You are what you eat, they say. Just like making love, your intimate relationship with food is as important since the stuffs you choose to consume enters and becomes a part of your body one way or another.

Luckily, I am the kind who really loves to explore when it comes to food. From June up until the mid of August, I tried a very challenging kind of diet, the Ovo-Pescetarian way. What that is, I’ll tell you in a while. Just read on and try to be a little patient. 🙂

Trying out this diet, I basically had two (2) reasons:

#1. A diet for a greater purpose. While consulting Dr. Youtube on how to NOT go crazy while on a veggie diet, I happen to come across this video with 101 reasons to go vegan. A Vegan is like a vegetarian, only more hardcore to my opinion. Vegetarians eat veggies but do not restrict dairy and eggs from their diet; while vegans consume veggies but not anything that’s animal-based like dairy and eggs since they ‘re against animal cruelty and all that stuff.

As much as Veganism did make sense to me and the fact that I love vegan food since it really makes the body feel a lot better, I couldn’t go on being a hypocrite calling myself a vegan and still go on eating fish and eggs at the same time. It then came to me that “being a vegan” and “loving vegan food” are two totally different things.

And so it was a choice I made on that day, June 6, 2015, to try this purposeful diet BUT not excluding the eggs and fish since I was also concerned with becoming deficient of vitamin B12, a vitamin that is only dominant in animal-based products (or perhaps in forms of supplements). So that about made me an OVO-PESCETARIAN for some time. I just recently discovered that term on Google *teehee.

#2. Gut imbalance. During the time, I was initially fighting off adult acne with all possible natural/organic to no topical treatments (such as my take on my caveman regimen) but to no avail. After making ample research I discovered that acne really had something to do with gut imbalances other than hormonal issues and incorrect usage of topical treatments. I had a gut feeling that I had way too many bad guys feeling at home inside my stomach. Turns out my gut feeling was right, literally – Candida overgrowth. How did I know of this? I accurately had some of the symptoms + during the time, an initial trip to the OB confirmed that I had a mild case of Candida and was advised to take antibiotics. And you probably know by now that I’d be saying NO to such kinds of medication as much as possible.

So, how did I get it? Well, turns out that exercise isn’t really much of everything in fitness and only covers 20% of your health and wellness, while 80% of the effort should be based on proper diet. As far as I know, it’s been sort of an abusive relationship with food and I, thinking that I could eat just about ANYTHING since I am going to burn the calories off anyway – or so I thought.

So I sought for nature-inspired alternatives and oh, joy. My hope was restored. I figured out that the one way to fix gut imbalance was to get the gut flora (or the good bacteria that naturally exist in our gut for so many good reasons) back to its balanced state again. How?

• Step 1. By starving the damn thing, the bad bacteria I mean, depriving it with what it feeds on – sugar, bad carbs and other whatnots that can further expand the fungal colony in my system. I had to go on a sugar-and-starch-deprived diet. For a while, I had stevia as replacement for sugar and shredded coconut in place of flour; and
• Step 2. By taking potent organic/natural remedies that can actually exterminate the bad guys out of my system, like organic coconut oil, probiotics and fresh garlic, and no, I didn’t have time to be persnickety about how they taste like. To cut the long story short, I had to go crazy on veggies to avoid consuming the bad stuff.

But just the same in every beginning, it’s always never easy. It took me time and a heck of patience before I got comfortable with the diet.

Here’s my “HOW WELL DID I DO?” Stats:

TIME DURATION: 2 months/1 week/4 days a Vegan

SLIP-UPS: more or less 5-6 days (mostly during special occasions)

DOWNSIDES: It was kind of hard to buy from food stalls whenever I didn’t have my own food prepped up for the day. It was a drag when I didn’t really get to have a lot of food options during special occasions with family and friends. Also, I had very bad Candida die-off symptoms that probably worsened my breakouts and allergies from some time during the cleanse. They say it was normal but I couldn’t put up with it no matter how normal they say it is. It did put me in some sort of state of depression at some point that I literally didn’t want to go out of the house anymore whilst feeling sorry for myself.

UPSIDES: What’s cool was that I got to explore my cooking abilities; I got to eat more whole foods and avoided much of the processed ones; I learned to appreciate the world of vegetables and its countless health benefits. I had a modest intake of fruits during the start of the diet since fruits did contain natural sugars that I need to shun from during the cleansing process.

HEALTH IMPROVEMENT: Inflammation of the skin subsided eventually; minimum to no cystic acne (yay!); higher energy level; great bowel movement; little to no acid reflux; minimum to no level of cravings from animal-based food. I got to enjoy and celebrate my body. It was priceless.

UNFOLDING A SECRET OF A MIRACLE: August 2, 2015, on a good Sunday, I took the Holy Communion which represents the body of Jesus Christ. Acknowledging the stripes that once covered Jesus’ broken body (Isaiah 53:5) I claimed and declared healing unto my body in His mighty name. I really should not be ashamed of telling you guys about this one, since I know that this has been the flag on top of that rocky mountain that I’ve been through. I am grateful for God’s gift of grace that is in the person of Christ and His promises to us ever since the beginning of time.

WHY I STOPPED: The reason why I stopped is not because it didn’t do me any good. In fact it did, very much. I just stopped because I really didn’t want to frustrate myself too much on not eating on variety. I wanted to enjoy, too, without putting too much restrictions that could cause more despair and add negative energy to my body. I tried the ovo-pescetarian diet because I needed it during the time but maybe I wasn’t really ready to fully commit my life to it in a long-term – yet. That there is a statement of possibility. I really don’t have much to complain about the diet except for the fact that I was, from time to time, missing how fast foods felt like on my taste buds. However, I still felt great inside and out during the process.

OVERALL SAY

To my personal opinion, the diet has done me good for over two (2) whole months and I’ve never felt lighter in my tummy ever since. Should I go back again to my past mediocre eating habits like I’ve been again lately and feel more than a little guilty about it, it wouldn’t hurt to try the Ovo-Pescetarian diet again and hopefully, maybe, put up with it in the long run.

What about you? What kind of diet have you tried and enjoyed already? Let me know your thoughts on this one, brewers!