Making a change: Going (more) plant-based

A few weeks ago, I made a choice to move towards a more plant-based, whole food lifestyle. 

As a formerly purely clean eater (with a "flexitarian" diet of fruits, veggies, chicken breast & salmon, and almost zero oil/spices), when I tried out flexible dieting, incorporating "junk" or processed food into my diet, it threw my body out of whack. This resulted in random post-eating episodes of extreme bloating (not the typical "I feel fat" bloat; more of a six-months-preggo belly) coupled with intense stomach cramps/pain. After seeing some doctors, and even lately an allergist, the hunch that I had all along could be true: I was quite possibly intolerant to some food/food groups.

Although I can't exactly pinpoint the cause of these episodes, I've noticed that meat, especially red meat, seems to upset my system. So lately, I've been dialing back on processed food and meat, and cooking with fresh market-bought produce. 

For breakfast, snacks, and other sweet treats, it's pretty easy to come up with food ideas but for savoury dishes, I find it much harder to find filling and flavourful food that's actually satisfying enough to count as a meal. (Veggies can be tricky sometimes!)

Note: This doesn't mean I'm going fully vegan/vegetarian as my doctor suggested against those for now (too much veggies/beans would build up too much gas and add to the bloating problem), so I'm meeting a happy medium with trying to make pescetarian choices, with occasional meat. This is only temporary though, for now, as ultimately, I want a healthy lifestyle that is actually sustainable for me.

I'll be posting a bunch of meal ideas and recipes soon, watch out for those!