7 years ago, my body began to reject meat. No matter which meat I tried to eat, all I could taste was death; I could literally taste the lifelessness of a once very-much-alive being. After many failed attempts to continue life as normal, these experiences naturally led me to watch all the documentaries that exposed the meat industrial complex. I felt utterly repulsed by the reality of these precious animals, the way they were treated in their short lives, and ultimately butchered without any reverence, all for a fast & robust profit. This cruelty coupled with the environmental impacts that these kinds of practices wreak havoc on our air & soil quality made this decision quite easy for me. And so the rest was history. I quickly told all my loved ones about my new vow to never eat meat again.
My Venezuelan family didn’t quite understand and were concerned about my caloric needs because meat was always an integral part of our ancestral nourishment. I ignored their concerns because there was simply no way I could stomach meat anymore, even at the expense of my own health.
Eventually I began to lose weight at an alarming rate, and I knew something needed to change. I needed to consciously take a look at my eating habits and increase my nutrient & caloric intake. I eventually found a “healthy” balance and for the next 7 years, I upheld my vow of not eating meat - low energy, low iron levels, & all.
As I began my life-calling in birthwork, specifically postpartum care, I became acutely aware of the deep cellular nourishment & healing medicine that meat provides a new mother. I learned how meat objectively holds the most bioavailable forms of crucial vitamins & minerals like iron, b vitamins, folate, riboflavin, thiamin, and of course - protein!! All crucial for a healthy pregnancy & postpartum experience. I even told myself “maybe when I’m postpartum, I think I'll sip on some bone broth.” Essentially telling myself that only after I lose all the blood & minerals that come with birth will my body feel worthy of this kind of nourishment.
All of my birthwork teachers & mentors came from indigenous backgrounds and I began to open my eyes to another way of consciously consuming meat - the ancestral way that honors the symbiotic relationship between human & animal. Our ancestors practiced sustainable ways of hunting, never over-doing it, and always giving thanks to God, the cosmos, and mother nature for the nourishment. I began to learn about regenerative farming practices and how true pasture-raised grass-fed cows & bison roaming the land benefits the soil quality, thus our food quality, and the environment overall. I learned about the importance of eating locally & seasonally to combat our mono-cropping practices that simply degrade soil nutrients and eventually desecrate the land - something many don’t acknowledge when it comes to the sustainability of plant-based diets. I learned about the importance of honoring all parts of the animal that would otherwise go to waste like the organs & tallow (beef fat) for cooking and skin-care.
Eventually, I began my cyclical health journey which led me to learn about feeding my ever-changing hormonal landscape as a cyclical being. I learned that our body’s hormonal nutrient-needs during ovulation differ from our body’s hormonal nutrient-needs during our bleed. The universe reminded me time & time again about how nourishing & supportive meat can be for our hormones, and thus our cyclical health overall. I logically came to the conclusion that seasonal, local, & omnivorous (plants & animals) eating stood as the most environmentally sustainable, most nutritionally dense, and ancestral way to enjoy food, but this still wasn’t enough for me to start eating meat again - my aversion was simply too strong.
It wasn’t until about a year ago that I truly began to crave meat again. I would look at a piece of steak and fantasize biting into it when no one was looking. I officially began restricting my body from its cravings over and over again. This to me felt hypocritical because I constantly preach to my clients (TTC, pregnant, postpartum, cycling girlies) about the importance of listening to your body’s needs and honoring your intuition when it speaks to you. I was doing the exact opposite & ultimately restricting much-needed nutrients to my body that was longing for true nourishment that I deprived myself of for 7 years. Cravings are the language of the body calling for specific nourishment, and if we deprive ourselves of what our bodies are asking for, we're essentially depleting our own energy source - a form of self sabotage that effected every aspect of my life.
I then began to pick up on a pattern that I felt so tired with low motivation during my inner spring (follicular), which is a time I “should” be feeling high-energy and filled with inspiration. One day I lost it and said “ENOUGH” and told my partner “I need a steak. TONIGHT.” and he was shooook, but easily honored my wishes. I finally realized that there is nothing more unrelatable to my body and my intuition than restricting nourishment to uphold a label that no longer served me. After yoga that day, we went to Sprouts and purchased a local pasture-raised & grass-fed steak. He cooked it with a pinch of salt & some fresh rosemary from our garden. I said a little prayer & thanked the beautiful sacred cow for its sacrifice to feed my under-nourished body on a cellular level. And ever since then, I felt a freedom that I’ve never felt before. If I crave something, I honor my body’s intelligence and feed myself. Intuitive eating is that simple.
This led me to developing an intuitive awareness of my body's ever-changing cyclical needs to truly nourish myself without restricting.
I began to embody something that I like to call intuitive cyclical eating:
intuitive = our body’s innate wisdom without rational thought (language of the body)
cyclical = hormonally, no two days are the same
eating = nourishment for our cells
This process has gifted me with an increased attunement to my body’s cyclical needs, more energy, more balanced mood, more resilience to life's challenges, and more confidence in my inner wisdom.
If you're interested in learning more about intuitive cyclical nourishment, join me live on zoom as I discuss intuitive cyclical eating for hormonal harmony & nourishing your body’s unique physiology on Tuesday, July 9th @ 1PM ET.
With love & gratitude,
Ariana Nicole <3
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