I’ll confess, I’m a bit of an extremist.
Anyone who knows me will testify to the fact that I am loud, honest, and not afraid to express my opinions, often to the point of causing offence. Take for example my recent argument with a friend over the fact I am not currently eating eggs. Arguing over eggs? Really? Yep that’s me.
I tend to see the world in black and white. It’s either one extreme or another. There is no middle ground.
This way of thinking is common in people who suffer with eating disorders, and it’s something I discussed in great depth during my counselling sessions a few years ago.
My extreme thinking often gets me into trouble.
It’s public knowledge that over the last few months I’ve let my healthy habits slip a little and managed to gain a few pounds back. As of this morning, 7lbs to be precise. The result of which has me desperate to scroll through Amazon looking for the latest diet book to help me shift the weight NOW. Thankfully, I know that’s not the answer.
Old Hazel was a big fan of diets. Not just any diets, extreme diets. Cabbage soup, lemon detox, slim fast, cambridge, celebrity slim. The more extreme the diet was the more inclined I was to test it out.
Thankfully my days of extreme dieting are long gone. I’ve purposely avoided ever doing the pouch test for longer than a day or two because I know that long periods without real food are likely to send me into a spiral of binging.
Now when I want to lose weight, I try to just cut back a little on my treats. That is of course, until I find myself 7lbs heavier and desperate to try anything to get myself back down to goal weight.
As I was researching some healthy low carb recipes ( I’ve eaten way too much white bread and pasta recently ) I realised that eggs seemed like such a great option to help me trim the fat, only eggs aren’t “allowed” because I’m trying to be vegan.
That’s when it hit me. I may not be using extreme diets any more but I still think of food in extreme terms. It’s either CARNIVORE or VEGAN. No in-between.
Most diet’s fail because they restrict the individual in a way thats unsustainable, and most people who attempt to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet fail for the very same reasons. We restrict too much.
Trying to go vegan for me wasn’t about becoming a hard core animal activist, although it is something I feel strongly about. It was two-fold. Partly about making a personal choice to not contribute to the suffering of animals, so that I could help the world in my own small way and partly about health.
I’d watched a lot of food documentaries and read a lot of plant based nutrition books and wanted to embrace the healthy lifestyle.
But in times of stress I would still turn to food in comfort… I often referred to myself as “Vegan except for chocolate”. A phrase my friends found quite amusing.
In moments of weakness, the morals behind my way of eating were far outweighed with my brain’s desire to binge eat on junk food. When I’m battling the urge to devour 5 bags of cookies, making sure the cookies I’m trying to resist are vegan friendly is a little unrealistic.
So I began thinking about my diet. About the choices I make and why.
I recently visited a food festival, and because I couldn’t find a vegetarian option available for lunch, I ate a cupcake. Now even I know a cupcake, whilst vegetarian, is not a healthy lunch choice.
Did I really feel so strongly about not eating meat that I would sacrifice my own health?
Last time I decided to eat meat again it was for selfish reasons. I knew that WLS would be much easier if I could eat dense protein in the form of lean meat and dairy. I chose to put my own needs above the needs of the animals I had previously been trying to protect.
Selfish? Probably so.
People are often very wary of vegetarians and vegans and I understand why, having spent time on both sides of the fence. When you discover something you feel passionate about the desire is to shout it from the rooftops. You want to spread the word and help “enlighten” everyone around you.
But this only serves to make them feel be-littled, guilty, or defensive. It doesn’t help the issue at hand. It doesn’t save any animals.
What if instead of focusing on what vegetarians and vegans can’t eat, we instead focus on what we can? What If we sing about all the extra vegetables we can eat, all the new fruit salad recipes and smoothies we have discovered and how it’s cleared up our skin, hair and nails?
“As meat eaters, we often spend too much time focusing on the 1/3 of our plate that is meat and forget about the other 2/3”
Everyone can benefit from eating more vegetables. Every can benefit by swapping processed foods for fruit, and sodas for water and herbal tea.
If in the process of eating a little more veg people naturally eat a little less meat, then even better.
A person’s diet is always their choice and we should respect that persons decision. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t educate, but we should educate in a respectful manner.
With regards to my own diet, I find my extreme thinking becoming more of an issue as time goes on. I’m nowhere near binge and purge free these days, but restricting myself even further is not the solution.
So whilst I today ate a vegan diet, and the day before ate a vegetarian one, I am not promising to eat that way forever. Life is constantly changing and we have to adapt with it.
Ultimately, you have to make your own decisions about your health and the food you want to eat. If that happens to be eating meat only a Sunday, or adding a little more vegetables to your Atkins diet, then that’s ok.
You have to do what’s right for you.
Healthy Hazimax 