But, here it is: after years of hearing from friends, the media and yes, even Oprah, that Veganism might be worth pursuing (at least as a means of cleansing/recalibrating my system) - I've fast gone from curious skeptic to full-blown believer. W-O-W!
First, there are the vanity aspects. Just 5 days in and my skin looks ridiculous. It's the dead of winter and I'm glowing and barely need any moisturizer at all! On top of that, I've already lost 2 pounds. My digestion has regulated and, not to be gross, I'm pooping like clock-work up to 3x a day. (Of course, I'm also tooting like never before - but Bean-o helps to take care of that problem.)
As for the food, fortunately, I'm a veggie lover. I also really love fruit. Soy, if seasoned correctly, also works well with my body/tastebuds and satisfies the craving for protein. A lot of the foods I already eat regularly are vegan or easy to make vegan. Homemade granola + vanilla soy milk for breakfast = heaven. I heart veggie burgers with a little yellow mustard. Carrots and homemade hummus are snack crack to me. I love veggie soups. Oh, and I discovered veg-based Wacky Mac this weekend and it's pretty damn delish. I'm even actually looking forward to testing some new recipes. The only thing I'm a little wary of are the pretend meat products. Soy chicken cutlets aren't made of chicken - wtf? I don't know if I need to seek out pretend meat in order to feel truly satisfied. Still, I'm willing to try all of it. Besides, I'm already drinking "soy juice" masking itself as soy milk. Gotta love this Lewis Black bit from which the title of this post was born:
In terms of the ethics, I come from a family with dairy farming past and, in one case, present. I have no illusions about my place on the food chain and that some animals are put on this earth to quite literally sustain the lives of other animals. I also have no ethical qualms about humanely slaughtering animals for such puposes (ie: Temple Grandin style slaughterhouses are fine with me). I also have no intention of shunning meat or dairy from my life completely. I will not give up fish or sushi. I can't imagine my life without my dad's Oyster Stew come Christmas Eve.
Still, just a few days without what in retrospect was at least 3-5 servings of meat/cheese on average (milk at breakfast, yogurt at lunch, grated cheese on pasta/lean meats at dinner, butter on bread or eggs in baked goods) - I am really intrigued by how great I feel and am interested to see where this leads.
I'll keep y'all posted. Let me know if you have had experience with vegan/vegetarianism yourself - or if you think this is just another primrose path to wellness ;-)
4 comments:
Love it, Shan! Watched the whole Lewis video. It can be hard to find a new eatstyle, but it can be fun - and so rewarding.
Nathan
Thanks, Nathan. Clearly, you've had great success with it - so I'll take that as a dose of inspiration.
I would LOVE to try this, BUT my husband is a hardcore carnivore. It took me a lot of campaigning to get him to eat ground turkey, so I can't imagine the fight I would have to put up to get tofu in our diet! My friend Kyle became vegan after his then-wife made the switch to help her deal with her lupus.
Gabe isn't giving up meat, either! Hell, he grew up in a house that was staunchly against red meat and I'm the one that popped his steak cherry. I'll never forget that look of pure bliss. What I did this week, actually, was to cook one of our favorite pasta dishes in two sections, one with meat and one without. I'm also big on cooking ahead, so if I plan right, I can make ahead meals for him and I to eat separately on the nights when I can't figure out a way to jerry-rig recipes we already like. It takes a bit of creativity, but so far, I think we're managing okay. It'll be a lot easier when I add the fish and certain dairy back into the mix. then, if he wants meat and I want a diff protein, it's easy - and the sides of veggies and grains aren't a challenge at all.
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