Jordan Younger, better known as The Balanced Blonde, has been one of my biggest inspirations and role models since I dove into the world of holistic living, wellness, and spirituality two years ago. Not only does Jordan have a blog and podcast (which I follow religiously) but I believe that she also can serve as a role model for all of us in how she approaches food and how that relationship has changed over the years.
The Blonde Vegan…not vegan?
Jordan started her Instagram, @theblondevegan, after graduating Loyola Marymount University. She soon realized that she had a love for food and started a blog mostly around her then plant-based vegan lifestyle. In 2014, after building a strong vegan following and realizing a vegan lifestyle no longer aligned with her life, Jordan published a blog post titled “Why I’m Transitioning Away from Veganism.” As you could imagine, “The Blonde Vegan” not being vegan didn’t really work so she decided to change her brand to The Balanced Blonde–aka all about yoga, spirituality, living holistically AND intuitively.
In the blog post explaining why she no longer felt a plant-based diet served her she wrote, “my body was trying to speak to me for many months and I did not listen. As a result, I grew extremely deficient in a variety of vitamins and hormones and knocked myself way out of whack.”
When a certain diet or lifestyle choice is doing more harm than good to your body, why keep doing it?
What about now?
Fast forward 5 years to today and Jordan is yet again shifting her diet due to listening to her body. Believe it or not, this shift is towards a plant-based diet yet again. After months of inflammation, rashes, and fatigue, Jordan dedicated herself to holistically healing her body.
As you could imagine, Jordan went thought long and hard about shifting towards a more plant based diet. In her recent blog post titled The New Kind of Plant-Based Diet she writes, “I have worked long and hard to transition from veganism to non-veganism in the public eye, and switching back just gave me that feeling of, “oh god, people are going to think I am such a damn hypocrite.”” I don’t blame you, Jordan.
No labels, no problem
In Jordan’s blog post one of the biggest things I took from it was this,
“I still believe in no labels. I believe in eating intuitively, and doing YOU and not listening to what anyone else has to say about what will make you feel the best or this or that. I still believe that we evolve and change over time, and I would be surprised if I didn’t change my eating habits again down the line as my life and journey continues to evolve.
For my own personal body right now, eating in this anti-inflammatory high fruit and high veggie way with lots of raw foods, juices, and also cooked veggies and gluten-free grains / legumes on the occasion has me feeling better than I’ve felt in four and a half years. Maybe five.”
Just because we label something doesn’t make it permanent. If something we identify with (whether it be a diet, friend, or hobby) is causing harm to us, why keep it? I was mostly plant-based for about two years and recently started eating meat again because my body needed it.
Listening to your body
I’d be lying if I said it was easy to truly listen to the things your body wants and feels. We live in a society that teaches us to ignore what our body is trying to tell us. When you constantly are influenced by the media, people around us, and just the chatter in our brains that we are never good enough–how can you expect to be able to listen and provide for your body.
When I first came across The Balanced Blonde, I was in the midst of very disordered thoughts and patterns with my diet. She helped me realized that being overly obsessed with being healthy actually isn’t healthy but also that I don’t have to listen to what everyone around me if saying if my body is telling me otherwise.
One of the many things I love about Jordan is that she is using her platform to inform her followers and allowing the space and information for us to make our own decisions. I attend a Jesuit college and kind of see it as, religion is there if you want it but you don’t have to take it. Same with Jordan, she offers her story and struggles so that we can do what is best for ourselves.
If you don’t follow Jordan (@thebalancedblonde), go ahead and take a break from reading this and follow her. Jordan emanates positive loving energy. If you are looking to deepen your understanding of spirituality, living holistically and intuitively, or if you just like feeds with the prettiest colors and inspirational captions then The Balanced Blonde is for you. Food can be and should be used as medicine. What we put into our body directly correlates with how we feel.
You can find Jordan on Instagram @thebalancedblonde, her blog thebalancedblonde.com, or her podcast Soul of Fire Podcast (my favorite thing to listen to when I’m sitting in traffic).
A quick little note,
if you’re not following Jordan’s current journey, she is has been sick for quite some time. I originally reached out to her to ask a few questions (at the worst time, my bad) and she so kindly agreed. It doesn’t matter to me whether or not she replied but the fact that she even replied and was willing to help me out, shows what kind of person she is. Jordan is resilient and one of the kindest souls I have come across. Send all the healing and loving energy her way!