Why I Went Vegan, Where I Get My Protein, and the Answers To Other Such Questions

I frequently have people ask me, "So why did you decide to go vegan?"  And I never have a quick answer.  I think I need to come up with one.

The second question I frequently have people ask me is, "What do vegans eat?"  For that one there is a quick answer:  "Anything without a face."  Or I just show them a picture like this, my dinner tonight:

Raw vegan zucchini and carrot noodles with raw marinara

Anyway, back to why I eat a vegan diet.  First I have to admit that I am an almost full time vegan.  There are still the occasional moments when I falter and eat ice cream.  Sure, there's So Delicious coconut milk ice cream, but it just isn't the same as Mitchell's.  I'm working on that.  It doesn't happen too often.

I dropped meat after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals.  If I back up a little, I can say that I started considering a vegan diet when I noticed that nearly every yoga instructor I had ate a vegan diet, and that there must be a reason for it within the yogi lifestyle.  Ends up there is, but I will get to that.  So back to Foer's book.  In addition to Jillian Michaels' book Master Your Metabolism and the documentary film Food, Inc., Eating Animals really made me stop and think about where my food is coming from.  Not only did I not like where my food was coming from, but I didn't like what I was reading about the way animals were being treated in factory farms.  I realize that not all meat manufacturers are equal, but it came down to spending a boatload of money tracking down grass fed, free range, organic animal products or just not eating animals at all.  Since my research indicated that I couldn't even trust labels like "free range" or "natural," I decided to just drop everything.  And if I had it my way, the whole family would have dropped animal products with me, but I have a husband with a mind of his own it seems.  Bummer.

So I won't get into the details of the above texts--I encourage you to look into them yourself--but I think I can think of three major reasons why I decided to follow a vegan diet.

1. Scientific research is increasingly showing that a plant based diet is the most healthy diet a person can follow.  Seriously.  You don't have to worry about cholesterol anymore (vegan foods have none), your blood pressure will probably drop, you'll feel like you have more energy, even your skin will look nicer.  I have found that I have far less trouble with mucus congestion--this is from a girl who used to be addicted to nasal spray.  As long as you don't spend all day drinking olive oil, eating nut butters out of the jar, or baking vegan cupcakes, you probably will not have to worry about gaining weight, either, but that's more relative than you'd think.  There are a lot of vegan foods that are high in fat and calories, so people still need to make wise decisions.

2. I feel better knowing that I am not contributing to the harm of other sentient beings.  This is where the yoga part comes in.  It is essential to living a life of peace that we not harm others.  This includes even the milk cows (that are typically fed an improper diet and kept cooped up in a little stall and etc...).  I feel that it would be hypocritical for me to claim to live a yoga lifestyle and still cause harm to animals.

3. The meat industry is bad for the environment.  Anyone who is truly concerned about carbon emissions needs to stop eating meat.  The U.S. cattle industry creates more carbon dioxide emissions than all of the automobiles combined.  I learned that at a local science museum, so if you'd rather believe the cattle industry than science, you go right ahead.

Now as far as do vegans get enough protein (nuts, seeds, beans and legumes, leafy greens), do they get enough calcium (those orange juice cartons aren't lying about their calcium content), and can they build muscle (there are many, many vegan athletes out there), the answer is "YES" for all of the above provided that one does a couple of simple things:  (1.) Eat a balanced diet (good advice for anyone) and (2.) Exercise (again, good advice for anyone).  So you can stop worrying about your vegan friends now.  Your worry is really only your way of telling your vegan loved ones that you don't trust them to make sound decisions themselves.  ;)

So why did I go vegan?  I guess that is the best and quickest way I can sum it all up.  But if you ever want to have a conversation about it, I do love talking about food.  And eating it.  Come over and we'll do dinner.

A New Goal

Today I decided that my new goal is to work out and lose enough weight so that my boobs will not constantly be falling out of the top of my shirt when I am in an inversion....or smothering me in halasana.  If you think that was TMI, deal with it.  I'm tired of them getting in the way and I am not willing to do anything unnatural, so this is all the more incentive to really change my habits overall this time and not go back to making oven fries every time I crave greasy foods because I rationalize that if I make it myself, it's good for me.

Vaguely uneventful day here on fast day 1 since this is vegan week so not much has changed for me.  I am amazed that I am not tired because I slept so poorly last night, but I've had two glasses of fresh juice in the place of coffee, which I think really helped.

On the super awesome front, however, is that I got into headstand without using the wall for the FIRST TIME EVER!!  It was so exciting that once I realized I'd done it, I fell over.  What is amazing is that it almost seemed easy.  That takes more core strength than you'd imagine.  I must be getting somewhere.

That's really my only update for today as far as the fasting thing goes, other than that I bought about 3 lbs of grapes for then the sugar cravings start to kick in.  Which will be soon.  Quitting sugar is harder than quitting alcohol, caffeine, or smoking.  I know because I have quit all of them and I'm telling you, sugar is evil evil evil.

Don't trust the sugar man.

Moses, Jesus, and Me

Oh, hi.  It's been a while.

Tomorrow I begin my fourth 28-day-cleanse.  It's hip to call these things "cleanses" or "detoxification" or whatever these days, but what it boils down to is that I am going to be taking part in a four week long fast.  It's not a complete fast, like Moses or Jesus wandering through the desert for 40 days with nothing but water, sore feet, and temptation, but it's a fast nonetheless.  And it got me thinking about how in the past, I don't feel as if I have taken as much advantage of these fasts as I could have...in fact, the last time I was downright lazy about it.  Sure, I only ate--or didn't eat--what I was supposed to and all that, but fasting isn't just about what we (don't) eat.

I've been reading up on fasting the past few days, and it seems to me that every major spiritual group that fasts (which is pretty much all of them) does so with these primary reasons in mind:

1. To deprive the body of earthly things that clutter our minds and get in the way of spiritual growth;

2. To make a path for greater spiritual connection with God or the gods or the Self or the Universe whatever-it-is;

3. To regain control of ourselves--to practice self-disipline, self-control, patience, and endurance; dare I say "to resist temptation?";

4. To reflect on the fact that there are others out there who live in deprivation every day;

and, in addition to that, traditional Ayurvedic medicine adds that

5. By abstaining from eating--either by eating only simple foods or by abstaining from food completely--we give the digestive system time to rest and the body time to get rid of any impurities that are weighing us down or causing us illness.  It is a time of rest and rejuvenation for the system.  It is restorative.

So, why am I blogging about this?  In particular, I have read that Orthodox Christians and Muslims specify that one should "suffer in silence." To announce to the world, "Hey!  I'm fasting!  And I am soooo awesome and spiritual and, oh yeah, soooo dying for a plate of french fries!" is tacky and defies much of the spiritual purpose of fasting.  However, I have decided to blog about my experience because: (a) I am supposed to keep a journal anyway, and last fall I was totally terrible at keeping my journal.  Perhaps blogging will motivate me.  (b) I come across information that I find interesting and I like to share with others.  (c) I like to take pictures of my food and post them for the world to see.  Food is fun.  And (d) I hope that maybe my journey will inspire others to try a fast sometime.  I actually find it exciting.

The specifics of this fast are as follows.  First and foremost, there are no processed foods allowed, no caffeine, no sugar, no alcohol.  Only whole, vegan foods.  Week 1 is vegan whole foods week.  Week 2 is raw foods only--that's where it gets interesting.  You may think this seems like a very boring way to eat, but you'd be amazed at what can be done with plant based foods, a Vitamix, and a good food dehydrator.  Week 3 is juice only.  The longest I have made it is 5 1/2 days.  I debated just doing a fruit fast this time because I tend to binge after a juice fast and wreck everything I worked so hard to achieve, but I am still thinking that over.  And week 4 is raw foods again, slowly introducing easily digestible foods to the system.  I always feel awesome until week four when I break down and buy something fried or make a grilled veggie cheese sandwich.  I need to work on that.

I am also adding something that I haven't done before.  I am going to focus this month on the Niyama Tapas.  More on that later, but it seems to fit pretty well with what I am trying to accomplish, which is to train myself to stick with the hard stuff when my feet are in the fire.

So there you have it.  Day 1 tomorrow.

Namaste.

Things that cross my mind lately but I don't have the discipline to sit down and write about them

Let's start with girls.  As I got older I learned to appreciate the need for a solid group of girlfriends, you know, in a Secret Life of Bees kind of way, but growing up I had a lot of trouble liking or trusting other girls my age.  Now that my daughter is in kindergarten, I relive the horror.  I guess I didn't realize--or had forgotten?--that girl bullying starts so damn early.  It started when she came home from school one day and didn't want to sing in the school concert because her "sweater [was] silly."  (It was not silly--it was a black, red and white scottie dog sweater and it was awesome.)  Apparently some girl at school made fun of her outfit and told her she didn't sing pretty, so she wanted to just skip this concert that she'd been excited about for over a week.  Somehow I convinced her to change into something that would make her feel more comfortable (it took her an hour) and the show went on.  But in weeks to follow, my daughter stopped wearing some of her favorite clothes.  The zebra print leggings got pushed into the back of the drawer, the good Nike athletic shoes were all but forgotten, and much fancier outfits--like, way overkill for a day at school--started being worn.  As I see it, here's what's going on.  First, the girl bully puts her down because the girl bully is a future Regina, queen of all she surveys, and she wants to be the alpha girl.  I thing the other problem is that "Regina" has a crush on my daughter's little boyfriend, so she keeps pulling my daughter aside and saying that *E doesn't want to play with my daughter anymore. 

Today I found it interesting that my daughter chose new playmates at recess--all of them boys (including her older brother).  And "Regina" wanted to play freeze tag, too, but my daughter wouldn't let her.  This is tit for tat, as Queen Bee excluded my daughter in the same way earlier this week.  So then I have to have this talk with my daughter about not excluding poeple, remember how she made you feel, how do you think she felt when you excluded her... Then I stopped and said, "T, I know you don't feel like that girl deserves your kindness, and you're probably right.  She hasn't been very nice to you.  But we all have to learn to be nice even to the people who aren't particularly nice to us.  People who aren't nice are usually angry or unhappy about something, so if you think about that, you might be able to see them differently."

But beneath this advice what I am really thinking is, "That girl's lousy sense of self esteem, which makes her an insecure little bully, is going to plague my daughter for at least the next 5 1/2 years, or at worst, the next 12 1/2 ." 

And how could I forget to mention the theft from my daughter's locker?  (They don't actually lock, so I use the term loosely.)  One week it's her new chapstick.  The next week it's her mini bottle of hand sanitizer.  Then it was her brand new Little Mermaid umbrella, which she had bought the day before with her own money.  The unbrella was returned, but not the other things.  That is, unless you count that my daughter saw her hand sanitizer in another girl's hands and stole it back.

In short, I have decided that where other people's kids are concerned, I'd rather they stayed home and left my baby alone.  I've made the obligatory comments like "Maybe they are just jealous of you because they like your boyfriend," and "Well I think that outfit is cool!" and "Who cares what other people think?  You do what you like to do, and if those other girls don't like it, find better friends."  And come on, parents, we all know we're spewing loads of bullshit that most of us don't even believe (e.g. "Who cares what other people think?" because we all do, really).

So what I am probably doing is teaching my child to be like me--and like her grandma--and keep being nice to people who treat her like dirt when really she should just be telling them to hit the highway.  'Cause let me tell you; I've spent years trying to kill people with kindness (one of these days I might even write about the story of my principal and the birthday cake I brought for him that I am 99.9999% sure he threw in the garbage--which would make a ton of sense in retrospect because unbeknownst to me, he spent the entire year trying to figure out how he could fire me and promote his friends instead).  So much for extending kindness.  The guy was having a really, really bad week and I thought a cake might perk up his spirits. So the lesson I learned is don't be nice because it just makes you look like a fool in the end. 

Other things.

I think I should start making a top ten list of dumb things people say when they find out I am eating a vegan diet.  This just never stops.  I know these people are well meaning, but...No, I am not anemic.  Yes, I am getting my essential vitamins and minerals.  No, I do not need that much protein--and you probably don't either--but thanks for the suggestions.  Yes, I understand your theories about how humans were always meant to be omnivores, but you see, we no longer live in caves and small huts where if we don't hack down a few bears or buffalo for the winter, we will be likley to starve (and maybe even freeze) to death.  We now have grocery stores where we can buy anything at any time.  If I need essential fat, I'll have an avocado.  My nuts and nutbutters give me protein.  I can buy watermelon in the middle of February for God's sake. 

So.  First off, my life choices aren't funny.  They are also not ill informed, ignorant, or misguided.  When I have company at my house, I don't tell them that the meat they are eating is killing them.  I don't call up omnivorous friends and tell them that they are more likely to get cancer than I am (that's true, by the way).  I don't make rude comments about other people's orders when I go to a restaraunt.  Who are these people and at what point did they learn that they know everything?  It's ridiculous.  If you're one of those people, do everyone a favor.  Shut up.

I guess that's all for now.  This isn't a particularly eloquent or long entry, and it's likely dreadfully uninteresting, but I needed to get back on the wagon.  I come up with ideas for things I'd like to write about on almost a daily basis, but life gets in the way, right?

Dear Outback Steakhouse: I Should Not Have to Suffer Just Because My Husband Wants a Steak

Today, after six months of searching, my husband finally found a job.  Naturally, I wanted to celebrate, and of course it was only fair that I allow him to choose the restaurant, right?  Whereas I was hoping for something along the lines of a local place such as Deagan's, which offers menu options that are herbivore friendly, or even some place where I could order a nice bit of sushi roll (which is really kind of cheating for the type of diet I am trying to follow, but I haven't been able to let go of the raw seafood--yet), he chose Outback Steakhouse.

Before I go on with this story, I feel like I need to point out that we never go anywhere.  We don't have the money for a babysitter (have you seen how much these kids charge these days?!) and as should be evident by the fact that my husband has been looking for work for half a year, going out to eat is a very, very rare treat.  Furthermore, I want you to know that I love to eat.  I mean I LOVE TO EAT.  So I was super duper looking forward to this. 

And I really didn't want to go to Outback.

For one thing, I am just tired of always going to the same places.  Considering that we rarely go out to eat in the first place, to go the same restaurants every time we *do* go anywhere is just boring.  Second, I don't want steak, so it doesn't make much sense for me to go to a steakhouse.

It's not that I don't like steak.  It's not even that I have some big issue against eating animals.  I hesitate to call myself "vegan," or a "raw foodist," or even "vegetarian," because my eating habits have only just begun to change.  Furthermore, I want to make it clear that I have not changed my diet to be cool or trendy.  First, I am tired of feeling like crap and being told that I need to take this drug and that drug in order to feel well and live a "normal" lifestyle; I don't buy into that anymore.  I have been told not to stop taking my antidepressants or anti-anxiety meds, that the only reason I feel that I am "better" is because I keep taking them.  Bullcrap.  Since I started eating a primarily raw diet three months ago, I have felt tons better both physically and emotionally.  In addition, I am not in the same place psychologically as I was when I reluctantly agreed to start taking said prescriptions.  I think that when we are told that it is "dangerous" to quit taking the drugs we have been prescribed, often it's just the drug companies' way of making us think that we *have* to keep poisoning ourselves with their disgustingly price inflated crap so they can keep raking in more money.

The second major reason I have been trying to "go vegan" is because I have read and seen too much about where food comes from.  In this country, our farm animals are confined to small spaces and surrounded by their own feces, injected with hormones to make them fatter for the slaughter, and fed corn that has been injected with Roundup.  Not only do I not want to eat their flesh, but I don't want to consume their milk, either.  Anything that has been ingested by these animals is going to make its way into my body as well.  I don't really want my kids ingesting this toxic crap either, but I can only set what I think is a good example and take things one step at a time.  Changing the entire family's diet overnight just isn't going to happen, and I don't want to be the stringent parent who lords over her kids' plates at every meal and makes them resent healthy eating for the mere sake of annoying their parents.

And the third reason that I have dropped the animals is, to be totally honest, because I am terrified of getting fat.  Not much more to say here.

So back to Outback Steakhouse.  We get there and I look over the menu.  I figure I can order a salad of some type, no problem, right?  But I soon realized that there was NOT ONE SALAD OR OTHER MEAL ON THE MENU THAT DIDN'T CONTAIN MEAT--with the exception of the house salad.  So that's what I ordered...only to find out that it comes with cheese on it, so I had to make special requests in the dairy department as well.  This was terribly irritating to me.  I was hungry and I was supposed to be experiencing a special occasion, but all I could feel was angry that there was next to nothing on the menu that I could eat.  And to be honest, making exceptions to my eating rules is not an option anymore.  I have been eating raw and vegan for so many weeks now that eating anything else makes me sick.  Really, really sick.  Since I prefer not to spend the entire night in pain and hovering near my bathroom, I am just not going to go there.

I know.  I was at a "steakhouse."  But this is the year 2011, people.  Get a clue.  More and more people in this country are turning to veganism every day.  At the very least, you'd think that a restaurant would offer vegetarian meals other than one lousy salad.  But nope.  Nothing.

Upon coming home, I decided to do a Google search on this to see if I was the only angry herbivore who had ever visited Outback Steakhouse.  I simply searched the words "vegan Outback."  The first thing I found was a blog from a "vegan" author who went on to praise the "Bloomin' Onion" appetizer as a terrific vegan menu option.  Really?!  Why exactly are you even bothering?  Just because a dish is "vegan" doesn't make it good for you, people.  We're talking about a giant batter dipped fried onion.  I am trying to eat healthy foods that will not stop my heart and/or go straight to my thighs, thank you.  A Bloomin' Onion just isn't an option.

But more interesting than the dumb Bloomin' Onion blogger was this e-mail I found on the Vegan Eating Out website.  Apparently, someone e-mailed the corporate office with some kind of questions or demands concerning the lack of vegan choices on the menu.  Now here's the first thing that is ridiculous about Outback's response:  "Vegan" suggestion #1 is the "Blue Cheese Chopped Salad."  Are you kidding, you corporate buffoons?  Since when is blue cheese, or any other cheese for that matter, NOT an animal product?  In the e-mail, the corporation goes on to suggest that the customer eat a baked potato, or a sweet potato, or even a lovely slice of bread.  Here's a clue, Outback Corporate Imbiciles:  THE FACT THAT WE CHOOSE NOT TO EAT ANIMAL PRODUCTS DOES NOT INHERENTLY MEAN THAT WE DON'T WANT AN ACTUAL MEAL.  Are you seriously suggesting that your vegan customers simply order a side of steamed broccoli, or dine on preservative-laden pumpernickle bread alone?  If so, you are, quite simply put, a-holes. 

I ate your stupid salad--which, by the way, would have been more worth the $6 you charged me if it had at the very least been made with romaine rather than iceberg lettuce--and went on with my life.  But I refuse to be happy about it.

To be fair to my husband, who just wanted to eat a delicious shrimp appetizer in celebration of his new employment, he, too, was disgusted that there were nearly no options for me to eat.  In fact, he considered going somewhere else, but we'd already started to order and it would have just been a pain in the neck.    It's hard to enjoy your meal when your spouse can't enjoy hers as well.

So listen, Outback Steakhouse people:  You need to get with the program.  Even soup kitchens offer animal free options these days.  When you can't even keep up with the cheapest meal in town, there is something really wrong with you.

In a sick irony, after dinner my husband wanted to get a good cappuccino, so we went to The Root and, go figure, the menu included leftovers from Thursday's raw vegan night, but I'd already eaten a giant bowl of iceberg lettuce and I was too full to bother.  *sigh*