Would you let me tell you the story that converted me to eating vegan because this might help you avoid an amazing amount of bad moods if you're a little bit like me?
The real reason I started eating vegan!
What do I mean by eating vegan?
This is what I eat every four days. This is a smoothie, I drink this and it contains the following.
This is about a kilogram or two pounds of apples, grapes and strawberries.
Then I've got four pineapples. I've got two entire tubs of baby kale and spinach. I've got a bag of broccoli and a bag of Brussels sprouts.
This is half of a five pound bag of carrots and a tub of watermelon. I'll probably throw in a banana and some mandarins in there as well.
This is what I eat.
Every four days I break it down into a smoothie right here.
I'll have a quarter of this every four days and it takes two of these big cups full every day. I already had one today, I'm hyped up and I am energized right now.
How did I end up eating this way?
Is it because eating vegan is one of the best things I can do in terms of making an impact on poverty and on having a positive influence on the environment?
No, that's not what got me started eating vegan.
Is it because of the morality of killing animals or some religion?
No, that didn't get me going on eating vegan either.
I used to eat complete trash, the standard American diet and I wasn't interested in changing until this one little thing happened.
I was at the Detroit Metro Airport, I stopped for a meal, breakfast. I was in a really good mood, in other words, it was a normal day. I was in a great mood. I was enjoying life and guess what?
I ordered something that had three to five different kinds of meat, all kinds of animal product in it. It was extremely filling. When I walked out of the restaurant, within a few steps of leaving the restaurant, my very happy, on top of the world, feeling good mood turned into suicidal depression in just minutes.
Never mind that my wife and daughter were there, never mind that nothing had changed, that there was no problem. The mood went completely downhill. I'm an alcoholic, I go to meetings every day and I'm grateful for three years of sobriety. Guess what I was thinking about?
A year ago after I was eating that meal and finished with it, I was looking around the airport at like ten o'clock in the morning or maybe eleven or noon, thinking about a drink because, I felt so bad, I wanted to numb the pain of it. Then I was remembering, "Well, I'm alcoholic, I can't drink maybe, suicide will fix the problem."
Now, a lot of us like to put this into all of these extremely complicated medical problems like, "Oh my God, Jerry, you have depression, you blah, blah, blah." It's actually really simple and I've seen the evidence first hand as I've switched my diet to eating these vegan foods, those moods almost never come up anymore.
Now, sure, occasionally, something does happen, but those moods used to come up for me all the time. Thank God I didn't go get help and get on some medication. Thank God I realized what I just did that caused what immediately happened afterwards.
Now, the exact way this comes about in all of our lives is likely to be unique. You might eat the same kind of meal and you might not think about drinking liquor and killing yourself. You might just think, "God, the world really sucks or I'm just so fat and disgusting." Whatever your own shame thoughts are, the form of those may be different. For me, that's exactly what my thoughts looked like. Then I realized, "Oh my God, what I ate just did that to me and if I eat different, then I don't have to feel this way."
That selfish motivation is what motivated me to make this switch. I've heard some people say, "Man, you're so amazing, inspiring."
I'm just selfish!
I don't want to feel bad. I don't want to hurt. I don't want to be depressed. I don't want to think about killing myself. I don't want to think about killing other people. I also don't watch things like crime shows anymore whatever the newest show is people are into, I don't watch that because, that also contributes.
One of the number one factors I've personally found for me in depression and also in things like anxiety, and also in terms of my personal energy is what I eat.
That's why I eat this way today because not only does it minimize the bad moods, it maximizes the good moods.
Do you know why I am so hyped up and energized right now?
Guess what I ate?
That’s what I ate.
That's why I'm so energized and hyped up.
I've also had one cup of ground up Matcha tea.
I also had some of this Teaki Hut instant black tea powder.
That's what I've had this morning. That naturally hypes me up to an incredible amount.
Thank you if you've asked, "Jerry, how do you have so much energy and enthusiasm?"
What I eat and put in my body has a huge impact. The only reason is though because I've learned so many times by doing it the other way, I've had hundreds if not thousands of hangovers days sick throwing up. I have poisoned my body so many times that I don't want that anymore.
I want to feel good all the time because if I feel good all the time, I'm a better husband, I'm a better father, I'm a better family member, I'm a better friend, I'm a better YouTuber, I'm a better blogger with Steem. I do better in all areas of my life when I feel better, and so do the rest of us. I eat this way because it makes me feel really good, better than alcohol, better than drugs.
Now, to be fair, I've only smoked marijuana and I haven't done a whole lot of drugs, so full disclosure. Your results may differ slightly, but I think the point is the same. I eat this way because it leaves me feeling really good all the time.
Here's a great example, I've been sick recently with a little cold. This smoothie that I eat which is filled with fruit and vegetable is so effective at making me feel good, that if I'm sick I can count on feeling the best I feel all day within about an hour or two of having that smoothie.
It works so well that when it wears off, I go back to feeling normal and sick, but for a couple of hours, it works way better than cold medicine. It works way better than taking something to numb the pain because it actually does a lot of good in the body.
You see, our bodies communicate with us by feelings. If you do something your body doesn't like, like have a whole bunch of liquor drinks, maybe 20 or 30 liquor drinks and you wake up the next day with a god awful hangover, that's my body's way of saying, "Stop that."
But it can't say, "Stop that." What it can do is say, "Here you go, you're going to feel miserable." This is the body trying to tell you to stop that. What I've learned is that when I eat and I feel awful, that's my body saying, "Stop that."
That makes it so I'm not craving all these things I used to eat. I'm not craving the diet I used to eat. I don't miss the diet I used to eat all the time because I realize I could go right now and go get whatever I want to eat. The question is, how do I want to feel?
I eat this stuff because I want to feel good. I want to feel good all day, every day and you can say that's selfish, you could say that's good for other people. I hope this is really useful for you because this has been one of the best things I've ever done for myself.
Yes, it's been an unpleasant change. I show you what I eat because figuring this out took me a while. These exact things are really powerful, grapes, strawberries, apples. What I do is, I get this from Publix and I have half of each of these every day.
This is about whatever that is, two pounds and this is already cut up so it's very fast to blend. I put half of one of these in each day. I put a whole pineapple in each day. I put half of one of these in each day and then I put a quarter of each of these bags in. I put an eight of a five-pound bag of carrots in.
Then I put a little extra fruit like watermelon, banana, and mandarins, I change it up a little bit.
Then other than that, I have mainly hummus, whole grains, like if I got some Triscuits around here. I love these Hint of Salt Triscuits right here.
These are my whole grains fix.
Then I often have peanut butter for protein and fat.
Then I'll have homemade hummus.
I eat this almost every single day.
I eat like a robot now, because it is like putting gas in my car. I want to feel the very best all day, every day. I feel free. If I want to have a piece of cake, if I want to go eat a hamburger, I can do that, but I don't, because I don't want to feel bad. I want to feel good.
All this switch, all this little switch takes, that's all the motivation you need. I'm grateful I've a family member asked: "Man, how do you do this? I couldn't just do that."
All of us can very easily change when we see that we'll feel better doing it. It's this fear that we'll feel worse doing something. It's a fear we'll lose ourselves and we'll be someone else, that blocks us. All you need to do is see that your life will be better doing it that way and that's motivation.
Thank you so much for reading this post.
I love you.
You're awesome.
I hope this is helpful and I hope you have a wonderful day today.
Thank you very much for reading this post, which was originally filmed as the video below!
Would you join me today, by leaving a like on this video or upvote this post on Steemit?
The feedback on the video was so positive that I spent about $100 to get this post created for you here out of the video, and then edited it prior to publishing! I appreciate you being here and I hope you have a wonderful day today.
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Love,
Jerry Banfield with edits by @gmichelbkk on the transcript by GoTranscript
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