Did you know you can have aches and pains and not even realize it? And not realize how much life you've been missing out on?
When I first started my journey to becoming a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, I wanted to learn more about vegetables, and herbs, and things we could grow in our garden. I didn't realize the course-work was going to be centered around this full-on notion of "plant-based" diets. To me this meant I had to eat salads for every meal, and I wasn't sure I was really committed to doing that.
I tried that last Fall. 4 days in and I was hungry!! I wanted to feel full. I wanted stick-to-your-rib food. All the while Ryan making it clear he wasn't about to live solely on rabbit food. Of course I fell off the wagon.
So you can imagine the pit in my stomach that grew after reading the course material touting this "plant-based diet." I really didn't want to go tell Ryan that I had just spent our entire Christmas gift on this course that I didn't really like.
So I committed to at least following through with the course material before making up my mind. I read a lot, A LOT of information about the effects of animal protein on the body. Everything from heart disease, liver disease, dementia, and of course digestive ailments.
Come to find out, I was way off on what "plant-based" meant. Plant-based diets are exactly that. Plants are the base and you add on to that as you want, even animal proteins. And the recipes couldn't be more diverse, filling, flavorful, and satisfying! The big mistake I was doing when I was following my "salad-only" route was lacking the all important carbohydrates! The starches of the meal. The element that fills you up and makes you feel like you really had something to eat.
At last! Something that I could share with Ryan as I brought up this idea that maybe we should follow a Plant-based diet. He hesitantly got on board, thinking I was somehow tricking him into a "rabbit-food" diet. We eased into the transition. Followed our menu plan, but veered off it when we felt like it. But for the most part of the last 5 months, we've been eating plant-based at home and eating meat or whatever we want when we go out.
So when we were gifted crab last Sunday at church we dove in! That lasted us three meals including the most amazing crab salad with CHEESE. Cheese is something we haven't had in months because of our sensitivity to dairy. We still weren't off our seafood kick and grilled up a whole mess of shrimp. Ate that for another 2 meals in a row.
Insert crying emoji here. I woke up Thursday and all these familiar aches and pains were back. I had neither realized that that i had them. (They were just there, in the background of my day.Easily ignored.) And I hadn't realized that they had gone away. Until they had come back. I was stiff when I'd get up. My joints ached. My neck hurt. And most of all my digestion was badly off balance. My stomach hurt. Nothing brought relief. Come to find out Ryan was feeling the same way.
In the beginning I felt turning down meat and animal products was just being "snoody." Now I realize it's a matter of health and disease.
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