I know this is a controversial topic as everyone has their own reasons for being ‘Vegan’ but in this blog post I will be touching on my own personal health journey. Because throughout this all, my health has been my number 1 priority, it will always come first.
I want to start out be explaining the reason I started this blog and instagram page. My blog stemmed from a desire to create my own desserts that weren’t going to be a detriment to my health. Growing up I ALWAYS had a sweet tooth. At that time in my life I would turn to conventional desserts. Sugar filled candy bars, dairy milk chocolate, and all the lactose filled ice-cream. All this stuff was clearly full of dairy, refined sugar, bad fats (and the list goes on).
Once I was old enough to know better and realise the direct connection between the consumption of this anti nutrient food and the way I looked, felt and functioned on a daily basis, I turned to the kitchen and started experimenting with substitutions for refined sugar, gluten, animal products and even threw in a few superfoods i was coming across on the daily, all while satisfying my sweet tooth of course.
The more i learnt about health, food and everything in between, the more i wanted to share. And so, my instagram started and the recipes were flowing. At this time in my life I had just finished up a full time modelling career and was exploring other diets beyond the Dessert sector. At around 24 yrs old I ended up eating a fully ‘Vegan’ diet. This really wasn’t a hard transition for me, and looking back it was pretty seamless. Mind you, i was never really was a big meat eater in the first place, I think growing up with a vegetarian mother, had something to do with that. The transition to fully plant based never felt like a chore, I always try to listen to my body and acknowledge what it responds to and at that time in my life Veganism was it for me.
A year or so in, I started craving eggs and fish and so they crept back into my diet every so often. I still rarely ate pork, beef or poultry however I never labelled myself a ‘Pescatarian’ or anything of the sorts. Reason being, I don’t believe in food labels. l still don’t like the label ‘Vegan’. I feel this just puts you in a box. What if one day my body craves chicken? I would like to believe i could honour that and not be caught up with the fact that I’ve ‘labelled’ myself something that didn’t allow me to east something I desired. The only food labels i am comfortable with now, are ‘Qualitarian’ and ‘Flexitarian’.
Now lets fast forward to May of 2017, when the infamous ‘What the Health’ documentary came out. This really opened up my eyes to the American meat industry, what it is doing to our planet and what CONVENTIONAL meat is doing to our bodies. After watching this doco, I was shocked and downright scared of consuming ANY animal products. Theres so much I can go into about this Documentary, I have since come to a realisation that yes, what they showed in this film was shocking and gross however whats important to note is that not all Meat is farmed the same, just like not all Vegetables are grown the same. Some are sprayed with pesticides,picked before they’re ripe and shipped halfway across the world to our plates. Just like some are grass fed and allowed to roam free. We just need to make the right decision when buying our food to ensure its of the best quality.
So anyway, after watching this doco, I went Vegan. I thought this was the only way to live if you wanted to be a healthy human, free from any and all inflammation. And again the transition wasn’t hard at all. I felt mostly great. However, in the process of replacing any protein I would get from the eggs and fish i was consuming. I made up for it in beans, legumes and grains. After a few months I started noticing that these foods weren’t agreeing with my stomach. My digestive system couldn’t break down these foods properly and I was experiencing all kinds of gas, bloat and eventually constipation. So intuitively I stopped eating these foods because I didn’t like how they made me feel. But what did that leave me to eat instead? Not all that much that would keep me feeling full and satisfied. I found myself still hungry after meals, snacking a LOT and eventually craving sugary foods.
Over the span of a few month my symptoms went from just intestinal to more of a whole body reaction. I was getting brain fog, I found it very hard to get up in the mornings, no motivation to workout (coming from someone who used to run daily), my moods were up and down, I would react to soo many foods to the point where if we ate out one night the next day my whole internal system felt hot, inflamed and under attack, and not to mention the bloat (as pictured above) that made me look like in was 5 months pregnant.
My body just couldn’t handle any kind of stress or the foods I was eating and it wasn't until my 29th birthday in February of this year where everything came to a head. I spent the day with a bloated stomach, a stabbing pain that came and went, an afternoon nap due to exhaustion and this overwhelming feeling of anxiety that came from nowhere. I really had to take a second to assess what the hell was going on with me. None of this was right. I was eating a healthy diet, healthier than most. Yet I still felt like crap on the daily.
I had suspected leaky gut for quite some time but pushed it to the back of my head because my symptoms weren’t THAT bad. Or so I told myself. I read a lot of information on the web and also on the Dr.Axe website. All the signs, symptoms and timeline of progression for leaky gut linked up exactly to what i was experiencing.
It was on that day, I decided. It’s time to tackle this head on and get my body right. And let me tell you, this wasn’t an easy decision to make. Put aside the daunting task of facing your health concerns head on and really changing your lifestyle and eating habits. No. The MOST daunting part, was announcing to all of YOU, that I'm no longer going to be Vegan and will be consuming things like bone broth, collagen, and a few other animal based proteins to assist in the healing of my gut. That to me was a scary decision as I know a lot of you are here because you’re on the journey to Veganism and you looked to me for advise on food choices and then there are also a lot of people out there who are die hard Vegans for more reasons than health. I’m sure I’ve offended numerous people in that category but honestly, this is my journey and sometimes you need to look past the politics of it all and look out for number 1.
We’re all different and we all need different things at different times in our lives. I thrived on a Vegan diet 4 years ago and now it’s just not working for me. I truly believe there isn’t just one set way to eat for all people, its so important to really listen to what your body is telling you and try to nourish it in the best way you can in order to live a healthy and vibrant life, free from inflammation and illness.
I have decided to do 2 regimes in order to heal my gut.
1. Dr Axe's Healing Leaky Gut Program - I will write a separate blog post explaining what leaky gut is, how it develops, the signs & symptoms to determine if you may have it and what my journey with this looks like.
2. Viome Microbiome test to ensure I don't have any additional parasites or bacteria overgrowths that need treating. This also tests how I metabolise fat, protein and carbohydrates and gives you recommendations on the specific foods I should be eating based off these tests.
If you are going through anything similar, please feel free to reach out if you just want to chat or if you want more information on my regimes. The best way to contact me is through my instagram @Peanut.head
Thank you for reading.
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