One Year of Blogging

Oh my Gosh you guys!

I’ve been spoiled with tons of truly mind-blowing comments yesterday. I was really surprised to see that many comments pouring in and I loved reading each and every one of them. I was touched to see so how many of you not just like the blog, but appreciate it on a deeper level. I knew that because of my history people who struggle with food, weight and body-image can relate to my writings but I also loved finding out some of you made the switch to veganism because of the blog, or started cooking their own meals, stopped calorie-counting and weight-obsessing and instead fell in love with nurturing your body through wholesome foods. So many great stories.

I could go on and on but instead of getting even more sappy here I just want to express my gratitude. Know that I adore each and every one of you for leaving me a comment and I plan on sticking around for quite some time .

Before I start my trip down memory lane I have a request: if you’ve send me an email somewhere over the last few days, please be patient! I have received about double the amount of emails I normally receive, plus I’m right in my exam weeks. I will respond to your emails asap but it will take a little longer than usual .

In One Year of The Fruit Pursuit I….

Recovered from my eating disorder

Discovering food blogs is I think one of the biggest contributors to me recovering. A whole new world opened up to me the day I discovered blogs like The Fitnessista and OhSheGlows. These women were having SO much fun with food. They were fit, healthy, interested in sports, yet they spend hours cooking, baking, eating. At first I couldn’t fathom this.  Could fitness go hand in hand with a love for good food? Apparently so.

Not too long after falling in love with food blogs I decided to start my own. In the beginning I wrote mostly about what I ate in a day and what my workouts were. I chose to not mention my eating disorder from the start so I could create a healthy surroundings for myself even if it was just online, where I could freely talk about my passion (food, fitness, health) without being reminded I still had a long ways to go myself.

Reading food blogs and blogging myself has been my number one tool in recovery. Food and healthy-living blogs are a unique concept in that they unite a special breed of people. All foodies at heart but with a healthy obsession for health and well-being added to the mix. Once in awe of these women, I consider myself to be one of them now. One of those people that one day spends hours in the kitchen whipping up muffin batch after muffin batch, and the the next day creates a scrumptious raw meal and goes to Bikram yoga or for a run. One of those people that loves good food, good nutrition and exercise and isn’t afraid to go for all.

Found my real passion

Like I mentioned above, I was first and foremost still blogging about what foods I ate and what exercise I did. My food choices were still very much macronutrient oriented (carbs, fats, proteins) because I was still focused mostly on the effects certain foods had on ones looks and weight. I was chasing after a diet and lifestyle that would enable me stay really slim and toned, while working out like a madman.

All of this gradually (and sometimes not so gradually) changed in the course of last year, and I have a strong suspicion I wouldn’t have been where I am today if it wasn’t for blogging and spending time reading other blogs. I might have found my way eventually but I am happy I am where I am now because I feel better than ever. Healthier, wiser,  more passionate and more ambituous than ever.

Ironically, today I have found that ‘diet’ I was chasing after. But only because I gave up obsessing over calories in and calories out to keep my weight down and started only paying attention to my health and well-being. Calories, carb, fat and protein grams now hardly mean anything to me. I eat the opposite of what I strived for for so many years during my eating disorder and during my initial recovery phase: high fat, high carb, low protein. Yet I am slim and toned and my weight is solid like a rock for the first time in years.

It was food blogs that opened my eyes to the possibility of vegan diets, raw food diets, a holistic approach to health and even fitness. Whereas before I was a cardio + weights + protein gal, I now saw a glimpse of this whole other ‘world’ out there. I had fooled myself for a long time into thinking fitness equaled health, and health equaled well-being.

My decicion to go vegan was the first step in me becoming more interested in holistic health. After some time eating became a whole new experience for me. I felt such gratitude to be able to eat with pride and joy, feeling good about my food choices, instead of being ridden by guilt and anxiety (does it have enough protein? how many calories is in this?). Veganism has changed my relationship with food forever, and for the better.

As you all know in the last couple of months I have become a fan of raw and detoxifying diets. Raw food did something for me not even veganism could: I could let go of all my old beliefs surrounding food and nutrition and find a way of eating and living that really encompasses well-being (not just health, or fitness). I learned even more about what actual, real foods are. I let go of of mainstream thinking about food and nutrition and found what works best for me.

For me, raw foods feed on a cellular level. I no longer believe I need to carefully balance what I eat as most of what goes in my mouth is fresh fruits and vegetables. Raw food and detoxing have taught me things about the body and mind I could never have imagined eating and living the way I did before. In short, food, fitness and my well-being are becoming more and more of a given. I automatically reach for healthy foods, I find comfort in knowing my body gets all that it needs without me having to plan or overthink anything, and I don’t slave away for cardio and weights anymore to stay slim. Knowing that this can come natural for anyone is what drives me to keep writing.

Blogging has made me realized that what I love most is sharing my knowledge with a big audience. I love the interaction, and I crave reaching as many people as I can. In my future as a health care professional I foresee a website, book(s) and workshops, among other things!

Discovered a lot of new things

Blogging has added a lot of awesome things to my life. Baking, raw cacao, Green Monsters, oat bran, raw foods, iHerb.com, BIKRAM. Um hello, these things define me.

Met amazing new people

Especially now with my sometimes quirky eating habits and ‘alternative’ take on health, it is great to feel the support from a group of people that gets you. I get comments and elaborate emails daily ranging from wanting to let me know how much they appreciate my writing to having a whole slew of questions about switching to healthy eating/veganism/raw foods. With the risk of sounding like a the founder of some cult: I get  a kick out of knowing there’s so many of us out there!

The feedback I receive is invaluable to me. It reminds me day after day again I am doing something good. I am putting myself out there sometimes, both personally and professionally, but it is making me stronger and wiser. After so many years of struggling with food and my health I am now finally at the brink of something truly amazing and I see it as a gift to be able to share this with others.

I even got the opportunity to meet up with some of these lovely girls in real life two weeks ago. To me, this is still crazy!

Thanks for sticking with me all this time! Tomorrow it’s back to regular scheduled programming (honestly, this has been fun but I have SO much to update on!). In the meantime, don’t forget to enter my give-away.

A small note on the give-away: anyone can enter. If you don’t have social media, just leave a comment anyway. If you screwed up the tagging, don’t sweat it. Especially with all the great comments pouring in yesterday I realized, blogging is not a contest, not about who has the most followers. It’s about the tight community we have!

The give-away will stay open for a few more days.

Love,

Sabine