My Personal Nutritional Path
The following is my own personal experience and my transition and evolution towards a low-impact diet on the environment and planet and a high impact diet on my health and hopefully a more wholesome well-being for our environment which took me from being raised on a meat-based diet throughout my childhood to a plant-based living food lifestyle in my adulthood.
I would like to briefly share with you how I ended up making gradual changes in the past years of my life towards eating a cruelty-free living plant based diet coming from my strong meat-based Argentinean upbringing. As I am narrating this, it is not my intention to pass any judgment but simply to share how I personally lived this transition and the various things which inspire me to change from within towards my ideal present diet.
For a little of background information, I grew up in Argentina, which happens to be a huge meat eating country. This culture is quite oppressive when it comes to any other alternative diets. The idea being that the only way to stay well-fed nutritionally speaking and to keep your body at its optimal functioning level is by eating as much meat as one can in one meal and giving second or third place to vegetables and fruits.
For someone who felt compassionate towards animals and had an inner calling towards a more natural diet, it was very hard to overcome all the cultural, family and social pressures which attack any lifestyle that would not be the one followed by those meat-based roots so well established by the status quo of a society which has always taken pride in eating dead flesh food at the cost of the suffering and killing of animals.
As a result of this and many other family and social circumstances at the time, I was forced to eat very heavy meals served in the form of rather large servings consisting mainly of meat. These meals left me tired, full and depleted of energy and vitality. I recall every time after finishing a meal going into my room and promising myself that the minute I would be an independent adult I would do exactly what I wanted in terms of my dietary lifestyle. In the meantime, I had no choice but to follow my family’s and country’s imposing dietary rules and traditions. I wasn’t allowed to choose freely what I wanted to eat. Meat and dairy products were a must ingredient as part of what was considered a balanced and healthy diet. I tried rebelling many times but it did not take me anywhere good. I guess with my very strong spiritual awareness of knowing that one day I was going to have the power and the opportunity to be an adult and change, I was able to survive relying on my inner peace and my dreaming of days of freedom ahead.
I decided that the easier way for me to embrace that inner transformation was to embark on a trip away from my country. I was patient and waited to finish my career while I worked for a few years to save money to leave as I waited to become 21 years of age to acquire the right to choose for myself. In Argentina one can’t legally make one’s own decisions until that age!
And one fateful day I did get my opportunity to embark on my own journey. I was fortunate enough to apply for a Scholarship and be accepted into an international program. Soon after turning 21 I was on my way to the United States. This was a great liberating experience. I felt like the heavy weight of years of rules and oppressive mandates where gradually being lifted off my shoulders and left behind as I was getting further from Argentina and closer to this foreign land North of my country. I knew that my cherished and longed hope for freedom was waiting to materialize and I was ready to embrace it and dedicate my whole life towards using it constructively and loyally according to the mandates of my heart and soul. And I did! When the meal arrived during my flight. I rejected the dish with the heavy meat on it and asked for a vegetarian one instead. Back then traditionally meat, chicken and/or fish were offered during an international flight, I felt proud to rejected them all! After that moment I never ate meat again. It felt so good to be finally doing what I believed in.
My change towards a vegetarian diet brought about further changes in my spiritual connection to the world and all the living species inhabiting this planet. Gradually meat started to gain the form of what it really is, a piece of dead flesh sitting on a plate. I started to empathize with the suffering of these animals and my level of compassion started to climb upon the ladder of my open soul. I stopped resisting and started receiving. Little by little my love towards all of nature became stronger and stronger and I started feeling a strong sense of equality with all the beings inhabiting this earth. I then began to feel the need to speak for them, to protect them, to stop their on-going and cruel abuse and to stop ridiculing them by exhibiting their furs and dead skin on my body. At this time the call towards veganism was clear and strong. This time, it was easier than before. I felt strong and powerful. My heart was totally under the domain of my soul and a sense of compassion was in charge of my decisions. So, I embraced this call and the very moment I did, I felt as if another huge heavy burden had been taken off my back and now I felt even lighter and more interconnected.
Very gradually, I started to feel a stronger pull towards products and foods which were as close to their natural form as possible. This has brought me to a gradual transition from process foods towards eating vegetables, fruits and grains in their natural and fresh form. I could immediately feel the vitality and energy received from these foods. I also experienced the instant benefit from a very easy-going and vitalizing digestion. I felt even more vibrant than before and for the first time since I could remember I was proud of what I was eating.
That journey brought me to my preferred present diet which brings to my palate food in as close to its natural state as possible. Food wrapped in it natural package, fruit skins, many of which I can eat and recycle in my own body while providing me with the many benefits that fiber delivers to our health. I feel that this is the way I was always meant to eat. I can now celebrate all the process of putting together a meal. I enjoy buying the seeds, rinsing them in water, sprouting them and making them part of nourishing, beautiful and colorful salads. I can take pride in buying organic seeds and growing my nutritious sprouts right on my windowsill all year around. I get to enjoy the rainbow of colors and the diversity of vitamins and minerals all these natural living foods bring to my life; all providing me with life-force instead of taking my energy away from me.
I know that with each of my choices comes a natural succession of potential resistance from family members and society directly proportionate to those choices. However, I am strong now and there is nobody that can take away from me my freedom to be and to live according to the beat of my own heart. This is the most precious treasure any human being has. It is the innate right to choose the way each of us wants to live. I choose a lifestyle that my soul craves to live. I choose to follow the cravings of my soul and to faithfully respond to those calls springing from deep inside my heart. They lead me to follow a healthy lifestyle where the first source of nourishment is a way of life that is based on the inner awareness of our interconnectedness to it all and of the intense vibrations of the flow of an undeniable all-encompassing love. It is a lifestyle that, as much as possible, cherishes the life in all living beings: humans, animals and plants. It is a life of heart-felt compassion. I can now lead a life from my heart. I choose to live the less traveled road of a simple, light and easy to follow whole living-foods lifestyle. But most importantly of all I always try my best to be a contribution by living as light as I can on this land and to always smile, love and laugh. Occasionally, we forget that feed ourselves at so many levels, with food our bodies, with thoughts our minds and with interconnectedness our spirits. All levels of our overall nutrition must be aligned with our inner vision and intuition to feel at peace with ourselves.
We must remember that we want to choose a lifestyle which makes us and others both healthy and happy! And that, still is a very personal choice each individual must make on his/her own; since it constitutes an exclusive inner right to freely choose what is best at any given point during each person’s unique journey.
My humble advice is to explore, to experiment, to inquire, to try things out and to let your life and heart guide you to your optimal nutritional path. And don’t forget to laugh and have fun along the way. Enjoy the jorney!
No Comments