A healthy and conscious lifestyle wasn’t something I strived for, it just happened organically along the way.
And of course it started with food. I grew up on a classic diet with meat, fish and dairy. Since my parents came from another continent, bringing their culinary culture, our meals consisted of a lot of rice dishes and sugary dishes, just like the tradition they grew up with. Meat or fish was pretty much a daily habit, same with cheese at midday.
As long as I can remember I dealt with a swollen, uncomfortable belly and honestly I thought it was normal to feel like that after eating.
At some point in my teens, I started feeling resistant to eating meat. Something about it just didn’t sit right with me. But as a typical Gen X girl, I was taught not to complain or argue with my parents, especially about food. Being thankful for every meal was the rule, because of the unjust distribution of wealth in the world, many people don’t even get to enjoy one meal a day.
When I moved out on my own around the age of 19, I instinctively cut back on meat. How do you nourish yourself in a balanced way without animal protein and dairy? I had no idea, but I felt the pull to reduce both.
The real turning point came one day driving in rush hour, passing several trucks hauling animals to slaughter. I couldn’t look those animals in the eyes. I felt this mix of embarrassment and sadness at how they were being treated. How can I eat meat, I thought, when they’ll end up on someone’s plate, suffering their whole lives. Something in me just decided, right there in traffic, that I was done.
I stopped buying meat altogether, no more meat in my fridge. I moved toward fish that was labelled “sustainably” farmed or caught, which I later found out was basically a greenwashing myth. After that I only ate small amounts of meat when eating out.
Listening to my belly
At one point in my life I had a lot of time on my hands. There’s something beautiful about days without pressure to perform or be somewhere for someone else, it gives you space to reflect and follow your body’s natural rhythm. Working as a freelancer gave me that space, and it was something I’d hoped for and really appreciated. I was turning toward a more balanced and holistic life. I’ll talk more about that journey in my next blog post.
Anyway, back on topic. I decided to start a clean eating process. Finally I started questioning why my belly was always bloated, inspired by a book on holistic living my mother had given me. To my shock, the bloating actually got worse within the first ten days of clean eating. So I went to my doctor. She diagnosed me with irritable bowel syndrome after hearing my story. That felt like a pretty quick diagnosis to me. I left with a ton of question marks over my head. Her conclusion was that it was just something I had to live with. Totally normal, apparently.
Back then the internet didn’t have much info on this so called syndrome. But I wasn’t buying it.
I dropped the protocol from the book for a while and started listening to my body instead. When did my belly bloat, and after eating what? Those were my first questions. Pretty quickly I realised dairy just wasn’t agreeing with my gut.
So out went yoghurt, cheese and other milk products.
The difference was night and day. Within a few days my stool was more solid, my belly calmer, and even my skin started looking better, even though I never really had skin issues to begin with.
The Jamaica wake-up call
A wedding in Jamaica. This is the event that turned my life around even more.
Montego Bay. A beautiful resort. Daily buffet. Dessert galore. My sweet tooth found satisfaction every day, multiple times a day.
By the end of two weeks, the sugar was practically coming out of my pores. My mind was so foggy I nearly went cross eyed. And of course my belly was more bloated than ever. That kicked off a 30 day sugar detox. The idea is simple, no special diet needed. Just cut out refined sugar and dial back the fruit too.
I started actually reading labels on packaged and processed food. Sugar was in everything, along with a bunch of exotic sounding ingredients I couldn’t even name at the time. It’s wild when you think about it, sugar is so tied to how our cells behave that doctors actually use a radioactive form of it to light up cancerous cells on a PET scan. If it can do that, it’s definitely doing something to the rest of us too. Even the cherry tomatoes I loved back then had added sugar. It opened my eyes. What I’d always assumed was natural really wasn’t.
I started avoiding processed foods altogether and leaned more into organic, ecological produce.
My body was finally happy with my choices. I lost weight, even though that was never the goal. The brain fog cleared. My body odour even changed for the better.
I felt lighter and happier overall.
No more looking away
By my early 30s I’d become a flexitarian (before the term even existed), and it felt better mentally, emotionally and physically to just let life live.
When I moved to Ibiza it felt very natural to transition into vegan living, starting out as a raw foodie before settling into a different approach to nourishing myself. I still remember that first year, consciously preparing meals without a single animal product in them, nothing missing, nothing to compromise on. It was what I’d been circling toward since that day on the highway, watching those trucks pass.
I’ve now been fully vegan for over 12 years, and it’s not just a diet I stick to, it’s genuinely who I am at the table and beyond the table now. I love preparing food, and I love taking people along on the discovery with me, watching someone realise a meal can be that colourful, that satisfying, and still have nothing to do with meat, fish or dairy.
There’s so much to learn about ourselves through our food habits and the way we eat. In my blog posts I’ll share little nuggets from my personal journey and whatever inspires me along the way.