I have gone an entire week of no meat, eggs or dairy (except for a bit of ranch dressing). Why? Well, last Tuesday night I was thinking about my body and how out of control my weight is. I have had blood tests done, hoping that the results would scare me into doing something about the weight. Well all my levels were healthy. Yay for me. So I registered for a circuit training class at school. I am doing well in it but haven't seen any real results just yet. Tuesday, I was thinking about what I put into my body. All the cheese and the meats that I eat. All the chocolate whatevers that I cannot live without, or so I thought. I watched a few videos online about how our food is made. It made me cringe. I'm against animal cruelty but I have also been of the opinion that they are there for us to eat. Now I think I have changed my mind. Have you ever seen an animal butchered? Most of the time it is inhumane. Plus, it is extremely dirty. And we eat that? Not to mention all the chemicals that are pumped into these creatures to keep them healthy so that we can eat them.
I tried going veggie my senior year in high school. It lasted two days. I was only doing it because there were a few of my friends that were vegetarians and I thought they were super duper cool. I still have friends who are vegan/vegetarians but now its not so cool. Its not the norm of society. There are people who think I'm nutso for trying this. This decision is based on my health and on those creatures that are literally murdered to fill our bellies.
Now I am not going to try to persuade you to go veggie. This was my decision for myself. I'm not making my family go veggie. We will have a few meatless dinners a week but I'm not cutting it out of their diets completely.
Anyway, this post is about my first week without meat, eggs and dairy. I did have a bit of ranch dressing for my sweet potato fries but that was it. Let me start off by saying that it was so much easier than I thought it would be. I had even gone out of town to visit my family. When we arrived at my Dad's house I went shopping and bought a few things that I could eat when they had their meat. I was able to order at restaurants without any trouble. I said no to chocolate cream pie (ya that one did hurt a bit). When my sisters and I ordered coffee I had a soy latte instead of a regular one. I could barely tell the difference.
This week proved to me that I can do this. This lifestyle change can happen and I will be the better for it. I bought Alicia Silverstone's (Clueless) book- The Kind Diet. Its a great book that helps you decide how to go about this change in diet. There are even recipes. Its a really good book and I recommend it to anyone thinking about going vegan. I know I still have quiet a journey ahead of me but I am looking forward to it. This will force me to pay more attention to what I eat and what my family eats.
The downside to this is that where I live we do not have very many options as far as shopping. I wish we had an Earthfare or a Whole Foods Market where I can buy better products. I'm pretty much stuck with the local shopping store or Super Wal-Mart and neither one has all that great of stuff. So this will be a challenge for me. I am also afraid that I will become bored with it. So in order to avoid boredom I am checking out all kinds of recipes to try.
I will be sharing with you the trials and tribulations of my vegan adventure. Wish me luck!
This clip is of Alicia Silverstone promoting her book, The Kind Diet.
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