My adventures have only just begun in this new world of vegan eating and living. And, might I add, it is FABULOUS! (which happens to be my current expression of choice)
I was raised in the middle of no where, also known as “bfe”. I was accustomed to “venison steaks” that were severely pounded pieces of deer back-strap drenched in egg and milk, doused in flour with seasoning, and then thrown into a sizzling frying pan with western family vegetable oil. While those were cooking the corn would be boiling and the mashed potatoes would have half a stick of butter and milk thrown into them. Last thought was a salad, if we had any. When we did it usually was comprised of iceberg lettuce and some sort of kraft dressing or in my father’s case, a heaping tablespoon of generic mayonnaise. That’s just a typical Tuesday night in my growing up years.
Now that your arteries are clogging just from reading it, you can see why at around 9 years old I was trying “diets”. Not for sake of dieting, although that was certainly the case in jr high and high school, but because something didnt settle well with me. I wanted something different, and needed it for my tummy’s sake. For years following I would stop eating carbs, I would only eat meat and vegetables, then I only ate vegetables and fruit and carbs, then I stopped having dairy… You probably are quick to see I tried cutting everything “typical” that I knew. I stopped eating meat in college because every time I ate it my stomach would just churn, I had the worst pains, headaches, etc. And, I was sick. Not like sometimes, and not just a cold. I was ILL. I didnt know better, so I did what I could based on my knowledge at the time, and eventually went back to eating meat. Everyone around me was concerned I was dieting for weight loss, or that I was just trying fads, and encouraged me to just eat “normal”. Well, what IS normal?
I ventured to find out. I ended up finding bodybuilding.com as my go-to reference and began the ever so popular, high protein, low carb, low sugar, high fiber fiet that everyone seems to be following to be in good health. Except what I didn’t know was the dairy was killing my stomach, 1/2 the marinades I used and the carbs that I was eating had gluten in them. That I needed more fresh vegetables….
Seven and a half years after starting college, and not finishing ;), I have come to where I am now. A vegan. I have to say a HUGE “thank you” to Robert Cheeke for being such a kind, gentle (persuasive) influence on me over the past two years. If it weren’t for him, I can honestly say I would have been stuck in the rut of thinking, “vegans are too skinny, they don’t have muscle, and all they eat are vegetables.”. Clearly, anyone who knows about Robert knows about veganbodybuilding.com, which COMPLETELY disproves all of those notions!!!
I went vegan for a few months, slipped back into vegetarian, and now am fully vegan. The great thing about it is this, I don’t “miss out” on anything. Ever. I cook delicious meals that are free of gluten, dairy, all animal biproducts, and are generally low in fat and the fat they do contain is healthy fats found in foods and oils that are REALLY important!! The other amazing thing? I bake. I love baking. It is one of my all time favorite things to do, outside of hugging and working out. And, yes, vegan desserts are different, but every time I share them with people they A) don’t know it’s vegan, B) are blown away when they find out, because “it’s SO yummy!”. So in a nut shell: I am in love with being vegan. I love knowing exactly what’s going in my body. I love knowing nothing that I buy is taking lives. I love feeling better! I don’t NEED coffee everyday, even with the lack of sleep I had this weekend (due to the full moon) I am chipper, and happy. (for the most part 😉 being vegan hasn’t stopped melanomas from popping up…dang it!!!)
I will share tricks I learn as I go, and post recipes and ideas, and experiences too 😉
I will end with this: By dedicating my life to this new journey, I feel free, I feel like I can take on more, I feel like this is how we are supposed to feel! I think that we are so caught up in commercialism that we’ve forgotten it’s not all about Wendy’s or Ihop. That we can make (for less $) the same menu options without sacrificing our intestinal tract, stomach etc to all the chemicals, toxins, and unnecessary loss of life!!!
I encourage you to think about it. Just think, you could be full of energy and life (without taking a life) sans coffee or Red Bull 😉
Morsels of Random Thought 