2011 when I realized that I was losing weight with Weight Watchers but I still wasn't healthy.  I'd discovered ways to cheat and stay within my points but deep down inside I knew I was cheating...I knew the food wasn't good for me, I just didn't know why.  I decided then to go on a search to find out how I could improve over Weight Watchers...lose weight AND be healthy.  I knew nothing of clean eating or of the raw lifestyle, but I did have my sister and parents constantly talking to me about being gluten free.  There was NO WAY I was going to go gluten free since that pretty much encompassed 100% of my diet!  So I ignored them.  One day I remembered learning something (again from my sister) about eating for your bloodtype.  I immediately googled it and found out that my blood-type (A+) was the vegetarian type.  Which basically meant that my body would metabolize food best if I ate according to a vegetarian diet.  Plant-based proteins, whole grains...staying away from meat products.  Thus began my journey into raw foods and eventually into settling on Clean Eating.

But back to Optimal Health.  If you do a google search on the term "optimal health" you're going to come up with a whole lot of scary responses.  "Colon cleansing, Enimas, Fasting, Detoxification, FIR Sauna, Massage, Nutritional Counseling, mega food suppliment" (ok, I'll take the massage part!)  It's funny that nothing comes up about what medications to take or cosmetic proceedures you can have done.  Everything related to obtaining Optimal Health is done by natural means.  When I started my journey to find Optimal Health, I knew none of that ~ I just wanted to be healthy!

"Optimal health is ones mental and physical condition being at 100%.  What an incredible goal to have!  For so many with chronic and debilitating diseases/conditions/illnesses, it's not even a dream they believe has a chance of fulfillment.  We're a nation that medicates up and then suffers side-effects so we medicate up more to counter-act the side effects and still expect to live a fulfilling life.  We want instant answers and often the only answers out there require time and hard work.  I was told today, "Wow, Amy, you're looking really great.  You've lost a ton of weight.  Is it stress or did you actually work at it."  No, I've actually worked at it...for 8 long months!  Optimal Health can not be attained through stress (if only it were that simple since plenty of that abounds!).  It can be attained through eating healthy and exercise.  80% of it is food, though.  What goes in your mouth determines how much energy you'll have, how your body will respond to viruses and bugs that come around, whether you'll gain or lose weight...and so much more!

Many years ago my grandmother, who suffered from diabetes and heart conditions, was told by her doctor that, due to the way she and her children ate, none of them had a chance to live healthy lives and they would all die from diseases related to how they had eaten.  But he said my grandmother's grandchildren's generation (me) had hope IF they learned how to eat properly early in life.  I've heard that story so many times and shrugged it off.  The good 'ol "Whatever" attitude.  But this year I've begun to learn how wise that doctor was.  My generation needs to eat properly to have hope of Optimal Health.  I'm so thankful I made this realization before it also was too late for me and while my children are still young.  I hope others reading with come to the realization, too, that if you're still breathing, it's not too late.  Make some intentional changes today that will make for a better tomorrow.

*definition for Optimal Health taken from Answers.com
*To learn more about eating for your bloodtype, here is the official site: http://www.dadamo.com/