changes

My mindset for the past 3 years on food had been - "I'll eat whatever I crave, as long as I don't go over my calorie limit" or "Even though this will cost me ___ calories, I'll just go work it off" - (at one point during one of the summers, I found myself at the gym up to 3 times a day forcing myself to burn off a certain number of calories eaten after each meal.) And also during those years, I crazed over highly processed foods that claimed to be 'fat-free' or 'low calorie.' I thought I was being smart by counting calories and fat intake, while I provided little to no attention to the ingredients list.

Earlier this year, I stopped with the calorie counting and the excessively spent hours at the gym - then limited my intake on processed foods, added more greens and vegetables to my diet and looked for fresh ingredients when grocery shopping. During a short research of my own, I came across 'raw foodism' - I'm just so intrigued by those who have adopted this diet and their testimonials. I don't intend on eating 100% raw because I just think that would be impractical for me - but I'd like  to expand my choices to those yummy plant-based sources.

Soon it will be a month since I've been vegetarian and have cut down on A LOT of processed foods - I'm actually really proud to say that because I didn't think I would even last a day. Oh and I've been drinking water, A LOT of water, about....3 to 4 liters a day? Is that abnormal? But the bottomline is that I feel so much better already even though I've only cut out meat from my diet and have cut down on processed foods. (Processed foods as in....granola bars, refined sugar, cheese, those desserts with endless lists of unknown ingredients, fried foods, canned foods, etc - just to list some.) - I haven't been getting my usual breakouts when I'm stressed (I've been messing with my sleeping schedule due to finals), I have more energy throughout my days, and....(getting more personal here about my feminine matters..) - I've been on the pill for my extreme PMS (excruciating lower back pain, mild headaches and dizziness, cold sweats, and of course..those damn cramps) but I've recently went off it. I feared that all of those symptoms would come back to haunt me but none of it did ; I just like to believe that due to those little changes, my body feels better.

Like I mentioned above, I don't plan on eating 100% raw but rather, plan to eat raw as much as possible while continuing to eat dishes that call for recipes with whole ingredients.