Iwona Roslonek is a 53-year-old immigrant from Poland residing in Vancouver, Canada. She is a mother of two (ages 19 and 22 years old), has a master’s of science in Economics and is a certified public accountant having worked as controller/CFO for the insurance industry for most of her career. Recently, Iwona changed her career to launch a transformational coaching business. She recognizes that people are struggling with life – personal, spiritual and health – and wants to give back what she’s learned having overcome problems and challenges to ultimately attain harmony and balance.
When did you adopt a plant-based diet and why did you do it?
I adopted a plant-based diet in February 2012. Prior to that, when I was pregnant with my children, I was following a vegetarian diet because I couldn’t look at meat, it was unappetizing – but not for a conscious reason. In February 2012, I watched Earthlings and The Best Speech You Will Ever Hear by Gary Yourofsky. I was paralyzed and could not believe that this was happening and that I was participating in it by eating sausages and chicken. I went vegan on the same day. It was like a switch. I could not believe all my life I have lived completely oblivious to the horrors and tortures of the slaughterhouse. It was the beginning of my own spiritual journey, of learning who I am at the core. Until that moment, I’ve been functioning in a state of being asleep, and I wanted to wake up as a woman and human being, and noticing the injustices we perpetuate upon innocent animals became a trigger to my spiritual awakening.
How did your diet change?
Since going vegan, I eat more varied and yummy dishes. I’ve always cooked homemade meals (since childhood). I enjoy good food, so I don’t deprive myself. After going vegan, I started seeking out dishes from Indian and Asian cultures. I was blown away by all the flavors, spices and variety. Once I figured out my basic staples, meal planning became simple. Breakfast is usually oatmeal cooked with chopped apples, cinnamon, plant-milks, berries and nuts. My oatmeal is a work of art! Sometimes I’ll make overnight oats as it’s very handy if I’m in a rush. Because I’m busy, I believe food should be simple and easy to prepare. If I want something savory in the morning, I’ll prepare a tofu scramble with lots of veggies, spices and flavors like curry, smoked paprika, sundried tomatoes, caramelized onion and lots of garlic. I will also bake my own artisan sourdough bread which is an art form in itself.
My lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day is often curry on rice, millet or buckwheat with lots of veggies. I may modify this to be a chickpea or lentil curry or mushrooms with coconut milk. I also enjoy a big pan of garlicky roasted veggies with tarragon dipped in hummus, and I love big salads. Texture is important to me so I often add pecans or pistachio nuts to my dishes. There is such a huge bounty of plants that we can choose from. It’s helpful to come up with staples you always have in your pantry and refrigerator. I’m also big on home-made fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles and fermented beets – which are good for gut bacteria. Veggie chili with dates, dark chocolate, millet or buckwheat, and sliced avocado with lime is also something I enjoy.
Dinner or supper is a small meal and is often soup, such as Ukrainian borscht or curry chili with a piece of sourdough bread or a wrap with falafel, vegan tzatziki, hummus and roasted eggplant.
Finally, batch cooking helps me to save time and money throughout the week. I’ll make enough food for several days, and put into individual portion-size containers to freeze until I’m ready to eat them.
You recently embarked on a 40-day veggie fast diet. Tell me more about what that is and why you did it.
Prior to the fast, I was on the path of studying meditation. I would meditate for over an hour and study ancient scriptures. I discovered that the philosophy of yoga is about the emptying of our conditioning to arrive at our true authentic self. This led me to researching fasting. I spent 10 months learning more about fasting as a healing therapy, and weight loss. Proper fasting is not merely a diet but for the full benefit it is combined with a spiritual aspect. There is prayer and emptying of consumption, along with connection to a higher intelligence or being.
Around the time I was studying meditation and learning about fasting, I had an unexplained inflammation with my ankle and heard that if I restricted calories to 0 or under 600 calories, it could help. I learned that if my body doesn’t have food to digest, it will digest itself (process known as autophagy) and remove unhealthy cells such as fungus, viruses, inflammation and amyloid plaques which are found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Whatever sickly cells that were lurking inside of my body, I decided to address it through fasting. I traveled to Poland where I participated in a retreat under medical supervision. I worked with a physician to figure out my program to address the pain in my ankle by undertaking a 40-day calorie-restricted fast, and on November 23, 2018, I completed it. I got rid of the pain in my ankle and lost 18 pounds.
I have a family history of cancer and Alzheimer’s, so I feel this fast can help in preventing sick cells from developing inside of my body into the chronic disease.
What did a typical day entail with the retreat? What did you experience during the fast?
The retreat had an organized schedule that we followed. This schedule started with a prayer. After a half hour of prayer, we’d go into the woods to power walk and stretch. After early morning physical activity, we’d have breakfast, prayer and exercise again. Mid-morning, we had a lecture about diet and how to heal the body with a whole-food, plant-based diet. Around noon, we’d have lunch, then nap time, power walk, another lecture and then supper. After supper, we had another exercise class and a prayer. Each day we ate three calorie-restricted meals with an abundance of veggies.
It was important for me to do something like this under supervision of someone who knows what they were doing. I recommend others use an expert, because some people go through healing crisis where by day 2 or 3 they may experience massive headaches, skin rash, vomiting, and diarrhea. This is their bodies detoxing from the accumulated junk and poor lifestyle. It also helps to have emotional support from people who have done it before. I do not recommend fasting when in the middle of a stressful time in your life, because fasting is about slowing down, and detaching from the busy life to get the benefit from the spiritual component. It’s important to get the full benefit from the fast. It’s not just the diet, the other benefits of starting the journey to a better you.
Today, we don’t know how to be silent. We are polluted by noise at all time. Dealing with silence is very uncomfortable at first, but it is silence which is the language of our soul and after a while dwelling in silence develops into the most wonderful feeling. What I mean by silence is adhering to a daily meditation practice when you don’t need constant stimulation from the external world.
As far as the diet, every meal started with a glass of carrot juice and a glass of fermented beet juice. The meals were designed to be rich in probiotics as a way to heal the gut and boost the immune system. There is a link between the gut and our moods and intuition hence the term “gut feeling” and how the gut interacts with our brain. We’d have probiotics with every meal. Lots of salads and fermented vegetables. No oil, seeds, nuts and starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, grains, etc.) because the fast is designed to be low calorie. The final course was a cauliflower soup or steamed vegetables. It was hard to go through all dishes as there was so much fiber. After a few days, bowel movements became regular and frequent: two to three times per day.
How did you transition out of this intermittent fast diet?
I traveled back home to Vancouver, Canada to continue the fast for the full 40 days. I bought books about fasting and recipes. After 40 days, the procedure to exit the fast is for the same amount of days as the fast. Abrupt exit from the fast would result in the yo-yo effect and weight gain over and above the starting weight. When you go down to 600 calories, but normally consume 2000, you have to use a gradual approach so your metabolism has time to adjust. This meant that my change in daily calories were about 35 calories more per day (2000 – 600 = 1400 / 40 day = 35 calories per day). Also, it’s important to include physical activity like stretching and walking at a light to moderate intensity.
Are you going to eat differently from what you ate prior to starting the fast?
I plan to make changes as I go back to my new normal meals. Before I would have oats, vegan pancakes. Now, after eating 120 salads a new habit formed and I will start every meal with a big salad. I can enjoy it with avocado and pecans, so any additional food will be consumed in smaller quantities. I will also eliminate all processed oils and replace them with whole oil rich olives, seeds and nuts. I had no idea I could lose all the wobbly parts of my body – it feels great! At age 53, I weigh less than I did at 18! There is this perception that during menopause it is normal for a woman to gain weight. Well fasting will dispute such findings. All 40 participants of the fasting retreat lost weight regardless of their age or health condition.
If you have a history of eating disorders or body image challenges, I would not recommend this program. This fasting has to be done for the right reason and must be dedicated to something other than yourself. It’s called a Daniel’s Fast (after the biblical Daniel who fasted and retained excellent health and vigor) – Jesus fasted, Moses and Buddha fasted. It is a time to stop in your life and reassess and make space for something new. It’s more than losing weight. It’s about rebirth and renewal. Weight loss is just a by-product of the process, but should not be the reason for fasting.
What advice do you have for someone wanting to take control of their health?
There are two types of people – those who are driven by their rational minds and others by their emotional minds. For the rational minds that need proof there are so many on-line scientific resources which prove the beneficial effects of the plant-based diet. Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and inventor of glycemic index Dr. David Jenkins recommends the vegan diet to all. The University of Oxford estimated medical savings of going vegan at $30 trillion by 2050! How Not to Die is a great source of scientific nutritional research, nutritionfacts.org, Joel Fuhrman, Physicians for Responsible Medicine and many others. Watch documentaries like Forks Over Knives, Eating You Alive and What the Health. Become curious what lies beyond your conditioning and habit. That is the field where progress and enlightenment is born.
If you are more governed by emotions, watch documentaries such as Earthlings, Cowspiracy, Unity, and on-line materials portraying the horrors of factory farming, slaughterhouses and their destruction to our planet caused by animal genocide. Ponder how your daily actions and choices impact others. Your heart will overrule your mind because your conditioned mind will always come up with excuses to preserve the status quo. However, if you have a passion in your heart and want your life to be governed by love and empathy for others, by justice and both human-rights and non-human animal rights, it will spur you to action. All living beings, human-animal-tree have the right to a healthy, joyful and happy life. This is a lifestyle for someone whose core value is love. Doesn’t it include us all?
Is there anything else you’d like to offer?
Yes, I have one final note. Weight problems are often a manifestation of other problems: emotional burdens and stress. We carry our issues in our tissues. We medicate ourselves with the most accessible soothing device known to mankind, with food. We are eating our emotions. To win the war on the ever-growing bulge, we must first address our limiting beliefs. We must uncover the genius within. Make room for its birth. It is there. It has always been there but hidden. I assist my clients in mastering The Art of Joyful Living because I have conquered my own problems and unleashed my own genius. They do not have to change into something else but rather to detox from something they are not. They are whole.
You can connect with Iwona through LinkedIn: Iwona Roslonek, Transformational Coach and Facebook: Iwona Roslonek, Intensive Lifestyle Change.