For nearly 15 years I lived my life as a vegan raw foodie. I loved how clean, light and clear I looked and felt. I loved how I was able to reverse several niggling health issues I’d had for most of my life through food and lifestyle choices. I loved how much I learned about myself, the power of clean, living food, and what my body really needs to recalibrate to true vitality and life itself.

I loved it SO much that I became a gourmet raw food chef and instructor, studying at the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute, at Matthew Kenney’s M.A.K.E., and at Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center. I taught raw food classes and had the immense pleasure of watching people’s health and lives be completely transformed. I was in love! And very invested.

Something I haven’t talked about before now is how my body started to give me some very clear and unwavering signs about what it needed – something it wasn’t getting from this diet and lifestyle I was so in love with.

About 9 years into my raw lifestyle I found myself persistently thinking about a rosemary grilled chicken breast that Whole Foods sold in their prepared food case. It was baffling to me at the time. I’d been a VEGAN for years! And I was a raw foodie, for goodness sake! The idea of eating a chicken breast really confronted a lot of my beliefs, and felt completely unacceptable to me.

I fought that message from my body for more than 6 months, believing whole-heartedly that I was just weak or maybe I needed to drink more green juice. But when these persistent thoughts about this grilled rosemary chicken breast just wouldn’t go away, I finally gave in. I took myself to Whole Foods, bought myself one rosemary grilled chicken breast, and ate it.

My mind fought the experience through and through, every step of the way. But my body was SO grateful that I finally listened and followed through.

I’ve heard similar stories from others – functional medicine doctors, coaches, friends and even some brave colleagues who’ve been willing to admit when a chosen diet or lifestyle is no longer working for them. I’ve also known people who were convinced that a particular way of eating was THE way for them – even when their hair and teeth started to fall out, and their health started to deteriorate in big ways.

With raw foods I thought I’d found my “forever way” of eating, but then my body started to tell me otherwise. Looking back I can see that being a vegan raw foodie was perfect for the life phase I’d been in when I discovered that diet and lifestyle. But when I started to believe that it was going to be the best way for me to eat forever, that’s where I fell into the all-too-common trap so many of us fall in to.

When my lifestyle shifted and I entered into a new life phase, my body’s needs shifted as well. It makes sense, doesn’t it? The diet of a 15-year old girl is going to look different than the diet of an 80-year old woman. The diet of a pregnant woman is going to look different from the diet of a single, career-focused woman in her 30’s. These are all different life phases, each requiring a different diet to support the different responsibilities and energies that are present within them.

You might recall a time in your life when you needed more of something than you’d been eating before. For example, when I was running track in college I ate a lot more carbohydrates than I normally do. When I was breast feeding my son I ate a lot more fat than I normally do. When I was in my intense healing and rebuilding process, I required more protein – of all kinds – than I’d eaten in the past.

The very cleansing, re-calibrating, re-aligning raw vegan diet I’d been following and loving was perfect for my late 20’s and 30’s. But I realized that it wasn’t aligned for the new phase of life I was in. It’s not healthy to stay in a constant state of cleansing, re-calibrating and re-aligning. Sometimes the body needs to rebuild, strengthen, ground, deepen, celebrate, heal, sustain or surrender – and your diet needs to be able to support those needs, too.

When you allow your diet to evolve WITH you, you step into a new level of nourishment – one that gives your body the opportunity to be as vibrant, beautiful and powerful as it can possibly be.

When you get overly attached to a particular way of eating or living, it’s very easy to stop listening to the wisdom that your body is constantly sharing with you. Once you’ve gone deaf to what your body is telling you, you run the risk of doing more harm than good.

There is a cycle and rhythm to everything – including one that informs your eating behaviors, your cravings… and even where you’re at with life itself.

Are you allowing yourself and your diet to be in alignment with the phase of life you’re in?

With love and Transcendent Health,

Alicia

PS: Want to learn more about the cycles and rhythms that are weaving their way throughout your body and life, so that you can look and feel your very best? Come join the conversation in my free, private online community here!