AL NATURAL!

Hi there beautiful people!

Today I have on my mind something that's been popping up on the daily and, yep, you guessed it, it's food again!! (gosh you would think this was a food blog or something?...) :P

Anywho, it's something that's come to my attention each day because it's something I do each and every single day and you may have already guessed what that something is: Fantasise about finishing school and moving somewhere new and exciting to study health/ nutrition/ whatever I want..

Well, yes, that is something that I seem to allow good amount of time for each day, but actually I'm talking about:

EATING!

Of course I am! Alrighty. So, in recent times I've sort of become hooked on certain YouTubers, Vloggers, Instagrammers, Foodies and Bloggers of the likes of Freelee The Banana Girl, Bonnyrebecca, Fully Raw Kristina etc. I've been drawn into their amazingly natural, fresh, abundant lifestyles of living and eating and have subconsciously I think altered my brain into craving the types of foods I watch them prepare in their videos/ on Instagram. (Yeah, some people love watching funny cat videos for hours on end on YouTube, I could quite happily watch hours of What I Eat In A Days!)

Fully Raw Kristina- Source

When meal times roll round I feel my body screaming for simple meals filled with all the good stuff. The smoothies (the gigantor ones!!) have increased in their appearances throughout the week. Big, glorious salads are a craving I often have come lunch time. Bowls of simply cooked rice, avocado, garbanzo beans and salsa sounds like the ultimate comfort food for me. Just thinking about fruit makes my body feel alive and energetic and happy. Fruit is a happy food for sure. If foods were given a characteristic/ personality, fruit would be happy.

Breakfast Papaya Bowl, post

Peanut butter would be sexy.
Salsa would be fierce.
Broccoli would be chummy, in the friendly, kind way.
Bread would be as comforting as a mother giving a child a hug.

Ok, moving right along (that was fun though!).

So, yes, I have somehow found myself craving the bounteous, natural, fresh, abundant diet/ lifestyle of these famous vegans and I thought I would share my experience of I guess a much more whole food, higher carb (mainly based on those fruits and veggies) based diet with you.

First of all, my digestion has been trucking along greatly. Not to go into too much detail but when I first went vego, only ate white pasta, cheese and baked beans (perhaps a lentil patty thrown in for good measure) and was losing weight rapidly, had extreme fatigue and insomnia and was the most anxious, stressful kid imaginable... well I guess it's not a surprise I had terrible digestion and very infrequent bowel movements. Now-a-days? Happy, healthy, positive bowel movements- yep I know that's what you wanted to hear!

Creamy Avocado Pasta, post

I guess on a more recent note, I've definitely noticed a lot less bloating/ uncomfortable feelings after eating that I used to get a lot all through childhood (I blame dairy and too much sugar) and even the past few years. If I make myself a gigantic green smoothie filled with bananas, mangoes, zucchini, kale, spinach, greek yoghurt, water- heaps of fresh stuff- I feel so much lighter, energetic and comfortable and I think my digestion just finds smoothie-ing up all those good, natural foods is so much easier for it to digest. Hence the increase in energy and vitality.

My energy levels are stable too and I have healthy hunger signals every few hours or so that make eating so much more enjoyable (you know how good eating food when you're actually hungry feels!)

Weight loss has never been something I've ever thought about in all of my diet/ lifestyle changes. I changed how I lived to fix more emotional, physiological, physical in the sense of losing too much weight too fast for no reason types of battles. But I wanted to include that with my increase and joy of upping some of my training (more strengthening and toning days, less cardio but longer long runs and  more intense sprint sessions) and this slightly more directed focus on predominantly fruit and veg power, my body is finally toning up and revealing muscles that I've never seen before, even as a state acrobat training at least 3 times a week.

I think the part I probably most like about this whole way of living is that abundance is key. Eating big, glorious, natural, fresh, whole food meals is what it's all about. A feeling of sadness washes over me when I think back to my usual weekend lunch as a pre-teen of one white bread, cheese and tomato toasted sandwich. But because it was so processed, greasy, salty etc. that was all my body could handle. And now?

Post

ALL the food!

Look, who knows if I'm ever going to go full-throttle vegan like these inspirational people mentioned above, because I do still feel like greek yoghurt and eggs (though again, subconsciously, I think I've only been having eggs once a week, twice max) are still benefitting my growing body for the moment and so I'll simply be adding in more vegan, fresh, natural meals to my regular routine because right now, it's what feels good and makes my body happy, and that's what really counts, right?

Tell me what you think:
Are you vegan/ raw/ HCLF? How did you feel after making the change?
Do you ever find yourself going through stages of only wanting to eat fresh fruit and veg?
Fav smoothie combo right now?

Anywho, it was just something I've been thinking about and whilst it's still a positive, it will remain in my day-to-day life (just like certain exercise regimes, or hobbies, or whatever should remain until it becomes less of a positive). I hope you all have a wonderful day, give someone a hug (hugs are great!) and as always; EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS!! Bye for now friendly friends!! :D