I am on a diet! Nah kidding.. diets aren't for me. I call it a lifestyle.
Why can't I go on a diet?
I couldn't go vegan and vegetarian all the way because I love our traditional
Algerian food - most traditional dishes are made with meat..white or red. On the other hand I don't want to eat meat a lot for various reasons; The animal sacrifice is not one them. I believe if animals are sacrificed in a proper way, without causing any degree of suffering, then it's find.
However, I feel more concerned about what animals are being injected with nowadays. I mean, God knows what goes on in farms (farms? are these animals even being kept in proper farm?) How and what animals are fed, how they are being treated and how their health and well-being is being examined.
To be honest, I'd feel much better eating from a simple shepherds' flock of sheep in the mountains and villages of Kabylie or Chaoui areas (in Algeria) than buying Brazilian or Australian stamped meat at Geant or Carrefour.
Moreover, The prophet Muhammad Urged people who believed in him not to eat too much meat and I believe he is right. I mean I can see where he is coming from.
What pulled the trigger?
The inspiring people and resources that I consider a blessing from God. (will speak about some inspiring people in my next entry)
It simply means a new lifestyle for me. For thepast couple of years, I've been living on junk (fast ready food) and accumulating fat, hiding it in every corner of my body. I went from pair-shaped to papaya-shaped lines! .. well.. anyway, you get the point.
I've never been a fruit and vegetable person, more like a big fan of meat and dairy. In London, I used to drink 1.5L of full fat milk every single day for years. As I went to uni, I carried a bag full of food. My husband called it "the mobile fridge". I didn't drink water as I should have. I didn't need to since my breakfast was Coke, and I drank all kinds of juice along the day + 1.5L of white cold milk. My diet included lots of meat, eggs, nuts, bread and pastries (esp bread uh..) oh and TONS of cheese. There was a point where I had to go to the doctor's. My blood test results warmed me of high level of cholesterol. (Duh! )
so, in that respect, credit goes to my other half who showed great support and encouraged me to put a stop to drinking artificial-sugar coloured unhealthy juice and got me into the habit of drinking more water instead. Amen.
Alhamdoulillah, lots of friends have been a significant source of inspiration for me. Most of them were people who had health issues and treated themselves by changing their diet. I, too, had some other health issues (including hormonal ones). The funny thing was, after my check up, the doctor told me : "I can prescribe you some medicine that would help you feel better, or you can change your diet and all the jigsaw pieces shall fall back in place with God's will". So I opted for the second choice and felt much better after I'd changed my diet.
During my research on foods' benefits, I held interesting conversation with people who followed various kinds of diets, but none was appealing enough to me.
Some of my friend's paid great amounts to health centres and dietitians. Others, counted the calories and read every content table printed on food boxes and packages. There were also some friends who experimented with Blood Type diets, Fasting, going pescatarian, fully vegan or vegetarian, even water fasting.
Knowing myself, it's affirmative that I couldn't commit to the idea of not allowing myself to eat this or that FOREVER! So, after some mulling over, I decided to create a balanced lifestyle for my sorry soul. One that fulfills my needs and craving, and doesn't mess up my rate of patience.
I called it the VVO.
what does VVO stand for?
The first V stands for Vegan. The idea here is to go 2 days vegan. Eat nothing that's animal produced e.i. dairy products, eggs, meat, fish or shellfish, bread). Eat lots of raw fruit and veggies, seeds, grains and legumes. Drink lots of water and 100% organic juice and smoothies
The second V is for Vegetarian (or to be more specific pesci-vegetarian). And that goes on for 3 days. Eat fish and shellfish, dairy products, lots of fruit and veggies, seeds, grains, legumes. bread, pastas and cakes. Drink lots of water and 100% organic juice and smoothies.
O for Omnivore. 2 days. Eat everything. MODERATELY.
That makes a week (2 days Vegan + 3 days Vegetarian + 2 days Omnivore) = VVO.
Stay tuned.
To be continued.
xx
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