This post is a little bit about my backstory, health journey thus far, and why going vegetarian/vegan is my health ultimatum. I have always considered myself a health conscious person. I have experimented  with diet and exercise through out the latter half of my life with varying results. As a southern, black, country girl I grew up eating the typical southern diet that being soul food with country sides. My parents made sure my siblings and I ate fruits and veggies, and we had our fair share of baked and grilled foods.We ate grits, bacon and lots of cheese and dairy.  I grew up on fried chicken, collard greens with smoked meat, cornbread, fried fish, and gumbo. I was always taught that this is what real eating is all about, this is the type of food that puts meat on your bones and gives you strength. I might add that in moderation these foods are not bad for your health. In my case, little did I know how years eating this way was wreaking havoc on my body.

Fast forward a little bit, in my early 20s I started experiencing issues with allergies, migraine headaches, acne, eczema,  and severe periods. I had gone to see different doctors and bought countless prescriptions to try to alleviate my problems. These issues continued to get progressively worse over the next few years leading to horrible skin, severe allergies, sinus surgery, uterine fibriods, and a miscarriage. Fed up with the lack of information the medical world had provided me with I decided to go the route my grandmothers always taught me, what medicine can’t fix nature and faith can. While doing my own research and having a few tests done I was able to figure out that all of my problems are associated with diet.

That leads me to where I am now. Today is the start of healing myself through diet, exercise and holistic alternative medicine. Flesh foods such as meat and dairy cause so much inflammation in the body. For me this is one of the main causes of my physical ailments that I struggle with daily. The way we prepare our vegetables (overcooking) kills all the vital nutrition we need from them. My ultimatum is to eat a cleaner, rawer, whole food vegetarian/ vegan (I haven’t committed to one or the other) diet or keep suffering the consequences. One step at a time I will be documenting this transition. I am a work in progress, but small hinges swing big doors. Whats your health ultimatum?