1 Year & 1 Month Later: What am I?

Labor Day weekend this year marked my one year anniversary of adopting a plant-based lifestyle.  I decided to celebrate this life-change by challenging myself to eat strictly vegan for 30 days.... just to see if I could really do it.

My ideals had been from the beginning to eat vegan whenever possible, but that can be really hard to do when dining out, as a guest in someone else's whom, or at catered work events.  So when I could not eat vegan, I always just ate vegetarian.

Well, I found that more often that not, this rule was allowing me to get pretty relaxed at home too.  It would be easier to get my husband to eat meals with me if they included cheese or eggs, than if they were vegan, so rather than making two meals, we'd compromise with one vegetarian meal that made us both happy.

So, I took the 30-day vegan challenge, which ended last night.  How did it go? I had one cheat the morning of my birthday to combat a hangover with some egg & cheese grease.  And there were a few pastry items here and there that I couldn't prove were vegan, but didn't have the will-power to say no too since I also couldn't prove there were egg or cheese products in them (and a couple I could prove weren't vegan but it was my birthday so I made exceptions there too).  There were also those two Indian meals with cheese that I allowed myself for cultural familiarization purposes before my big trip to India next month.  

All in all, not exactly the super "strict" vegan diet I was committing too, but not bad either.  I hat A LOT of temptations and made a lot of sacrifices on things like butter, mayonnaise, yogurt, and deserts etc.

So where am I now?

While I absolutely believe in and enjoy the health benefits and environmental responsibility of eating a plant-based lifestyle, my personal primary reason for adopting this diet was to take a stand against animal cruelty.  Therefore, anything that was wild-caught or hunted, or from a Farmer whom I could talk to and knew how/where his animal were slaughtered, then I would eat meat too.

So what does all this make me?

Vegan?  Certainly not.

Vegetarian? Mostly, but not always.

Locovore? Often yes, but not soley because I enjoy fruits from far away places too much.

Omnivore?  It's looking like it.... but I feel like I'm not completely in this camp either.

Conscientious Eater!  This sounds like me.  Read on to learn more about what this means:

Conscientious eating means thinking about where your food comes from, what impact it has environmentally, socially, economically, and personally (in terms of health, culture, and enjoyment). It means that if you choose to eat meat that you consider how the livestock were raised, and how far they traveled to reach your dinner plate.

"Local," "grass-fed," "sustainably produced," "humanely raised" and "free-range" are just a few of the phrases that greet conscientious shoppers in the meat department these days. Animal-rights activists jokingly call these products "happy meat."  You have to be careful with these labels, knowing that cage-free might not mean what you assume it does, or that organic might not be as animal-cruelty-free as it sounds.  I still believe it is always best to talk with your local farmers and even visit their farm before you buy.

Now, I do understand that eating this way won't solve the world's problems.  It's true that we probably can't feed the world with small, local, organic, family farms.  And the cost to the consumer is prohibitively expensive to most.  I still believe that if everyone ate as a vegetarian, we could solve most of the worlds problems.  But because of the culture & society that I live in, I still think that using my consumer dollars to buy less meat, and only the kind described above, is the best way for me to take a stand, make a statement, and eat in a way I find convenient and moral.

So there you have it.  I won't call myself a vegetarian anymore, even though I will usually still eat that way.  If people ask me why I'll say I'm a conscientiousness eater and prefer not to eat meat if I don't know where it came from.  It was a year long experiment that I think I can take valuable lessons from and use for the rest of my life.

Coming to terms with holiday baking

You may have noticed that I've been doing a lot of baking lately.  None of which has really been vegan.  Technically speaking, most refined sugar is not vegan because it is refined with animal bones, and of course, anything containing butter, eggs or honey is an animal product.  So what is this new vegan to during her first holiday season with this plant-based lifestyle???

Find balance...

For my favorite Everything Bread Recipe, I struggled for a while over the use of honey.  For the time being, I've decided to use organic, local honey, and to just be ok with that for now.  If I feel differently later as I continue to grow into my new humane plant-based lifestyle, then that's fine too.

For my to-die-for Whole Wheat Morning Glory Muffins, something that I eat for breakfast every day now, I didn't know what to do.  The recipe contains two eggs.  Watching videos of factory chicken farms makes me feel so guilty about this morning pleasure.  So for now, I've decided to buy only organic, cage-free, vegetarian fed eggs.  If I can talk to the farmer and buy them locally, even better.  If I later find an egg substitute to replace this ingredient then great!  Better yet, I'd love to get my own backyard chicken coop.   But for now, I'm choosing to be ok with using my buying power to support only animal products that I want to support.

Butter.  Hmmmm.  It has always been one of my favorite flavors!  For baking, I've been buying organic butter.  For spreading and cooking, I use Earth Balance.  I hope to eventually look for other vegan alternatives for baking too, but its just so scary to start messing with all your tried and true recipes!

Finally, the sugar issue.  This is something I have not even started trying to conquer yet.  You can buy raw natural sugar that is vegan, but I'm not ready to start experimenting with my recipes to see how this effects them, yet.  Someday, in my fantasy world, I'll find the time to not only bake, but to experiment with baking too.  For now, if I can squeeze 30 minutes in here or an hour there, I'm going to stick with what I know and get the job done.  The point is, at least I'm making everything from scratch, which is definitely healthier and kinder to the planet in so many ways.

The biggest lifestyle change with trying to eat a mostly vegan diet, is all the homemade cooking and preparation in advance that needs to be done!  I have found I really need to use my weekends to plan for the week ahead, because there are very limited fast-food or pre-packaged options available to me.  Which really is a good think if you ask me anyway :)

Well, speaking of which, I better get back to my vegan Rustic White Bean & Mushroom dish that I'm bringing to pass at Christmas (to make sure I have a protein too).  See, always have to think ahead!

6 weeks in and 11 lbs down!

Today marks 6 weeks since I started my journey toward eating a mostly plant-based diet and I'm down 11 pounds!  I lost this much back in January when I went on Nutrisystem for two months, but as soon as I went off their pre-packaged food, I gained it all right back again.

This time, I'm not really dieting at all.  I'm not watching portion sizes and I'm not counting calories.  I'm just consuming mostly plant-based foods with a local, organic, humanely raised animal product thrown in about once a week or so.  I do not drink caffeine and try to stay away from artificial sweeteners whenever possible.  I also try to abstain from refined and processed sugars and carbohydrates.  Basically, I'm trying to do the whole Micheal Pollan "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" thing.

I haven't felt deprived or hungry at all, and yet the weight has been steadily falling off each week!  About 11 lbs in 6 weeks averages out to 1-2 lbs a week which is what the experts always recommend, so I feel really good about that.

I've been walking about 3-5 times a week with my dogs (like a good hour-long walk, not just around the block so they can do their business and stretch their legs a few times a day).  I'm sure that's helping some too.  I'd like to kick that up to more like 4-6 times a week with a day lifting weights in the little gym in our apartment complex.  Before my wedding I lost 20 pounds over the course of about 6 months, just by watching what I ate and lifting weights once a week (no cardio, eesh!).  So I'm hoping a combination of cardio AND lifting on a very light routine will really help me continue the downward spiral of weight loss.  I'm not looking to be my 21-year-old size again or anything, but getting down to an "average" weight can only be healthy and positive, so that's what I'm going to shoot for.



What to do about dairy? Is soy a good alternative?

This Morning's Soy Decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte

I was craving something warm and comforting this morning, so I decided to swing by the coffee shop at work today and get a latte. 

In the old days I would have ordered a small (or "tall") sugar-free vanilla latte with skim milk, no whipped cream.

Of course now, with my commitment to a healthier lifestyle, I needed to make a few modifications. 

1. I try to avoid artificial sweeteners, so I had to get a "regular" flavor shot (as I get better at this, I'll probably want to cut the flavor shots out completely). 
2. I've been off of caffeine now for exactly four months, so of course I had to choose decaffeinated espresso.
3. Finally, as I'm trying to refrain from all dairy that I do not know where the milk comes from or how the cows live, I chose soy milk.

This cow at a modern California dairy has a swollen udder.

Today’s large farms tend to confine dairy cows in drylot

feedyards (shown) or inside barns.1 The animals commonly

suffer udder infections, metabolic disorders, and lameness.

See VeganOutreach.org/dairy

In addition to abstaining from dairy for ethical and even environmental reasons, I have been reading a lot about the health effects of dairy.  The information I have found has made me consider cutting out dairy from my diet completely, even if I find milk, cheese, or yogurt produced from grass-feed, free-range, humanely treated cows.

Our bodies are not meant to drink any milk except our own mother's milk, and only while we are infants.  Humans are the ONLY animals that drink another species milk, and the only animals that drink milk after infancy.  That right there should tell us something about how unnatural our society's obsession with dairy is.


Click here for info on this spoof.

In the U.S. alone, about 80% of African Americans, 90% of Asian Americans, and 60% of Hispanics are lactose intolerant.  People with lactose intolerance experience gas, discomfort, and sometimes diarrhea upon drinking milk.  Those who can digest cow's milk are mostly of white European descent and are thought to have a genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago in our evolution so that we could survive on a herd's milk under harsh environmental conditions.

Cow's milk has been linked to obesity, breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  It underlies asthma and allergies, and messes with our hormones. 



In 1900 American girls started menstruating, on average, at the age of 14.  Today, they begin at 12 1/2, with the first signs of puberty showing up in some girls as young as 7. 

These stats really hit home for me, as when we were growing up we used to drink at least 3 servings of milk (thankfully skim) a day , and I got my period just before my 11th birthday!

All of the reasons above have made me try to avoid most dairy whenever possible.  It has been about a month now, and when I have eaten "humane" dairy on occasion, I notice a difference right away in how my body reacts!  I feel gassy and bloated, and a little sluggish afterward.  That's all the proof I need that our bodies are not naturally made to digest cow's milk!  Of course, cheese and ice cream are soooo good, so it may come down to the the occasional hard decision for me, knowing full well what the consequences will be when I choose to indulge.

So this morning I got a Soy Decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte, a perfect Fall pick-me-up!

Or was it?

I've also been coming across a lot of information about the negative health effects of soy, one of the most disconcerting to me being the links between soy and infertility.

Soy and Fertility
Soy is an excellent source of protein and also a phenomenal source of phytoestrogen (also called isoflavones) - a plant form of oestrogen that mimics our own natural hormone.  


Some research has shown that eating large  amounts of soy may throw off a woman's natural hormone levels, increase her menstrual cycle length, and affect ovulation.  


There is also some inconclusive research showing that eating too much soy may reduce a man's sperm production, which may be due to the phytoestogen  mimicking natural oestrogen.  Too much estrogen is never a good thing when it comes to sperm production.  The soy-sperm link is more pronounced in overweight and obese men, probably because they already produce more of the natural hormone than thinner men.

So, what am I going to do about milk?  Probably what I have been doing already.  Refrain from cow's milk (but if I ever HAVE to buy it, it would be organic), and limit my consumption of soy milk to rare treats at the coffee shop.  At home, I enjoy almond and coconut milk in my cooking and smoothies, and have become obsessed with Dark Chocolate Almond Milk for a sweet treat when I am craving something like ice cream.  I am not concerned about getting enough calcium, as I can get plenty from plant-based sources, but that is a topic for another post.


I am very concerned with consuming too much soy in other food products now that I've made a commitment to this new plant-based diet.  It seems that at restaurants, you'll often find the token veggie burger (aka, soy product) as your only option on the menu.  At home, I plan to continue exploring whole grains and legumes as my main sources of protein, and reserve soy products for when I'm on the road or in social situations where I don't have access to the types of natural foods I'd prefer to be eating.


I'd love to hear from other vegetarians out there, to hear what their favorite sources of protein are, and to learn more about their own opinions on the so-called "dangers" of soy.  I am still very much in the learning, or "information gathering" phase of this lifestyle change, and welcome all the advice or stories I can get!

Bread of the Week: Honey Walnut

I got a new-to-me bread maker last month at a garage sale from a trusted family friend.  I'm so excited to start making homemade bread every week now!  This new plant-based diet is really exciting to me because for the first time in about a decade, I don't feel like I have to be afraid of carbs anymore...as long as I know what's in them and where the ingredients came from!


Last week I made a plain whole-wheat one just get to my feet wet.  It was great warmed with vegan buttery spread, toasted, in a PBJ sandwich, or dipped in my made-from-scratch Kobacha Squash Soup!


This past weekend, I got more adventurous and on the request of my DH, I tried the Whole Wheat Honey Walnut Bread pictured above.  It turned out delicious!!!  It was a little darker in color, and understandably sweeter that my first loaf.  The walnuts were chopped up really small and were barely detectable with each scrumptious bite (texture-wise).


Next week's intended recipe: Oatmeal Bread!

Why Juice?

Last week, my husband and I did a 5 day juice fast...or, should I say (as in the words of my cousin-in-law), a 5 day juice feast!  It would take so much fresh fruits and vegetables to go into just one glass of juice, that had we tried to eat them whole, we never could have eaten as much variety and quantity of the vitamins and minerals that we took in with juicing them.

The amount of produce that goes into just two servings of juice!

Many people asked why we were undertaking this drastic change to our dietary behavior, and we usually gave them the short answers of "for our health" or "because we watched a documentary that made us want to try something different and good for us."  We both wanted to quickly drop a few pounds, and thought this would be just the motivation we would need to jump-start a new healthier lifestyle.

The documentary that made us want to juice.

The juice fast really wasn't so bad.  DH had some digestive issues, but kind of went cold turkey while I had been slowly weaning my body off of "nasty" foods for quite some time.  I stopped consuming caffeine 3 months ago, quit artificial sweeteners 2 months ago, and was half-heartedly trying to stay away from refined sugars & carbs.  I'd been drinking smoothies for breakfast every morning for at least a couple of months, and I figured juicing would just be taking it all a step further.

OK, sure we were a little bit hungry the first day or two.  A tiny bit weak, but it really was not as bad as I thought it would be.  For the most part, I had plenty of energy while following this diet.  I felt lighter and leaner even the first day.  I lost a total of 7lbs before hitting a plateau, and then after incorporating solid plant-based foods into my diet I gained 2lbs back.  I should mention that we did not follow the juicing diet 100% either.  DH ate soups and salads for lunches, but juiced with me for breakfast and dinner.  I juiced all meals, but had 1/4C of nuts once or twice a day, to ensure I was getting enough protein and vitamin B12.  Also, we didn't follow the "reboot" correctly in that we didn't do the 5 days of preparing for the juice feast, we just jumped right in, cold turkey.  Also, we didn't follow it with 5 days of eating only fruits and vegetables (in juice smoothie, or solid form).  Rather we followed it with a period of eating only micro-nutrient foods.  This is something I'll discuss in another post.

The main problem we found with the juicing recipes on the reboot website, is that unless they were primarily fruit-based, they were gross!  We quickly discovered that we don't like any of them with ginger, and I learned that I don't really care for too much lime juice in a drink. Those that included any kind of peppers in the recipe turned out not to be our favorites, and we got a major overload of beets.  It quickly made us rethink what we were doing and begin looking to solid ways to eat the same foods.  If we were to reboot with a juice feast again, we'd have to experiment with some different flavor combinations to find something we could tolerate drinking on a more regular basis. We both still like the idea of starting our day out with one glass of fresh juice, I think the only question remaining is exactly which juice that will be...

But I still haven't answered the question that I teased you with at the top of the post: "Why Juice" in the first place?

The truth is...I don't really know.  I realize how crazy that sounds, but the more I search for detailed scientific answers, the more I seem to rely on the truth that it boils down to simple common sense.  Making a dramatic change like only juicing fruits and vegetables for a while helps to break the cycle of unhealthy eating in which many of us are trapped.  

I see juicing as a way to reboot the system by increasing the amount and variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and removing animal protein, fat, and grains; all of which eases the transition toward a mostly plant-based healthy diet and lifestyle.

By consuming only fruits and vegetables for a limited period, you can retrain your taste buds and begin to not only be satisfied by, but to crave a healthy, plant-based diet, and in so doing, promote a lifestyle that will lower risk for obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, macular degeneration, cognitive decline, and mental illness including depression.

Not only can a plant-based diet help you to manage your weight, it improves your immunity, decreases aches and pains in joints and muscles, promotes healthy skin, nails and hair, promotes increased energy levels, and promotes longevity.

Juicing vs. Smoothies

So the big question I had, was "why juice instead of eating whole foods?"  In fact, I even wondered if blended smoothies would be better, because then my diet would include all the pulp discarded by the juicing process.  This is actually a great debate among many in the virtual juicing communities I have encountered.  Personally, I find value in both methods of consuming produce, but for me, there were 3 main reasons to begin with juicing before transitioning to other ways of preparing fresh fruits and vegetables.

1. Juicing fresh fruits and vegetables releases digestive enzymes and certain phytonutrients that are locked away to us when we try to eat whole foods.
2. You can eat a greater amount and variety of fruits and vegetables when juicing them, which is important when you are not getting calories or nutrition from any other food source.
3. By only consuming juice for a limited period of time, you give your digestive system a break and time to cleanse & detoxify itself.

In defense of smoothies, phytonutrients found in the skin and flesh of fruits and vegetables are retained, as well as the insoluble fiber.  Fiber is important for regulating blood sugar, keeping bowels regular, aiding in hunger control, and may help prevent certain types of cancers.  It is important to note that in juicing, soluble fibers are still consumed, so some of these benefits are reaped through both methods.

Once a reboot juicing program has been completed, I personally prefer a varied diet of juicing, smoothies, and both raw and cooked whole foods.  

I particularly like smoothies because I find them more filling due to the insoluble fiber, and I like to add whole grains (I love to add steel-cut oats in my breakfast smoothies, and have even added quinoa and couscous), liquids (such as coconut water or almond milk, and various fruits and vegetables that you can't juice (like avocados and bananas).  Plus, you can use frozen fruits and vegetables in a smoothie, and I like to add blended ice to make it seem like more of a treat!

So there you have it, that's why any person in their right mind might consider an all juice diet for a while.  I'm sure there are more reasons out there, and as I continue to research this new lifestyle, I'll post more information.  I am now in the transition phase of going from juice-only, to a more "vegan" diet, all of which I'll describe in another future post.