Things to Note When Suddenly Changing Dietary Habits
Most practitioners have not been vegetarian since childhood. Suddenly changing your dietary habits for the sake of your cultivation and realization will cause some physiological reactions; this is especially true for middle-aged and elderly people who are physically frail. Because middle-aged and elderly people have eaten meat for a long time, their physiology and energy channels have adapted to a meat-based diet. Furthermore, through years of eating deep-fried, pan-fried, and roasted meats, their energy channels have accumulated a lot of turbid qi and channel toxins. Therefore, after eating vegetarian for a while, there is a detoxification process to purify these energy channels. At the fastest, this takes three, seven, or nine months, and so on.
During this period, you must pay attention to your state of mind. You should try your best to adjust yourself and keep your mood relaxed and happy. Also, people who are busy with work should try to make time to sit in meditation for a while every day—ideally for two hours or more. Doing this will allow your body to transition smoothly into adapting to a vegetarian diet. Otherwise, it is very easy to trigger some endocrine system disorders during this period. Your emotions during this time are absolutely crucial. Generally, the initial detoxification process of purifying the energy channels takes about three years, on and off. This is also the reason why some smokers get sick after suddenly quitting—they failed to manage their arising thoughts and emotions well during the detox period.