Something has been on my mind lately. I haven't written anything about my current dietary habits in a while, and I figured, since I do write about food and health, some of you might be interested in what I eat now and how my diet has changed since I started writing this blog. As some of you know, this blog was first dedicated almost only to raw food, because that was something that brought me back to health and I wanted as many people as possible to know that you can achieve optimal health through consuming only whole plant foods. After raw food, I slowly transitioned to low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet that included lots of raw, but also cooked foods. Over time, I widened it even more and included more fatty plant foods and sometimes even something that was prepared with a little bit of oil, spelt flour or coconut sugar. This is more or less how I eat today and it works really nicely for me (still, have in mind that I slowly and gradually came to this way of eating after a few years of eating really clean and letting my body repair itself without hedonistic meal moments). Still, there is one thing that is new for me, and I wasn't even sure if I should share it, mostly because it didn't become a rule or a habit, but people can sometimes be rude and judging and can't wait to shout "Ha! Caught you!" or "See? Told you so!". Over last year and a half I tried eating some wild fish and other sea animals, as well as eggs from our neughbours in the village. I know that most of you won't even care or see this as something that is important enough to dedicate a whole blog post to it, because I know that the majority of my readers are not vegan, but are rather following this blog to find some healthier recipes and inspiration. Nevertheless, I decided to share it and to be transparent because of my vegan audience and those of you who are trying to live fully vegan. Most of my friends said "that's great, you are finally a normal human being" when I told them that I tried fish and eggs. Although I think it's cute and supportive, I also think that no-one should try to be "a normal human being" only because that way they would feel closer to other people. You do what feels right to you, regardless of what other people, even your friends, think of it. Plant-based food is still something I strongly believe in, and eating some fish didn't change it. It did bring me closer to other people in a way, but I don't care about that and I don't mind being the only weirdo if I know that I'm doing what I feel is right. So, does it still make sense to write this blog? Absolutely yes, it makes all the sense in the world! Whole plant foods are an amazingly powerful tool that can lead you to physical, mental and all other forms of health and improve the quailty of your life to a huge extent. With this blog I want to inspire you to take responsibility for your health and well-being, not only through food but also through other everyday practices.
Let me clarify why I don't feel bad or guilty for trying animal foods (except for the most obvious reason, which is that no-one should ever talk you into feeling guilty about your path just because their philosophy is different than yours). About a year and a half ago, when I first visited my partner's home village, I encountered a lifestyle that was completely different from what I was used to. It is a small fishermen village with two little grocery stores where you can buy only basic stuff; no ATM, post office, newsstand, farmers' market, cultural life or anything else that you would consider a sign of civilisation (or to be more precise, none of what city life has spoiled us with). Still, people live their lives normally, because they indeed have all they need. More or less everyone here is a neighbour, a friend or a relative. People here grow swiss chard and other vegetables in their gardens, and catch seafood or buy it freshly caught from local fishermen. As my love also goes fishing on his little boat and is known to be a really good and skilful mediterranean chef, it came to me naturally to accept and try some of the freshly caught fish that he made on "gradilje", a traditional dalmatian fish barbecue. Yes, I did mean naturally and yes, I was aware that the fish had to die to end up on our plate. I thanked the fish and the nature and ate it - not feeling guilty, but rather grateful. This event (a rather unusual one for me) didn't mean that I would continue regularly eating animal foods from now on; I still strongly believed in power of plant based lifestyle, as I still do, but it opened my eyes to a new field in my existence, where I could allow myself to consciously do something that is outside the fictional borders that I had set for myself. There should be no borders. Setting yourself borders can limit your self-growth and hinder your thinking freely and doing what your gut tells you. For some years, veganism was my truth (although I would never call it veganism, or call myself vegan), but I felt it was healthy to allow myself to question it and try something different. Nevertheless, it took me some time to be able to talk about it in front of people, probably because I felt that now I was not a hunderd percent "walking the talk". Which is, i think, foolish, because I was never even trying to talk anyone into going vegan, nor was there a talk to be walked. This blog was always more of a talk about the walks.
Last year, while I worked as a vegan chef, some of our lovely guests who wanted to meet me to tell me how much they loved the food, also asked me if I was vegan "in real life". At that time, I thought that it should be natural that i WAS vegan and didn't feel completely comfortable admitting that i had tried some fish some months earlier. I told them exactly how it was, even though I felt as if i should be ashamed or disappointed by myself. Talking to them actually widened my perspective and made me feel more comfortable with my choices, more secure in just being human, wanting to explore how I perceive old habits as a new me every day and not feeling guilty or in need to justify myself in front of other people. Over last year or so, I ate fish or other sea animals (shrimps, mussles) on more occasions, almost all of them in my partner's village; consciously and with gratitude. I still strongly advocate eating whole plant foods and I still find that it is something that works best for me (and I believe for many other people). The power of healing your body with plant foods is amazing. When living in a city, I can't find a logical reason to eat animals (but again, that is just me). There are options in bigger towns and cities for eating animal foods in a more healthy and conscious way (buying animals that were not raised in factory farming but had a healthy life, eating fresh wild fish, raw organic milk and eggs from small family farms), and before changing my diet and lifestyle to only plant-based foods, I used to live like that. Still, I haven't felt any connection with that way of consuming for many years now; it still doesn't feel natural to me for many reasons, one of them being the lack of connection between a consumer and where this food came from. That is why I still eat plant-based and live this lifestyle that resonates with me everywhere except (sometimes) in my boyfriend's village. There, I won't always refuse a piece of freshly caught fish or mussles because there I feel more in connection with those beings and some form of cycle of life and energy.
Why can I still promote a plant-based lifestyle? Because I live it about 96.7 % of the time and I believe that consuming fish on rare occasions doesn't affect my body to an extent where it could be assumed that I'm healthy because of the animal foods in my diet and that plant-based diet doesn't work after all. I still consider myself a healthy example of what human body is capable of doing on a wholesome plant-based diet. Also, me eating some animal products at this point of life and exploring how it affects my body and mind doesn't mean that I will continue doing it on a regular basis. This is a thing that I relate only to life in this little village and is probably temporary. I don't want to restrain myself and live in a lie that I serve to myself every day. Of course, I will still continue cooking only plant-based food, developing plant-based recipes and promoting this lifestyle that I believe is right and that I know will lead many people to optimal health. So maybe, all this blather was not even necessary, but I really wanted to share my thoughts. Also, I intentionally left out the whole talk about hurting sentient beings and the ethical aspect of living a plant-based lifestyle; i think it can be a whole new topic that I will cover on another occasion. For now, I just want to say that everybody should listen to their gut and follow their own path that will lead to self-love and self-respect, and eventually to loving and respecting all living beings. It is really important to start from ourselves and get ourselves in order first (it is an ever-lasting journey and there is always some work to be done), because then we can see more clearly and do good to other people and beings.
