The different diets I’ve had throughout my life

Here's a synopsis on my experiences with Macrobiotics, Ayurveda, vegetarian, plant-based, and keto

Although our diet significantly influences our energy and mental clarity, it is highly personal and intricate, which is what makes it difficult (at least for me) to write about. I’m not a nutritionist, nor can I speak to the science behind food. But I’ve been told that because I’ve experienced a number of diets over the year, and have benefitted so much from them, that sharing my experiences would be beneficial. So here goes.  

Please note that each of our bodies are different, and so are our minds, so keep this in mind. They are intricately connected and, without a doubt, factor into the functioning of our digestion and metabolism.  

First, a few things about diets. 

• I don’t believe in counting calories to lose weight. I do, however, believe that weight matters with health. 

• When I use the word diet, I refer to a way of life and how we relate to food. 

• I believe we must enjoy our diet, and it must give us energy. If it doesn’t, it’s a shitty diet. 

• Our body is the one vehicle we have in this lifetime, and it would be ideal to move through it with ease, comfort, clarity, strength, and energy. I believe diet is crucial for this. 

• Next to how we process stress, our diet determines the ease in which we wake up in the morning and go to bed at night.. 

• Food is amazing with the abundance of choices we have; the colors, textures, cultures, aromas, and flavors are arousing. Yet many struggle with it, or become tired or sick by it. I believe that heightening our awareness of what we eat and how it makes us feel is more important than any single diet recommendation out there. 

I'd like to share my food journey with you, in case any of it resonates or awakens your curiosity and understanding in your own journey with food and healing.  

Memory Lane

In high school, I had the following nearly every day for lunch:

Chicken noodle soup (Campbells Soup style), cheeseburger and fries, chocolate milkshake with frozen M&Ms in it, and a Hostess Suzy Q cake. 

Before that, around 10 am, I’d find a vending machine in the school hallways to wolf down a Snicker bar on my way to my next class. I’d go home after swim practice and have a baked potato as a snack before dinner. Dinner was either Korean food, Stouffer’s or Hungry Jack T.V. dinners, or spaghetti (Prego and Ragu). Yes, we were a first gen immigrant family of the 70’s to 90’s. 

In college, my staples were greasy breakfasts, Wendy’s hot bar, chocolate milkshakes from Steak n Shake, Domino’s Pizza, Rice Krispies treats, cheap ramen, Kraft Mac n Cheese, apples, coffee, and… cigarettes, beer, and vodka shots. College.

In my early 20s, I went through phases with Portillo’s Italian Beef with giardiniera peppers, extra thin, extra crispy pizza from Barnaby’s, and Potbelly’s Wreck sandwiches. At home, my staple was hashed browns, Canadian bacon, and eggs for breakfast and pasta or Thai for lunch. For dinners, I frequently went out for Chinese, steak, or sushi. 

In my mid 20s, I wanted to tone my body. I’d make a cookie sheet of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts from Sam’s Warehouse, season them with salt and pepper, and then juice them with lemon and Tabasco. I’d stop having carbs by 1 pm. While I got the physical results I wanted, this diet turned me into a complete bitch. 

While I projected good health and confidence out into the world, I suffered from depression and panic attacks. I needed birth control pills to regulate my menstrual cycles, my digestion was weak, and I was put on Prozac. I was determined not to continue needing Prozac the way I needed Claritin and Flonase. I started therapy and got off of it in four months. In my search to be well, I was given suggestions that I was unable to embrace at this time.

Birthing Babies Birthed Me

At 29, I didn’t even realize I was pregnant with my first child until I was nearly 3 months into it; that’s how disconnected I was from my body. I was making trips to the grocery store to get Dole pineapple juice, I had to have it. That was my first clue. Second trimester, I HAD TO HAVE Korean food. While I grew up on it, I had stopped having it after I left home up to this point. Third trimester, I was running to Ghiardelli’s Ice Cream for banana splits all.the.time. I gained 60 pounds in pregnancy, though my obstetrician did say the first 20 of it was to gain what my body needed to carry a baby; he had considered me underweight. 

By the time I was on my second child, I had started practicing yoga and studying Ayurveda and other holistic modalities like homeopathy, metaphysics, and the world of flower essences. My 4 year old daughter got sick and this initiated my journey with food and healing. I “tried everything” through Western medicine to make her better, and nothing worked. I found an integrative doctor who got her off everything dairy, and she, I kid you not, stopped croupy coughing in less than 3 days after over 9 months of coughing, waning energy, and suffering from allergic reactions to many of the antibiotics. I found a holistic doctor who additionally took her off wheat and sugar as well as put her on probiotics, acidophilus, Vitamin C, and for a brief moment, a homeopathic remedy called Belladonna, and her ear infections disappeared after just two doses one morning. On the other hand, her original pediatrician recommended tubes in her ears and refused to credit food or remedy for anything.  

Since I didn’t know how to cook, I started working with a French trained macrobiotic chef to learn to cook and use foods to nourish and heal my family. I worked with him weekly for 2 to 3 years. What a return on investment: my family didn't need a doctor’s visit, except for the annual wellness check-ups, for the next decade. 

During my pregnancy with my second child, there were no cravings. I gained 13 pounds, all baby. After childbirth, I felt great.

While medicine is crucial, I realized how much we’ve been taught to rely on medical professionals. We assume that they know what’s good for our bodies more than we do. We’ve learned to be afraid to make and own our own decisions. This time in my life, initiated by my daughter’s illness, and by working with a holistic doctor and chef, put the power of wellness into my own hands. 

Journey Towards Bliss

Macrobiotic Eating

3 years of eating whole foods, increasing my alkalinity, and understanding the balance of foods and food combinations. 

This diet cleared up the morning fog and afternoon tiredness. No more cravings,

I started working with a macrobiotic chef to learn to feed my daughter according to her doctor’s orders. Abstinence from wheat, sugar, and dairy worked for her, and it made me feel great. I didn’t even know that I wasn’t feeling great. I was waking up tired and foggy, but I thought this was normal. The chef taught me how to make things my family loved, like chicken soup and chicken mole, as well as how to make vegetables deliciously, and to choose foods based on what was going on with our family. He also kept reminding me to breathe while I chopped; my first experience in folding mindfulness into my life. After a few months, I started waking up light and clear-headed. I stopped having cravings, I lost excess weight, my allergies disappeared (I could enjoy my cats without medication), and my menstrual cycle became short, uneventful, and predictable. 

Ayurveda

1 year learning in the kitchen, the tenets of Ayurveda continues to inform my decisions to this day. The most important tenet is Joy and awareness of how decisions affect me. 

This diet fixed my digestion.

I have had digestive issues since childhood. This was the one thing I was still working through after macrobiotics when I decided to work with an Ayurvedic chef. She taught me how to set up the kitchen and enter it with reverence and intention. She taught me how to add sugar, wheat, and dairy back into our diet healthily. While my macrobiotic chef taught me how to chop and choose produce, she taught me how to handle the food with gratitude. I began to understand why our grandmother’s cookies tasted better when she made it versus when we did using the exact same recipe. Both my chef and holistic doctor recommended that I sit and eat to sit and eat; no multitasking. I learned about the connections between emotions and digestion, and how our individual constitutions determined whether a food would be healing or toxic to our system. I also learned how to listen to my body for immediate feedback. I learned the power of Joy in digesting, healing, and thriving. My digestion got strong. 

Vegetarian+

9 years of eating vegetarian combined with a strong yoga practice and lifestyle.
This diet accelerated my ability to be still and experience inner peace

Going through yoga teacher training, I was encouraged to go vegetarian. I continued to follow the tenets of Ayurveda as I removed meat from my diet. Going vegetarian accelerated me into what Ayurveda calls a Sattvic state. This refers to a state of calm, lack of agitation, ability to be still, quiet the mind, and feel light and disease free. I was eating whole, unprocessed, organic foods mostly made from my own hands, and I turned prepping, cooking, and eating into a meditation. I chewed my food intentionally until the food was completely broken down before I swallowed. I was up super early, and I started my day with cooking and mindfulness practice before my children were up. I was never tired. I felt relaxed and energized at once. People told me that in my presence they felt calm. This is what it means to be sattvic. While it’s glorious, you wouldn’t put men going into battle in a sattvic state. For that, you want more rajas…

Loose Pescaterian, still mostly vegetarian

4 years on this diet: I added fish, and from time to time chicken
My fire re-emerged, and so did my agitation.

Eventually, I decided to integrate my life more deeply with the world at large, go into business, start dating again, and with all this, start eating out again. It took years for this to have any negative impact on me, but eventually it did catch up with me. I slipped back into a more Rajastic state. My mind was more active, and I became more impatient. I still felt quite good as I kept up with my morning practice, and I had a load of good habits to carry me through my challenges. I was good with this because I was with the world. It was fun to figure out how to balance wellness with the chaotic energy our world is capable of dishing out. Over time, though, I started to feel inflammation in my body. 

Plant-Based

For 2.5 years
Good for a while, and then my metabolism slowed, and cravings came back

I decided to go plant-based to work with my inflammation. A number of friends around me had already adopted this diet, so I had a lot of resources going into it. In the beginning, it felt great, but over time, it stopped working. This makes sense because at first it’s a detox. Like medicine, our bodies need it, but then we get off. I realized later that this was only medicine for me, not a way of life. By making it a way of life, it negatively affected my metabolism. I gained weight, and I began snacking again due to cravings. I’m not crazy about the natural plant-based protein options, and while the processed ones are delicious, they are processed. Add this to the stress of business life, and I found myself leaning heavier into starchy carbs, causing me to want to graze throughout the day, never fully feeling satisfied. After about 2.5 years, my bloodwork told me I needed to stop. Others do well on it. It was not for me. 

Healthy Keto with Intermittent Fasting

For 2 years
It reduced inflammation, my cravings and excess weight disappeared, and my energy and satisfaction increased.

I say healthy keto because, as with all diets, there’s a way to do it unhealthily, and with keto, I think it’s easy to go there. Healthy entailed for me about 6+ cups of veggies and 4 to 5 oz of fatty protein per meal, for my weight anyway (125 lbs). I ate two meals a day, 4 to 5 hours apart, so that the rest of the time I was fasting. The average 16 hours of intermittent fast is the magic that takes away the inflammation and sensitivity to food. For instance, I used to be highly sensitive to cheese, but not when I intermittent fast. Quantity also matters, of course. The trick is to load up on the veggies first so you don’t overdo it on the protein. I lost 20 pounds (from 145 to 125) in less than one month. One might argue that this is too much to lose in such a short period of time, but throughout this time, I never lost energy, nor was it a struggle to eat only two meals a day because I felt fully nourished and satisfied. There were no cravings or compulsion to eat more than the two meals. I hadn’t felt this good since I was in the sattvic state, except that I wasn’t in sattva; I had too much fire for that. 

My Personal Conclusion

I can’t say that I’m still on a keto because I don’t maintain ketosis (when your body burns fat instead of stores it). I’ve cracked the door open to exceptions, and now the door to constant internal negotiations (should I have this bread?) is wide open. So I need to go back to it because the negotiating sucks. It’s a good one for my lifestyle. It allows me to feel good, it dramatically reduces my inflammation, and it gives me a nice combination of relaxed and fire energy. This is what feels good to me, I am a Leo and a Pitta-Vata after all. 

This is my personal experience. What is going on in my personal life, the way my mind processes everything, and how my individual body responds must be factored in. Others will have different stories with what worked for them and what didn’t. While there is no across-the-board right diet, there is one right answer: the one that works for you based on what your body needs, the lifestyle you desire, where you are on your wellness journey, and what you’re working with in life. You just have to be honest with yourself about it all. 

Making the right choice for you is only confusing when you don’t check in with yourself. Have fun with it. Don’t take what others say for Truth. It’s only their truth or their agenda. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Take things from each modality that works. Get flexible. Try things. Notice how they feel in your body. If you need guidance, find a mentor who can help guide you to your own wisdom so that you can make the decisions that belong to you. 

Whatever you do, be present with your meal. Enjoy it. Food exists to keep you alive, nourish you, and provide you with a lot of joy. Treat it that way. Stop working while you eat. Stop eating on the fly. Chew your food instead of swallowing it half whole and then chasing it down with a ton of iced water. Even if you decide to change nothing in your diet, these recommendations alone will work wonders on all of your body’s systems. Bon appetit. 

Love, Savitree