Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

It just occurred to me the other day that I have been officially vegan for over 8 years now. On September 6, 2016, I had my final meal with family and friends. It was Chicken Marsala. It was the beginning of what I thought would be a 13 week challenge, where my original intention was to go back to my old diet. I never went back to the old diet as I became an ethical vegan in the process.

I have learned a lot over the years of being vegan and would never choose to knowingly have animal products. There are so many plant based products out there that there is no reason in our society to not be vegan.

I was a salt addict before moving to a plant based diet. I used to salt everything, even before tasting it. I ate the typical American diet filled with salt, oil and sugar, and it caused my blood pressure to go up. It also contributed to pre-diabetes.

I remember when I first gave up extra salt, it took a few weeks for the taste buds to adjust. The process was made easier as I introduced several spices to my diet.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Steiner recently. She was recently featured in an article in Forks Over Knives and it was an inspirational story, one that I could definitely relate to.

Karen was a yo-you dieter, something I had to deal with for years as well. I wasn’t yo-yo dieting as long as her, as she was dealing with dieting issues since her teenage years. But I know how frustrating it can be going from one diet to another. That's basically what I did throughout my twenties and part of my thirties. It wasn’t until I was closer to 40 that I woke up and stopped dieting.

In less than two days, I will start the 7 day raw food challenge with my friend Ian Myers, who is hosting a Facebook group with instructions of what food to eat. I'm looking forward to it as I enjoy challenges and I know many people have told me how great they feel afterwards.

But the real reason to try raw? I keep trying different things to tighten my abs after weight loss. I would never do surgery to remove the skin, so the only options are to eat clean, keep on working out and hope that in time, my abs get better.

I'm always up for challenges for health, whether it be for a physical challenge like weightless challenges or nutritional challenges like the one I'm about to embark on.

I've been hearing about the benefits of raw food for years. I didn't take much notice as I'm such a healthy eater now already. My intake of raw foods is probably between 70-80 percent each day as it is now. But my friend Ian Myers talked about it's benefits on his Facebook page and it made me think that I want to try it to. For those that don't know Ian, he is founder of Ian Myers Wellness. He recently did an interview with me through Facebook Live and it was there that I started to really think about doing the challenge.