I made a speech at the conversation in Change in which I said how and why I started my clean diet blog ❤
I appreciate the opportunity to tell you my story about my lifestyle and how I was forced to find balance with my diet. It all started two years ago when I had constant problems with indigestion and stomach aches and even before then I was in constant agnoy. So, in addition to the constant pain, I had no energy and essentially my general health was failing. After going to what seemed like an endless panel of doctors I was finally diganosed as gluten intolerant and that my small intestines was severly inflammed and the reason for which I was unable to ingest the essential nutrients my body needed to function properly for a growing body.
The result was more depletion of nutrients, digestive problems and strong stomachs. With some previous diet changes, I knew through strict diet I could regenerate my colon and digestive tract but even still, it was a real shock at first to change my diet so extremely and I can tell you that it was difficult. Imagine going to the local bakery and try finding something to order that is gluten free or worse…try to resist the pastries on display. So, it was clear that I had to help myself so I began to spend my afternoons in our family kitchen and started to experiment in hopes of creating something delicious and satisfying. After a while, even my family became impressed with my creations so all of a sudden it wasn’t just for myself I was cooking or baking for.
The request for my recipes was becoming surprisingly so frequent, that I then decided to create an Instagram Account. It was where I could easily post and share my recipes and lifestyle choices with others. Even when I was creating my platform I didn’t really think that I would have many interested followers, but amazingly just after three days of being online my followers reached a staggering 1,000! I received tons of messages from girls with the same problems and similar experiences like me. And because of that, I became really motivated to expand my knowledge so I can myself and help others. My first finding is that I found out that intolerances often are falsely tested or show the wrong results. That’s the primarily the reason why many doctors recommend the wrong treatment. Everyone has to figure out for themselves what works for them and what doesn’t, but where I could help is by sharing my knowledge and experience. My research includes reading many books, blogs and articles and different diets but my diet of choice is “Clean Eating”.
Clean eating comes down to fresh and natural ingredients as much as possible and avoid eating artificially and prepackage foods. If you read the ingredients on prepackaged made foods you will find synthetic additives, sweeteners, processed sugars, coloring and flavoring enhancers, trans fats and other undesirable and unhealthy substances and very little or any natural foods. By eating clean, you eliminate these unhealthy compromising foods from your eating plan and reduce many intolerances to food. Clean eating is also beneficial to the environment as you start to select seasonable fruits and vegetables and the fruit and vegetables that are wrapped in plastic is what gets left on the supermarket shelves.
I am also Pescatarian which means that I eat fish. I don’t however eat meat. Our climate has been harmed by our excessive meat consumption and the transportation of meat no limited to deforestation to create pastures and fields for fodder crops. It is mainly for these reasons that I have decided to eliminate meat from my diet. Initially this change was also really tough. I was often verbally attacked with many stupid comments as I would have Amranth porridge instead of the normal cheese bread, or cookies for school snack breaks. Anyone who has ever tried eating porridge can imagine the consistency and know that it doesn‘t look so appetizing, but it is actually pretty tasty and nourishes the body wih essential nutrients and provides a lot of energy for the day. Even still, I was often scoffed at and even was the subject of discussion as having an eating disorder. My clean eating is not yet really ready to be accepted by my piers but despite their non acceptable I continue to stick to my diet because my health is what is at stake.
I turned to my blog for support, because I reached people who understood me, my diet, my lifestyle and I enjoyed discussing my recipes. Because finding food outside of my home was difficult, I made it a point to cook beforehand to take with me for on the go and that’s where my recipes were born. It was out of neccessity. And although I was often criticized by my piers, I still never stopped listening to my body and gave in to what everyone else thinks I should be eating. In fact I consider this point the most important of all: Listen to yourself only! Just for an example, just because Friend A listens to that Friend B says that the brother of the sisster of the in-law was helped by another type of diet doesn’t mean that it will help you too. You have to through trial and error find out what works best for you and stick with it.
During this time in my life, I’ve also been thinking a lot about our society and their judgements and their effects. We are often labeled too quickly and put into a shoebox over subjects that aren’t really thought about or studied. Because I refuse to eat cake and eat a salad instead I am immediately labeled as a girl with an eating disorder. I am very fond of this saying, “You know the name but not the story.” This is a saying we can all think about the next time someone makes a judgement about you and perhaps it will lessen the sting. Now after I found my way with my clean eating, I took up sports but not to lose weight. I started to concentrate on strength training and endurance sports because my goals are to build muscle, strengthen my body and to have a better body image. At first, I would never have imagined, but it has become one of my greatest passions and life without regular exercise I cannot imagine. Even though I am quite petite but am equally capable of lifting weights as the next muscleman next to me, helps me get over my hostility towards those that envy me and have nothing better to say stupid and mean things. Exercise helps me stay focused and well balanced. And when that’s not enough, I cope with stress by cooking up a storm in the kitchen.
Due to me sharing my experiences, I believe I was able to help many others to help find themselves and to help them improve their quality of life. I believe this to be my purpose and this gives me reason to continue to stay on course and share my continued experience with my now and growing 25,300 Instagram followers and I’d like to close by sharing these two points:
First: Try things out: changes don’t happen overnight only through trying things will get you closer to what you are looking for.
Second: The most important point of all is to have faith in yourself and not take on the accepted norms as a way to define yourself.
Only then can you achieve what is really important to you.
Thank you for your attention and I hope you can use some of what I written about today back home and use in your own life.
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