Thought on Eating, June 15 2026
I was plant-based for around ten years of my life. It allowed me to learn how to adapt foods I had grown up with, I really enjoyed this aspect of that lifestyle.
My mom would help me make plant-based ceviche, salad-like combinations of textured vegetable protein and pico de gallo, mix nutritional yeast into popcorn for a nice cheesy taste, or even create vegan alternatives for pozole and tacos. We would even just eat plant-based foods I would have otherwise had on the sideline. It forced me to change my perspective and heavily diversify my diet.
This diversity helped me meet my nutritional needs, although I could have gone much simpler if I wanted to achieve the same goals.
I fell into bad habits with work and managing my diet. The COVID pandemic really set things in stone. I would eat for fun, if I was stressed, as an emotional response, or sometimes go overboard with an otherwise healthy meal. I got accustomed to this and gained quite a substantial amount of weight. Then I completely abandoned plant-based eating to experiment with my psoriasis, a condition I had developed through a very tumultuous adolescence. Utilizing poor advice from Reddit, I tried salmon first and then reopened my palate to other foods as an omnivore.
I still heavily incorporate plant-based eating into my day-to-day life and think others probably should as well.
I think being open to new foods and ways of thinking is a good trait to have. Today I will make a matcha latte-esque beverage from Moringa Powder and eat a simple meal with watermelon, sliced wheat bread, and some sort of lean protein.
I think one day when I am more comfortable, I will have conversations with others about my opinions on some of the newest foods and products on the market and how community can help encourage healthy eating and fueling of the body.
But eating should be more social and connected. We all have those times where it makes more sense to just fuel up and move on, but the idea of fermenting your own dough made from lesser-used grains, tomato sauce, olive oil, salt, and roasted veggies sounds romantic to me at the moment.