More About Me

I am a german student of Childhood Studies and Children´s Rights with a BA in Islamic Studies- I am also an examined foreign language correspondent and am currently working for an NGO in Berlin that cares for young asylum seekers in Germany.

So now you are probably asking yourself: what has this to do with food and health? The answer is - Nothing! This is just what I do besides reading books about raw food and other healthy diets. My mother always cared a lot about a healthy lifestyle and diet and so I grew up with a great consciousness of eating healthy, which became a quite natural way of living for me and which I ever since practiced with great passion and fun. Eating healthy for me is a never ending adventure. I always find out something new and it never gets boring. I see it as a kind of self experiment. 

A healthy lifestyle is not a sacrifice for me and I am also not doing this because I want to loose weight. I belong to the people who can eat and eat and never get really fat. Sorry ;) Actually I had quite the opposite experiences - People would ask me if I am ok, that I look too skinny and believe me or not but I imagine this is as annoying as somebody telling you that you are too fat. That´s why I had short periods in my life when I was younger where I would stuff myself with all sorts of sugary sweets and other stuff. 

No, I just want to live healthy. I want to feel vivid and energetic. I want to glow and feel really good about myself. I have seen a lot of people suffering health wise (mentally and physically - often this is interdependent)and so I am always very thankful of what I have. Keeping me healthy with this way of life is like worshipping my body and soul. And a healthy lifestyle includes so much more than only food. It is a about what you think about yourself, what you think about others,  how you are treating yourself - do you criticize yourself a lot for example? Are you exploiting your body? Are you putting yourself under constant stress? Do you give yourself breaks? Do you forgive yourself? Are you drinking too much alcohol? And then there are more things that are important like sleeping enough, connection with other people, relationships, exercising/work out, if you feel fulfilled with your work, spirituality...etc.

Writing this Blog I would like to mainly focus on healthy food. I will also get back to some of these other points that I mentioned before, but I would like to take you with me on my journey through the jungle of diets, some myths about some foods and diets, a journey that comes across so many obstacles and misunderstandings and confusion sometimes. Every day I find so many posts and adds of what is the best way to eat, which supplement to take, which superfood to buy, weird statistics and studies...IT IS VERY CONFUSING SOMETIMES. And it takes a lot of time to find your way through this (Do not believe all this stuff on the internet. Get good and sufficient literature and inform yourself as much as possible). So I hope by showing you my way, my journey I might inspire you and give you new insights. 

You know,  a few years ago I started to read a lot about raw food and a lot of these things made much sense to me so I integrated raw food more and more into my daily life until last year I started to eat completely raw and I have to say I felt really amazing and it had a lot of health benefits for me. Before I suffered from heartburn and I felt exhausted all the time and I could not sleep well, my skin looked sallow although I was eating really healthy and I was wondering where this came from...So all these symptoms  disappeared even quite quickly on my raw food diet. I felt energetic and fresh so I started to work out a lot and I felt so much better about myself. 

Then the winter came and there were way less fruits and vegetables available (in Germany food can still be very seasonal) and sometimes I would feel like eating something warm and a friend of mine told me that in chinese medicine they say you should eat hot/cooked food in the winter what also made sense to me. Then I started to study again and I had less time and I did not get used enough to making raw food very quickly so I was lacking time to prepare the food all the time. One thing came to the other and I felt that I have to change my diet again. 

So I started to eat a "normal vegetarian partly vegan" diet. I could still profit from my health benefits of the raw food diet. And I was still eating a lot of fruits and veggies. Also, as my boyfriend is a chef in a vegan restaurant, the food we eat is pretty amazing. 

When I was living on a raw food diet I was a little disturbed about the regimental way of doing it by this "movement" and also by the fact that many foodists claim that they are "green", and care so much for the environment and then order their fruits that have to be flown in from costa rica and thailand or somewhere else. 

I felt a little bit confused. If I lived in a country where I could naturally have all these fruits available all the time I would definitely live mostly or only raw. At the same time I want a diet and lifestyle that is healthy and makes me feel good but is also practicable where I live. 

Another factor is that it should be socially practicable. Oh talking about this, there is one BIG RULE for me because I travel a lot or might even live for a while in a different country - I made this rule that whenever I am in a new environment, in a different culture I will always respect the culture and customs. So when I am invited and they cook for me and it is considered to be rude to turn down the meal I would most likely eat the meat or whatever they cooked that I would usually never eat. You might consider this opportunistic or something else but this is one of my core principals. It really depends on the circumstances and if I feel that there is room to mention my diet I would try to explain and eat what is the best option in that moment. Life is an adventure and you should stay open and flexible and certain situations really require flexibility. 

There is another point I want to talk about which is pretty important that people tend to ignore by trying to do everything right or to stick to one diet no matter what. It is INTUITION. This is really important. You should listen to your body. Your body will always tell you what you need. I am not talking about - Oh my body tells me I really should eat this cream cake or I should really smoke this cigarette. NO! You should not give in cravings. But maybe you life according to a certain diet and you feel dizzy or weak. That is a sign. You should really listen to it and not ignore these signs. Or you do not like the smell of a certain fruit but you convince yourself because it is supposed to be very good for you...yeah maybe but maybe it is not good for YOU! Listening to your body is one of the most important things also when it comes to other aspects of your life. 

Recently I felt that I have found a really balanced way of eating healthy which fits quite well into my lifestyle and integrates all the aspect that I like. I feel very good and powerful with this diet. I still eat I would say 70 - 80% raw. But if I feel like eating a hot soup I make one or I am out the whole day and I have to eat somewhere I eat the healthiest option available there. 

I really like roasted sunflower seeds on my salad for example. It gives a special taste to my salads as well as steamed mushrooms and I have to say I cannot see any bad in that. Once a week I might feel like eating an omelette so I eat it. I get my eggs from the farm though. I avoid white bread and I do not want to eat much pasta and white rice and oil. I use oil as little as possible and if I do I use good oils. For frying for example sesame oil is really good because it does not burn so fast. I prefer steamed over cooked...So I integrate a lot of the things I have read about and made my own special diet out of it. 

So GET INSPIRED by my special recipes and tips for a healthy lifestyle and listen to yourself. Be creative, inform yourself, be good to yourself!

And if you have any questions or you want me to write something in German you can always get back to me. I am happy to help you and hope you are enjoying this journey with me!