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THE S.KINTUITION
THE S.KINTUITION
WELLBEING LONDON

MY JOURNEY TO A PLANT BASED DIET

plant based diet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Vegan. There was a time when I didn’t care for any of those titles, and better yet I thought it was all a bit extra. Why does everything have to have a box with a label?

Anyway, when the vegan movement started to really pick up momentum, I wasn’t buying into it at all. For me personally, I just felt the whole thing was just a fad and was going to pass soon.

During my pregnancy with my daughter, my eczema began to flare up on my feet and after thinking and talking about it with my friend for a while, I made the decision to start eating healthily in order to cleanse my body and heal my eczema naturally.

The book I was recommended was called The Maker’s Diet, and when I read it, I literally could not put it down. It was so engaging and interesting to read and he touches upon all aspects of health and not just diet. I also loved the fact that he spoke about different diets with the pros and cons of each of them instead of bashing them to promote his own.

I had made up in my mind to start the 40 day challenge the following Monday. I just prefer to do these things at the beginning of a new week. I had my last meal on the Sunday night which was a large Big Mac Meal with a strawberry milkshake because I knew after reading that book I would never eat McDonald's again...

The first phase of the challenge is supposed to last two weeks but as I was breastfeeding at the time, I did it for three days. I didn’t want me eating less food to affect my milk supply, because it did!

One thing I would say I loved about the diet is that it forced me to experiment so much with food. I learned how to make different recipes in such a short space of time and I was actually enjoying it. I also loved telling people about it. The whole transition for me was amazing.

plant based diet

Even so, I’m not sure exactly when it started but rather than my skin begin to get better, week by week it got progressively worse. It got so bad I could not stop scratching and more frequently than not, my skin would bleed. Also, it began to weep all over my legs. So much so, that most of the time I couldn’t even put on clothes or shoes because it would stick to me and when I had taken them off, the itch that followed was unbearable and I would start the scratch, bleed cycle all over again.

I tried literally everything. Bath salts, using essential oils, drinking and using bentonite clay and nothing. Absolutely nothing was working.

I remember feeling and getting to my lowest point when eczema began to angrily spread up my chest, neck, and face. My eyes began to swell and the day after posting my first eczema video I woke up with a face that looked like I had gone five rounds with Mike Tyson.

You can watch that video here.

I was so terrified, but more than that I felt hopeless. How was it that after I had made healthy changes to my diet that my skin had disintegrated right before my eyes?

It was so painful and when it got too much for me to bear I would look in the mirror and just cry.

Anyway, fast forward a couple of months. So many people had recommended I go on the youtube channel of a guy called Rob Stuart, and although I resisted at first, I relented and decided to check his videos out.

This was to change my life for good because as soon as I embarked on a completely whole food and plant based diet my skin began to heal - rapidly. 

 

Looking back now, I realize that my skin getting extremely worse was a combination of two things.

 

ONE:

My body was detoxing at an alarming rate that was clearly too much for my body to handle. My body was clogged up and my lymph and liver were overwhelmed. When your bodies’ process of detoxification is moving too slow, the body rushes all of those toxins to the next closest place to get rid of it all - the skin

 

TWO:

I was sleeping on a bed full of mold! I had discovered it one day, a few weeks after posting my video, that under the ottoman bed had developed growing and thriving mold! It was under literally everything in my room. Not just the bed itself but the items under the bed and my mattress. Mold exposure is very very detrimental to our health and I have no idea how long it had been there for. What I do know is that when I left the place for a period of four months my skin recovered almost completely, and when I went back, I was covered in eczema again within a week. I’ll go into this situation another time.

Although I don’t think there’s anything wrong with eating meat - occasionally.

I’ve decided it’s just not for me, for now.  My body has healed and seems to function so much more efficiently eating a plant-based diet.

My bowel movements have become more frequent, and although I didn’t tell people at the time, prior to this, every time I would go to the toilet I would pass blood and a lot of it. I remember being rushed through to a specialist at my local hospital with suspected cancer. There was just so much going on.

"All disease begins in the gut,"

plant based diet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although I describe my diet as Vegan, I don’t like saying that because the reality is a vegan diet can be unhealthy too.

The focus of my diet is to eat organic whole grain and whole foods that will encourage my body to heal itself rather than filling it with processed foods and toxins from the other side of the spectrum.

I began to cook all my meals, even snacks, and I don’t think I ate from outside for about six months.

I’m a lot easier on myself than I was to begin with, but I still endeavor to cook a majority of my meals and ensure they are nutrient dense with a variety of fruits and vegetables.

 

I have had many people say to me that they don’t know how or why I eat like this as it seems hard and restrictive, but the reality is if they had been through what I had they would have changed their diet too in a heartbeat!

Literally, everyone I know that has gone plant-based has begun that lifestyle change for a reason, but for me, I would love for people to make that transition before they get sick.

 

You will notice on my blog I have added categories for food and wellbeing where I will be sharing health tips, reviews, and recipes. Not just for eczema but for general wellbeing. As soon as I’m settled in our new home, and I don't even know when that will be, I’ll be bringing some of these recipes to my channel so you can see me make them in real time.

 

I promise you, a whole food plant based diet is not a fad or a phase but a lifestyle, and one that has truly turned my life around. My skin isn’t 100% but it’s so much better. Not only that but my mental and emotional wellbeing has improved massively because of it as well. I have so much more energy and rather than feeling depressed and hopeless as I was before, I now have a true sense of joy knowing day by day, I am getting better. 

Making the transition to a plant-based diet isn’t as difficult as it seems and there are some amazing, tasty and incredible things you can make with just plants that I cannot wait to show you. I really hope you enjoy the coming content and be sure to tell me if you try any of the tips, tricks, and recipes I’ve developed for optimum health.

Also, for the next four weeks, I'll be posting one recipe a week in collaboration with Indigo Herbs whose products and powders I've been using since starting my journey. We'll also be doing a giveaway so make sure you stay tuned to find out how to win a bag of Indigo Herb goodies at the end of the month.

We only have one body, don’t wait until it’s broken before taking the long road trying to fix it...

“Let food be thy medicine

and medicine be thy food.”

plant based diet
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7 Comments

  1. Esther Mbeka
    July 6, 2018 / 12:57 pm

    Amazing and so insightful 💋💋 .. slowly going plant based too and I need to start reading the makers diet book!. I wish may grasped the healing powers of food .. keep educating and encouraging xoxo

    Reply
    • info@imthepr.com
      July 12, 2018 / 10:28 am

      aww thanks esther. i’ll try my best girl.

      Reply
  2. Joyce. A
    September 5, 2018 / 8:06 pm

    Wow. Glad your skin is getting better. I love that you said “you can be a vegan and unhealthy”. People often think vegan life equates to a healthy life. Noo not at all!! Me and my hubby are both trying to adopt a more whole food plant based diet in our home. There are so many recipes out there and I love experimenting new things. Thanks for your encouraging blog. Wishing you all the best on your journey xx

    Reply
    • info@imthepr.com
      September 16, 2018 / 12:53 am

      Thank you so much for taking the time out to comment. It’s so nice to hear you and your hubby are doing it together. I’m sure you already know by now but it such an amazing experience. Keep your eyes peeled as I’ll be bringing loads of recipes I’ve learned to the blog from today!

      Reply
  3. Salome Ramble
    April 21, 2019 / 7:02 pm

    Wow, I can literally cry right now.When I see your pictures when you were covered in eczema it gives me flashbacks of when I was at my worse! I’ve been dealing with eczema since I was a child, my eczema then had cleared up around when I was about 6 or 7. Fast forward to 2016, I noticed a big change in my skin. It started of as a small dry patch, that I didn’t noticed I guess, I didn’t think nothing of it, until it started to spread to different parts of my body little by little. I didn’t have any knowledge of eczema because I had it at a young age & I never had any skin issues prior to that. When my entire body was covered with eczema, I didn’t know what to do, which made it worse. I would take long hot showers to take off the dead dry skin, slam Vaseline on it because I thought it was moisturizing it, but i would literally wake up in flakes. I didn’t sleep for months. I was depressed, no one understood what I was going through. Not my family, friends, even doctors. A few months later, or a year later I believe I went to visit a dermatologist, & off course they prescribed steroids & I thought I was healed, until I did my research! They even told me to come back & get the dupixent shot, once the FDA approved of it. I stopped using it, and literally within days I was back to square one. I was back to feeling hopeless, ugly and depressed again. I didn’t know what to do. I watched countless of YouTube videos, seeking to find someone who was suffering just as I was & was healed so I can do the same too. I didn’t find any, most of them said the same thing in different way. I decided, I need to change my diet not only for my skin, but because I gained so much weight from stress eating, it was one of things that would make me feel better. So, I decided to juice. Only difference I would see in the juice diet was that I was losing weight not so much in my skin, which brings me back to why I didn’t see a difference. My mother had traveled back to Africa, and when she came back she had brought me back this cream that she said would be good for my skin. Once again, without researching the ingredients, the cream she gave me had a super high active ingredients of steroids that was preventing me from breakouts. I thought my skin was getting better, but it wasn’t. It was a quick fix. When the cream ran out, my flare up came back again which is what I’m dealing with now. I was at work last night, & i came across your video & i could relate so much to what you were going through, that was me. I was dealing with mold issue & a horrible diet. Reading your blog & watching your Youtube video educated me on so much. I love the fact, that you did you research & aren”t throwing “facts”. My question to you, was your mistake to healing your skin was eating healthy rather than eating a plant based diet. & also, is there any meal plans that you can offer for a plant based diet. Lastly. I appreciate you so much, for this you don’t even understand!

    Reply
    • Joanne RH
      April 22, 2019 / 9:16 am

      Your message was so touching. I know exactly how you’re feeling right now and although your going through the worst of it now just know that it can and will get better.

      theres so many angles that you need to tackle this at but it is simple at the same time.

      for the first few months stick to a pattern of minimal grains. low fat. with 95% plant based.
      no dairy. eggs. corn or gluten. make sure everything is natural/raw and not processed.
      also add in nuts and seeds. walnuts, brazil nuts and almonds are amazing.

      also try to save cooked meals for the evening but that said do what u can do as best u can do it. i didnt always stick to this because i couldnt either because of money or other circumstances.

      lastly pray. theres so many things i didnt understand or couldnt find answers to and i found them in prayer or reading the Word.
      When something is broken always best to go back to the maker … 🙂

      Reply
    • Joanne RH
      August 2, 2019 / 9:07 am

      Can you send me a DM on instagram or send me an email.
      I want to make sure I cover everything in my response!

      Reply

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