I eat!
I eat what I like cause I do what I want!
Usually, I don't make the best choices. I just eat when I'm hungry. And to be frank, I'm surprised I don't weigh 300lbs, because I love to eat sugar! So when one of my yoga instructors (and boss) mentioned that November is Vegan awareness month, I naturally cringed. And I immediately thought....
"oh, no! That's also when Thanksgiving is."
See I've been down this road before... My family didn't have a particularly good relationship with food. We were that typical 80's American family born from the 50's lifestyle. Parents grew up with processed meals cause both parents worked and we grew up with making things from a box and making them fast! Not that there is anything wrong with that but now we know that it's not the healthiest way to eat. Many in my family battle with obesity and depression and food is an easy outlet for both of those. So frequently I would just eat and not even know or care what I was eating. And sure enough half the time I didn't even taste my food.
My first look into food came in college. Luckily, my American Studies degree helped to explain why American's eat the way they eat and what the future was to look like and the options that we had. I really appreciated our food course. It made me think! And thinking is always a good thing. I vowed to always try to shop organic as much as I could even through the rest of my poor college career. But still I ate and never really knew what I was eating.
Then I became a yoga instructor and we again came to the Food Subject. A lot of yogi's are vegans or vegetarians. There are lots and lots of reasons to go "Veggie" from a yoga perspective but for me it always came back to "I don't like being told what to do, especially about something so simple that I've been doing for so long." I would love to be present while I eating but really I'm just too busy. So I completed my yoga training and began teaching and was convinced that I didn't need to be veggie to become a good teacher or to be enlightened.
Without knowing it my sister and brother dabbled in the veggie lifestyle. And then I got to thinking. As a yogi, I have trained myself into controlling little bits of my mind. My practice was purely asana based (postures) and then when my daughter was born my life went into a tail spin. Mainly due to the fact that time was no longer on my side. I had no time to practice my postures. I couldn't get it together. And forget about making it to a class. 2 hours of my life was needed at home with this little human rather than on the mat at a studio.
Then my boss issued this challenge, 7 days, vegan lifestyle. I thought to myself, no way am I being told what to do. Then he explained that it's the bridge to bring your practice home. Immediately, I was intrigued. Why had I never thought of this? Have people been telling me this all along and I just wasn't open enough to hear it? It's a way to control eating and therefore bringing my yoga practice home. I was shocked at this revelation. So easy, so simple. So I signed on and started the challenge.
Turns out that being vegan is easy and hard all at the same time. Just about everything has dairy or eggs in it. But it forced me to finally (after 30 years) understand what was going into my body. I kept my mouth closed the first day until I could find something that was totally vegan. Took about half the day, but I was determined. I cooked for the first time since before my daughter was born! (let's face it, I didn't cook before she was born either.) But here I was trying it out and doing a good job. My husband was eating the soup I made and he said that it tasted really good. And there was no animal products in it at all. It was a total win for me.
Throughout this roller coaster of food education I've learned a lot. Being vegan isn't only about helping animals but it's also about helping yourself. And the word, Vegan, is no longer scary. In the end, I was only able to be vegan for 5 days and vegetarian for the last 2 days. After the 7th day I felt really strange going back to eating my "regular" way. But the seed has been planted and now I can blossom into my fullest potential.
My first look into food came in college. Luckily, my American Studies degree helped to explain why American's eat the way they eat and what the future was to look like and the options that we had. I really appreciated our food course. It made me think! And thinking is always a good thing. I vowed to always try to shop organic as much as I could even through the rest of my poor college career. But still I ate and never really knew what I was eating.
Then I became a yoga instructor and we again came to the Food Subject. A lot of yogi's are vegans or vegetarians. There are lots and lots of reasons to go "Veggie" from a yoga perspective but for me it always came back to "I don't like being told what to do, especially about something so simple that I've been doing for so long." I would love to be present while I eating but really I'm just too busy. So I completed my yoga training and began teaching and was convinced that I didn't need to be veggie to become a good teacher or to be enlightened.
Without knowing it my sister and brother dabbled in the veggie lifestyle. And then I got to thinking. As a yogi, I have trained myself into controlling little bits of my mind. My practice was purely asana based (postures) and then when my daughter was born my life went into a tail spin. Mainly due to the fact that time was no longer on my side. I had no time to practice my postures. I couldn't get it together. And forget about making it to a class. 2 hours of my life was needed at home with this little human rather than on the mat at a studio.
Then my boss issued this challenge, 7 days, vegan lifestyle. I thought to myself, no way am I being told what to do. Then he explained that it's the bridge to bring your practice home. Immediately, I was intrigued. Why had I never thought of this? Have people been telling me this all along and I just wasn't open enough to hear it? It's a way to control eating and therefore bringing my yoga practice home. I was shocked at this revelation. So easy, so simple. So I signed on and started the challenge.
Turns out that being vegan is easy and hard all at the same time. Just about everything has dairy or eggs in it. But it forced me to finally (after 30 years) understand what was going into my body. I kept my mouth closed the first day until I could find something that was totally vegan. Took about half the day, but I was determined. I cooked for the first time since before my daughter was born! (let's face it, I didn't cook before she was born either.) But here I was trying it out and doing a good job. My husband was eating the soup I made and he said that it tasted really good. And there was no animal products in it at all. It was a total win for me.
Throughout this roller coaster of food education I've learned a lot. Being vegan isn't only about helping animals but it's also about helping yourself. And the word, Vegan, is no longer scary. In the end, I was only able to be vegan for 5 days and vegetarian for the last 2 days. After the 7th day I felt really strange going back to eating my "regular" way. But the seed has been planted and now I can blossom into my fullest potential.
