Getting Started

My health is less than stellar, my blood sugar and blood pressure are through the roof and I am overweight.  Turns out that I can't eat like a 20 year old and still keep my girlish figure.  Ah, those were the days.  Sugar, fat, carbs galore and not one ounce of regret because I was thin and happy.  Now I am fat and happy...sort of. Not happy about being fat but life is good. 

So how did I come to the decision to go all radical and become vegan for a month?  It actually started last year after watching a video of hidden camera footage from chicken farms.  I won't go into the gory details but it completely disgusted me.  That wasn't enough to get me to stop eating meat but it made me question where I was getting my family's food.

During this time, our family doctor was insistent upon us dropping sugar from our diet.  He encouraged us to eat whole foods and to exercise.  I have a son who is bi-polar, adhd and autistic.  I already knew that the foods he consumed had an effect on him so I made it a mission to at least give him the best diet I could.  He was lactose intolerant and allergic to red dye #40.  I made sure that everything he ate was as pure as I could get it.  It was alot of work but it was worth it. 

After a while, I started thinking about why I wasn't doing this for my whole family.  If I was putting in the work for one child, why not all three? Why not my husband and why not me?  So, I looked into alternative sources of sugar.  Stevia, Agave Nectar, Sun Crystals, Somersweet, Splenda.  Stevia was a bust.  It left a bitter licorice aftertaste in our mouths.  Somersweet, while it tasted great, was extremely expensive. Shipping was very high.  Splenda was great for my husbands coffee. He likes it and uses it daily.  Agave is great with tea and I love putting in on plain oatmeal.  The jury is still out on Sun Crystals but I'll let you know when I try it.

I took the next step and stopped eating red meat.  It was a decision I made solely on the fact that the animals were consuming a corn based diet.  Corn produces e-coli in a cow's body.  An abundance of it!  Cows were not meant to be fed corn. They have evolved to eat grass.  It wasn't only that reason.  I was becoming more aware that cows were not just meat.  They were animals and I love animals.  Thinking about them being destroyed for food was upsetting me. 

Over the past few months, I started thinking non-stop about where our meat came from.  The thought of eating meat was beginning to turn my stomach.  I couldn't get the faces of the animals out of my mind.  I made the decision to at least find sources of meat that were humane and I did that.  My family eats free range chicken, pork and beef.  They dont' have a problem with that, the food tastes good to them and I feel better knowing the source. 

Then, another video.  This one of a pig farm.  The last time I cried so hard over an animal dying, it was my beloved dog; Bear.  Her passing 4 years ago literally broke my heart in two and to this day I still cannot open the bottle of fur that the vet saved for me.  All of those emotions came flooding back to me when I was watching pigs being slaughtered inhumanely.  All I could do was hold my hands to my mouth and say, "I'm so sorry", over and over again.  I watched this video a week ago.  Something had to give and this was it.

Alicia Silverstone, bless her heart, began promoting her book and her lifestyle around this time.  I sat down at the computer and started doing some real research into vegetarianism.  My main concern was getting enough protein.  I am a fussy eater. Would I even like the food.  Well, Alicia made some appearances on several tv shows and talked about her recipes.  I liked what she had done so I figured, okay, let's figure this thing out.

I read a great book called The China Study.  It taught me the health benefits of becoming a vegetarian or a vegan.  Alicia's book, The Kind Diet, spoke to me on a layman's level.  I understood her and felt like she had written the book just for me.  This was it.  I decided to make a committment to do 30 days of no meat and no dairy.

Why the extreme?  Why not dairy from humane sources?  We have a chain exclusive to Oklahoma that treats their cows with the utmost respect.  No antibiotics, no hormones...just happy cows. Yes, I suppose for a little comfort, I could keep my cottage cheese and yogurt but no.  With all of the substitutions available like soy cheese and yogurt, there was no reason for me to eat dairy.  On top of that, I am beginning to think that I am lactose intolerant.  I had gone without dairy before and felt great so why not try it again? 

I set up this blog to document my 30 day vegan journey.  I figure that if it helps me or makes me miserable, having a first-hand account to read might be helpful to someone out there.  I promise not to preach or go into excrutiating details over minute things.  I just want to pass on my experience.  Knowing is great but passing on that knowledge makes it worthwhile. 

So, hang on for a bumpy but sure to be a great ride.