The Vegan Challenge

Jake and I talk about changing our eating habits all the time.  We need to lose weight, we need to just be more healthy - but at the end of the day, we've never made the time to learn about better nutrition or to cook healthy meals.  Then a good friend of ours found out that his brother has a very rare form of cancer. Because treatments were unclear, one thing he decided he could do was change his diet - he did tons of research and determined that a plant-based diet made the most sense.  I'm sure he also made a lot of other adjustments - and his wife, brother and his wife, and parents followed suit to lend their support.  After just 3-4 months, they all experienced incredible health benefits.  The major changes seemed to be the elimination of all aminal products (including meat and dairy), as well as the elimination or refined sugar.  They also pay close attention to the oils they use in their cooking, avoid processed food, and do many many other things.  They've all lost weight.  But, my friend's father was able to stop taking medication for high blood pressure that he'd been on for years...after hearing these very personal experiences first hand from a close friend - Jake and I decided it really was time to make our change.  And so I started reading more books about becoming vegan.  As a life-long lover of meat, and a foe of vegetables, this is a huge deal for me.  I've been borrowing cookbooks from the library, and we decided on two meatless days and one vegan day per month.  I signed up for a bi-weekly Farm Fresh to You produce box to help me explore new vegetables and inspire me to cook more.  Luckily, my mom has been around a lot - and given me the time, freedom, and inspiration to keep at it.  Chopping up all those veggies can be time consuming.  In the past 2 months, we've definitely cut down on our meat intake significantly, and increased our vegetable consumption.  I'm not attempting to cut out refined sugar yet...but the area I'm having trouble with is dairy.  The cheese and eggs are killing me.  I've found some non-dairy substitutes that work fine (butter, for example) and others that just aren't the same (cream cheese).  I may need to go cold turkey to just love my taste for it. Other than just general better health, I'm hoping that cutting out the dairy will improve the fertility challenges I've faced because of autoimmune irregularities.  I'm also hoping it'll help my mom with her arthritis, and both of us with high blood pressure.  But, we have to stick to it, of course. 

And that's where the 30-day challenge comes in.  I turn 35 on August 16.  I thought this would be a symbolically good day to start the challenge (well, maybe the 17th, so I can have my final indulgences - though I don't want to see the process of depriving myself or giving anything up - I want to view it as a positive improvement).  I've ordered this book, which I hope will be full of inspiration...and I hope to keep track of the really good recipes I find on this blog, as well as my thoughts on how this very big dietary change is affecting me, both emotionally and physically.  I'm a little scared!