This has changed a lot over the past 6 months since I got my official diagnosis of endometriosis. Even over the past 3 years I have changed the way I eat because of period pain and environmental reasons.
What a normal meal looks like during the week:
Breakfast I will usually have a massive smoothie that will fill up 2-3 500ml jars. In the smoothie I like to add 1 banana, 4-5 strawberries, handful of blueberries, 1 kiwi fruit, 1 orange, parsley, spinach and coconut milk (found out I'm allergic to almonds). This is my favourite smoothie mix but it does change week to week especially depending on what we still have and what we have run out of.
Then for lunch I typically do some type of salad and this can be a pretty big mixture. I love a massive dark green salad with cucumber, cranberries, avocado, carrots, onion, and salmon! Salmon is my absolute favourite fish at the moment but I try not to have it too often because it is one of the more toxic fish listed.
For dinner I love pasta, rice bowls, quinoa and vegetables dishes, and even homemade vegan/gluten free burgers on the occasion!
I will also snack in between my meals with apples, watermelon, or homemade coconut yogurt with granola and fruit. There is absolutely no way that I would reach enough calories just eating this so I definitely snack throughout the day when I can. Eating this way has allowed me to get through my day with no bloating, no pain and passing a bowel stool is so much easier. I know research has found that women have been having a lot of progress with 'anti-inflammatory diets'. Which means cutting out meat, dairy, gluten, caffeine, chocolate, and refined foods. This has really worked for me and to be honest, I have been doing a lot of research about the Blue Zones and I'm curious whether or not an 'anti-inflammatory diet' is really a diet or if it's just what our bodies naturally want us to eat since the beginning of time.
The Blue Zones are the longest living and healthy living people in the world. There are currently 5 Blue Zones all over the world and these people live long lives but also healthy lives with the smallest amount of medical intervention during their lifetime. Along with other means of their healthy life (I will discuss this in a different post because it is so interesting) their nutrition is mainly plant-based. Not entirely, many of them vary such as Sardinia is known to drink more wine while those in Costa Rice focus more on beans and in Okinawa they still have fish dishes. There is a variations within their day to day eating however, they all eat whole foods and make everything naturally. They may eat fish or meat but it is not often as it used to be, these are usually left for special occasions like holidays and big celebrations! These are cultures that have never heard of diets, high in iron, low in fats, fibroids, endometriosis, diabetes, etc. These are cultures that are still living true to their roots and I like to follow their methods and am so interested in learning more. When I look at the 'anti-inflammatory diet' it's basically saying that we are going to eat what we are meant to eat and thrive on as basic human beings. Sure our diets will vary depending on what country we are native to such as beans being a major staple in Costa Rica but wine being huge in Sardinia. When we eat that bag of Cheetos or those packaged pretzels, this not food, they are snacks but they are not food that are going to bring us energy.
I am still doing research on The Blue Zones but I find it interesting that many diseases are doing much better on an anti-inflammatory diet which in reality is just called eating real nutrient dense food. This is exactly how those in The Blue Zones are living. The correlation is there and I am insanely intrigued to see how I can implement this into my life!
Xoxo,
Moonli
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