Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

Let me start by saying I eat a lot. When you eat plantbased only, you eat a lot of food containing much less calories than when you would eat animal “products” (how the fuck can the body of an animal be a product, an object?!). Most people would think eating very little calories is a good thing. They believe the less you eat, the more weight you loose (big lie). Somehow they’ve been convinced that the smaller the number on your scale, the more you are worth, forgetting that our bodies need energy, like, CONSTANTLY.

Our bodies need a LOT of food, but are you eating the RIGHT food..?

I became vegan 9-10 years ago for the animals. Then as soon as I found out how eating and using animals is affecting the climate and thus ALL life on earth, I knew I was doing the only sensible, single biggest thing you can do that’s gonna help reduce emissions which on their turn cause the climate crisis. However, literally two years ago I decided it was time to look after my very own home as well: my body. For health reasons only. I’ve never been the type to feel insecure about the way I look (well, apart from my face).
I ditched the pill. I used it against the horrible menstruation cramps, but the side effects were that I felt less emotions and I felt less fit than I knew my normally strong body was capable of MANY years ago. Plus, it’s never a good thing to fiddle with nature.
The doctor had failed to achieve that what I wanted to achieve, because she never took the pain away, no, she simply blocked my body from being a real woman. Why would she anyway, her only mission is to sell as much drugs as possible to support the pharmaceutical industry aka the only “drug dealers hiding in plain sight”.
I had to try something else. Having horrible cramps is unnatural. Something was going on in my body that imbalanced my endocrine system. And I felt down and depressed a lot.

So what did we eat?

Before two years ago, I would eat maybe only one or two banana’s every day. This was even more than the amount of fruit I would eat when I was still looked after by mother, namely my brother and me were given a banana and kiwi TO SHARE and very occasionally I would share an orange with mother. I started eating more banana’s and adding different kinds of other fruit. Mind you, the menstruation cramps I had before going vegan (I already was a vegetarian, though), were even worse than after going vegan, so I had more deficiencies as a vegetarian than as a so-called junkfood vegan.

When summer arrived, we would eat a fruit salad every day with as many different kinds of fruit as we could find at the local farm. We also started drinking more water. And we began doing a bit of running (our goal being able to run 5K), even though we already walked a few miles every day. Occasionally, I would get out on my skates and do a few laps with them.
In October we went for it and achieved our 5K goal. After that, fall and winter arrived and we sort of relapsed, both because there was yummy food around Christmas time and the fact that fruit was simply less available and more expensive. I used and am still using an app to fill in everything that I eat so that I can monitor what my vitamin and mineral intakes are. I don’t count calories, I simply eat until my macros are full – much fuller than is being advised (I mean, 25 grams of fiber, really?!). This often results into 600-1000 MORE calories than I burn. However, the fibres in fruit are water soluble, which means they work differently than most calories. I neither lose nor gain weight anymore, which is totally fine with me. Only in the very beginning of ditching the pill and eating more healthy, I would lose over 20kg. Now my body has the right weight, I think!
January of last year we started walking much more (10K every day). The situation at home got us leaving it for longer and thus we had time to be in the woods even more.
After what we’ve gone through last June, we decided that in order to literally survive, we would have to look really really really well after our bodies, since 70 percent of how you feel is being decided in your gutts. If you look well after your body, you look well after your mind. If we had eaten, moved and rested (!) the way most people do, especially after a loss, I myself most likely wouldn’t have survived…….

What do we eat now?

You will have understood by now that we eat the way humans are supposed to eat, with of course a few exceptions every day, because why not! I’ve read and watched quite a few about food over the last few years. Sometimes controversial things, though. You will always find different kinds of studies claiming different kinds of things. I have decided to stick with those that make the most sense and that most researches would confirm.
We start the day with a few bananas and some dried fruits and of course about a liter of water or decaf tea. You liver is being cleansed from very early in the morning till later in the morning every day, which means it’s recommended that you eat carbs only until then. That is why we have a HUGE smoothie (about 1kg of fruit EACH) at around 10:30AM. They contain bananas, kaki’s, pears, blueberries, passion fruits and orange (juice). Lately we’ve added flax seeds to them for our Omega 3 (but you can find those in seaweeds as well). Yes, smoothies are healthy. No, they don’t contain less fibers, only maybe a little bit less vitamin C caused by oxygen that’s mixed with it (it’s really almost no difference to the amount of vitamin C that you get more when eating fruit, because when eating you don’t absorb the food as well due to the fact that chewing is never really without any larger pieces that leave your body on the other side of your body as a number 2 without being digested properly). I add either about 100-150 grams of kale or spinach to it – my man doesn’t like those.
At around 3 at noon (yes, we don’t eat whenever others eat, we eat when WE feel like it, when WE have an appetite) we eat depending on what we crave. Lately I crave more fruit, but my man likes to eat rice- or popcorn crackers with apple syrup, jam without added sugars or sweeteners and peanut butter. I go for either a melon, grapes, dragonfruit or lychees.
Then for dinner we have not only carbs, but fats and proteins as well (much less than is being recommended by the old standards!). Since you don’t get the correct energy from these two, it’s another good reason to have those at the end of your day and eat your fuel (carbs) until you’re done moving your body and using your brains (did you know your brain uses about a fifth of your energy…?) We often eat something with either potatoes or pasta. Mostly wholefoods, occasionally processed foods like a meat or cheese substitute (neither of them are healthy or necessary to our bodies!). We eat early, preferably before 5PM, so that our bodies have time to get ready to have good nights. Sometimes we have a little snack afterwards.
At around 8PM we eat a few kiwi’s. They contain a lot of magnesium, which is very useful for the quality of your 😴.

The verdict?

Well, obviously my mental health has been much better, or I wouldn’t have survived what happened last June. I haven’t felt depressed anymore for about two years. My menstruation? It hasn’t been the same. It’s been SO much better. I’m not in agony anymore. I have normal cramps. Not bleeding for 7 days anymore every time. One thing that did come back is my horrible hormonal migraines a few times a year, where I will become partially blind and have to puke afterwards. But it’s SO worth it!