Nutrition: The Diet That Suits You, by Diana Emma

Image credit: DI Wine and Dine

 In a cold winter’s evening at dinner time, I rolled out of my bed from a two hour nap. Glorious scents filled the house with my mother’s sweet European cooking, fresh hand-cut sweet sausage and spinach ravioli pasta, freshly made tomato sauce, a warm baguette from the oven, veal meatballs, hand-cut French fries and a garden salad, all to fill my starved and depleted self. Little did I know, I was really filling a void; an empty feeling that had submerged into the deepest depths of my youth, my nightmare. Curves!

I ate whatever filled me and ignored all the dangerous factors associated with eating so much heavy food. I thought I was fine with what I was eating because my family seemed to be happy and healthy, so I continued to follow in their footsteps. I remember having been trained in senior year on the benefits of eating a nutritious meal as opposed to the bad foods that had been introduced to my school’s cafeteria: chicken burgers and fries, chocolate chip cookies, pop, and fish sticks. Salad and soup seemed to be the only healthy thing on the menu, which didn’t leave me much choice. As hungry bellies of hormone-raged students filled the cafeteria, orders were taken, and people obviously ate and ignored the side effects of what they were diving into. I too, was blind.

It seems that now, I have found my plan in terms of staying on a balanced diet. Of course, I listened to nutrition advocates, a media invasion on a “better way to eat” controversy and the healthy social cliques, vegetarian vs non, then vegan extremists ,and then there was me with my own family of three to take care of. I tried to stay on top of what seemed to be the right thing to do; no meat, no animal products and no fish, while trying to make up my mind on which diet to follow. I was killing myself! Is this how we teach people how to eat, by forcing them to believe that there’s only one way? Every person has their own character, blood type and, of course, we live in different countries around the world, which play a big role in how we train ourselves to eat better.

I tried going without meat for 2 months, and found myself physically low in energy especially around my menstrual cycle. A fatigued lethargic body depleted from fats, iron and protein, had me questioning whether I’d be continuing this diet while raged, starved and suffocating myself. So I started to ask whether these ‘vegan advocates’ really had my best interests in mind, or a desire to just not eat meat for their own ethical reasons. So I started researching on the best diet plan for my body type. According to my research I decided to create my perfect diet plan for a healthy and stronger lifestyle combining a Paleo, vegetarian and vegan diet. Here are some steps you can take to fully understand what may be the proper diet for your body type.

  • Get a blood test to determine what blood type you are which will determine what safer diet plan to follow.
  • Determine your dosha, either Vata, Pitta or Kapha according to the ayurvedic diet plan. This will indicate what diet plan to follow according to your characteristics, blood type, even the season of the year.
  • Choose alkaline foods rather than acidic foods. Your body’s alkaline and acid balance, also known as pH, can affect your overall well-being.

The best doctor lies in your intuition to determine what is best for you according to your diet history and what has and hasn’t worked for you. I suggest not to value a diet plan your body naturally refuses and stick to one solid plan that you know you feel good with. Allow your body to make the necessary changes it needs to naturally, with subtle ease, rather than drastic unnatural changes that can do harm in the long run.

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After adopting a holistic lifestyle, Diana Emma became a Toronto based holistic life coach, specifically in yoga and nutrition. She lives, works, volunteers, writes and practices yoga in the city of Toronto, offering classes and workshops.

Visit her online at dianaemma.com.