About

It has taken a good number of years to get to this point in my life, where I am now, I have more understanding of the bodies needs as regards to nutrition and what is required to keep a body fit and healthy and functioning to its full potential. I am by no means saying I am at that point myself, far from it. But I do now know what is required.

My journey to this point has been long and incredibly difficult at times. I know life is all about challenges and learning. Events that we go through and come out the other end of, maybe with several battle scars, either physical or emotional are what make us into who we are right now.

To follow is a little about me, and my journey to becoming a Vegetarian and Vegan Nutritionist.

I believe I was born a natural Lacto Ovo Vegetarian. I remember many occasions at the family table, my father trying to get me to eat the pork chop or chicken or whatever meat was on my plate without success. I can also remember my mother who really didn’t know how to cope with this ‘fussy’ eater despairing and giving me another bowl of sugary cereal or more peanut butter on toast. So that was basically my diet along with any of the cakes, meringues, trifles my mum would make at a weekend. That is until after giving birth to my daughter at the crazy young age of 18… I was starving, the hospital food came around and I wolfed down a plate of chicken casserole and various vegetables. I continued to eat chicken breast (nothing on the bone, or dark meat) and also managed tuna and monk fish for a year or so, but slowly I cut it back out. Eggs, cheese, pasta and vegetables became my main stay.

This was basically how I continued until 2002, when my daughter was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at the tender age of 24. I have such a strong memory of her Oncologist telling us that one of the first things she should do is give up dairy and red meat. I didn’t really question this at the time, in a state of shock that my beautiful daughter was about to embark on a tough ride of surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, we just both accepted that the doctor knew what he was talking about. So that very day, margarine and butter was replaced by Pure, soya milk was brought in and red meat for her was knocked on the head. Tragically Cancer beat my daughter, after 2 years of fighting and going through treatment, she lost her fight.

Shortly after her death having major digestive problems, I was diagnosed with IBS, always a bit of a cop out in my opinion. I struggled with my food, trying to keep a diary of what I had eaten and what irritated me and caused pain. This was a bit hit and miss, I would have a good patch that could last several weeks, so I would drop my guard and eat more freely and varied, then bam! I would be crippled with pain, needing to be close to a toilet, pain in my digestive system causing pain in my lower back and this is how it went on for some time.  At this point I was still eating eggs, in fact they were a large part of my diet in their many forms. That is until a trip to India resulted in major food poisoning, I thought I was going to die. As a result of this, I have been left with an egg intolerance, it took a couple of meals when we were back in the UK to realise, but my body would no longer tolerate eggs. Oh boy, now my diet was getting more restricted. My family were all convinced I should be eating meat and that my diet was poor and that was what was causing me so many digestive problems. So I arranged to see an NHS Dietitian. She asked me to keep a diary of my food for a month, then return to see her. At this point I was already making just about everything I ate  from scratch, having learnt the hard way by being caught out by egg hidden in food you would not expect it to be, I decided the best thing to do was make it all myself. When I went back to see her, she looked at my diary sheet and had a look of superiority about her, ‘So you do not eat meat, or eggs? You dont use milk? ‘ me ..’Yes, I make my own almond milk’ . Her…’ where do you get your protein from?’ a standard question from someone who does not understand the power of plants. Anyway, she said she would have my diary analysed. I went back two weeks later…’this is the healthiest diet we have ever seen in this clinic’ the only concern was that maybe I was not getting enough B12. Everything else was spot on, so I started to take a B12 supplement.

It wasn’t long after that I decided to go completely vegan, partly because I had been caught out a couple of times when eating out, telling waitresses I had an egg intolerance, only to find out after the event, un be-known to the staff the chef had used an egg wash or similar.

Going Vegan was such a great move, about 6 months into my new diet, I paid to have private blood testing done and a bit of an MOT. The results came back, and everything was fine, although my B12 was still a little low. But my metabolic age was 10 years younger than my actual age. Bonus!

Since my Vegan journey began, I have been exposed to the horror of animal farming, the cruelty and abuse of these sentient creatures and also the impact of human consumption of animal products on our environment. My eyes have been well and truly opened and I think the young me had it right naturally. Don’t panic, I am not going to preach, I believe everyone has a choice, but I do believe that no one should bury their heads in the sand. People need to be aware of the industry and make the right choice for themselves.

Although  I was eating fairly healthily, I realised I had no real understanding of correct nutrition. Having been bought up by a mother who was on a constant diet for as long as I can remember,  she went from one fad diet to another, never understanding what her body really needed, this obviously had quite an impact on me and my sister. We too have spent far too much time on restrictive eating plans, wanting chocolate because it’s not allowed, losing a few pounds only to gain it back, then onto the next crazy diet plan, eating chocolate …did I already say that? Both of us have a love for chocolate.

So I decided to do something about my ill advised nutritional knowledge and decided to study. I am now a fully qualified Vegetarian and Vegan Nutritionist.

So, the idea for this blog is to share some of my recipes and ideas with you. To show any of you who are considering going vegetarian or vegan that you can have very tasty and very interesting food. It isn’t all Brown and looking like cardboard. Eating healthy doesn’t mean you can’t have cake, of course you can. You do not have to deprive yourself of the things you love, you just need to get the combinations right.

I look forward to sharing this with you. Tina x