Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.” -Gen 1:29-30 

Seems yesterdays Meatless Monday Message and my plant based health coaching offer brought me some interests and questions.. So I decided to make it this months blog idea.

First I had the question, why did you choose to go Vegan?

I was in prayer about my step fathers  pancreatic cancer and God lead me to the Daniel Fast. This was very personal to me for a few reasons; One, my step fathers name is Daniel. Two, he was a hunter and I was a adamant animal lover, he always encouraged me to protect the animals in my (vegan- heart kinda way).. although he never said vegan,  he quite often mentioned that I was much like a vegetarian at heart. We ate his wild catch (free range meat – if ya will) quite often too. Rabbit, Pheasant, Deer & fish.. both parents were fishermen/woman. We ate what was put before us with graditude. Anyway, flash foward to April of 2011- about one month before his death, I was in prayer and heard God’s audible voice clearly say, “Daniel Fast”. Only to wake up the next morning to my husband stating that he felt led to fast.. (with out my mention mind you.) This only confirmed that he too heard God’s audible voice. With that we started our 21 day Daniel Fast.

After only 11 days into my fast I felt sick due to my body detoxing but I knew I’d never take back to eating the flesh of the animal. I didn’t realize that milk, cheese and eggs would be left off my plate too for good; however that just happened quite easily. I never craved any animal protiens again. God also gave me a vision of what milk and eggs really are and that my body did not need lactation nor ovulation of another creature and in all reality was a hugh culprit to a lot of my past health issues. This all helped my transition to be very easy for me. What helped me the most with the transition was that I just jumped in and let God take the lead; so when I am asked to help others with it (because I did decide to study nutrition and become a plant based health coach) I must have some insight, modules, schedules or food planning then right?  Well, yes, I do have some more professioal material in which is shared with my contracted clients, however- even with all the education I recieved and all the food/nutrition understanding I gained, nothing was any clearer to me than keeping it simple.

I eat what we were originally created to eat, and that is the fruit of the plant and every fruit bearing seed. I eat very little grain, and if I do it is live grains. I eat lots and lots of fruit and veggies; veggies are my favorite food. I drink lots of infused water and teas. I drink only plant based milks very seldomly though.

Another question was how do I feed my family- since not everyone is vegetatian or vegan. Well, my kids all went on the  21 day fast with us in honor of their grandfather, so they did see health improvements. We discovered that two are quite  lactose intolerant, and  one is very sensitive to grains. None of us drink any dairy milk since the fast. My youngest is very sensitive to food coloring, but we’ve known this since she was very small. Food coloring and preservatives are much easier to avoid with a plant based diet, because plants are real food without all the additives. Seek clean organinc fruits and veggies though or grow your own.  Another awesome thing about my family is they NEVER ask me or expect me to cook any animal products.. they simply eat what is placed before them or they fend for themselves. They are teenagers now and one adult, whom shops for herself and her kids and she too cooks for the family (she adds the meat – so to speak). My kids are more adamant towards me avoiding animal protien then one would think. If we go out to eat and even a bit of cheese or egg or meat is on my order, THEY demand the waitress take it back and get my order right. LOL They know my heart and they are so awesome to respect and honor my convictions. One of my daughters was also a vegetarian at heart, since she was two she begged us not to make her eat the ‘babies”, her term for meat. So she happily became a vegetarian and is still thriving on a plant based diet 7 years later- & she always comments that she wishes to be totally vegan soon.. lol Her weakness is cheese and ice cream which makes her ill every time, she is one of my lactose intolerant.

Again my best advice is to keep it simple. This is my philosophy menu.. this goes for any type of person- vegan, vegetarian or meat eaters, here are some simple nutrition nuggests I learned during my food for healing education journey:

1. Juice a lot.. real fresh juicing.
2. Eat fruit first thing in the morning… and eat a piece of fruit before every single meal- Around 15 mins before each meal.This provides the body with natural enzymes to start the digestion process.
3. Make fruit one of your main meals.. eat tons of it- till full.
4. Eat veggies with two or more meals a day, I attempt to eat 2 veggies with lunch and dinner.
5. Make 2-5 veggies for atleast one whole meal a day. Example. (Don’t forget the piece of fruit 15 mins prior to the meal)- then have a small garden salad, then some meatless soup, a baked or sweet potato with green beans and brussle sprouts for the main meal. Wash down with some infused water or green tea.
6. Mushrooms and Potatoes serves as great meat substitute.. (not so much flavor or texture- but the ‘meatier’ more filling part of the meal.)
7. Do NOT worry about getting enough protein, protein is in everything and we are a protein addict world; we are overloaded with undigestable animal protiens. We need to be able to digest our protiens.. fruits and veggies are diegestable and offer fiber and enzymes.. which are the key to life.. live enzymes.
8. Enzymes have three functions: one to digest, one to heal and one for energy. So let us not waste them all on digesting our foods, this takes away from our energy and our healing capabilities; hence why we  age, get sick and die.. we actually run out of enzymes by depleting our enzyme account. Think of it as a bank account we are given at birth- if we only withdraw from our account and do not make healthy deposist, we will end up on empty. Fruit and veggies provide natural enzymes, where as animal protiens use up our bodies bank account. May we learn to balance our bank accounts for living. 😉
9. Another good pointer that works for me- when I stick to it- is to do intermit fasting. I don’t eat after 6pm and hardly ever eat before 10am-  noon. Opposed to popular belief and false information, breakfast is NOT the most important meal of the day, Lunch is.. the middle of the day… so eat a small breakfast, a larger lunch and a medium dinner.. do not eat after 6p.m and the digestion tract will start to work at optimum levles.
10. Stay active:  find what  you love to do and do it as often as time allows, but do always make some time for doing something active that you love to do. Walking is a must = attempt to walk 10,000 steps a day at least to help with digestion and health.

Okay, well I’m going to stop there and wish all the best of luck in any and all health changes anyone chooses to take. Whether one choose to go Vegetarian, Vegan or just eat less animal protiens, know that every little bit helps a lot for the animals, for your health and for our planet! 🙂

All my Vegan LOVE, Diana ,

p.s. I am starging up 6 mo- 9 mo and 12 mo health coaching programs.. message me at:  Balance By Vegan/ Balance By Revelation via facebook for interest.