We don't eat puppies for different reasons

Last week was me and Denise's first real week eating a whole foods, plant based diet.


Notice I did not say Vegan.


I'm not a big fan of the title, it's become loaded with political meaning.
If you think about it, a vegan could be the nicest person you know. Someone who makes choices that are good for animals, good for their health, and helps support sustainable agriculture.





Instead, when one thinks of A Vegan, one envisions some militant judgmental harpie.

Not a very productive stereotype.

Some of the most well known vegan manifestos are also known for their potty mouths and intolerance.

So when we say, "We're going vegan."
I understand when people hear, "We've lost our mind and now we think we are better than you."

I have been stressing to the few folks we have told that we are not Ideological Vegans.

I'm not sure I'm using the right terminology.




But the reason we are not eating cows is not because they are cute. Cows can be cute, and they can be tasty.
I am starting to disagree about some of the industrial practices that we use to process cows into hamburgers. I think it dishonors the animal.

However, that's not the driving force behind our experiment.



We are in this for our health. If we accidentally save the planet at the same time, cool.

OK, enough philosophizing.
I'm sure you've noticed the pictures of some of the yummy food we've been eating this week.
Especially the cookies! Good stuff.

If this was a better blog, I'd post recipes and talk about the food.

But you are stuck reading this one, so tough noogies.
Denise and Diane should be posting soon, you can ask them about the recipes.

That's all from me for tonight.

Now it's your turn, please leave your comments down below.


Excelsior!

Cliff

Are we ever going to get started?

A few more pictures of meals gone by this week.

The Ribs are from Dreamland, a wonderful place. If you like meat. (which i still do, don't tell anyone)

For a vegan blog, we aren't doing so well.



Thank goodness no one reads this blog, or else it would be pretty embarrassing!!

Yay for anonymity!!!

There is some good news though. We went to the store last night, and look at all the wonderful fruits and veggies we got!!
Yes, shopping was a pleasure.












So the experiment really cranks up in earnest next week.
Here's the plan: Mostly vegan meals for me, but Noah and Denise will still be eating vegetarian meals throughout the week. I'll let Denise tell you all about vegan pregnancies. It can be done. Oh yes, there are people right now about to birth babies who eat a plant based diet. We just haven't nailed down all the particulars yet.

Have fun eating western diet trash this weekend, and as always, leave your comments, concerns and verbal abuse down below!

Excelsior!
Cliff

every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward

The title for today is part of a quote from Thomas Edison:

"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

I putting up some pictures of what we ate this weekend. Not exactly vegan-istic.

This is a failure to plan, pure and simple. And when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

But we have some great excuses:

We made the decision to drop meat from our diet right after buying bulk items at Costco. Now if this was a reality TV show, we would have a big segment where we throw all the junk into the trash.

Well we can't afford to do that from a monetary standpoint. I know, we can't afford to continue eating poison, blah, blah, blah.

We also have my parents staying with us for Noah's birthday. There will be a time when we have good plant based recipes to inflict on our family and friends, but right now we don't. We have a few vegetarian recipes that we love, but we dont have a few full arsenal yet.

Yet.

OK, excuses over, we'll do better and better as we move on.

In other news, Denise's mom, Diane, had heart trouble this week. She had to have a heart cath and a stent. I'll let her tell her story, but it does make us want our experiment to succeed that much more. But we got some interesting encouragement from her cardiologist.

That's all for now. Let us know what you think, drop us a comment down below.

Thanks,

Cliff

We can't have that either?

"Wait, why can't we eat that?"
"Because it has animal products in it."
"And this, what about this?"
"No."
"Really? Oh well, at least we can still use honey."
"Nope."
"What?? We can't eat that either?!?!!"

Such has been the conversation at our house the last few days. Why? Good Question.
Sunday night we watched Forks Over Knives, a wonderful bit of cinematic propaganda...err I mean education.

The feature film Forks Over Knives examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods.

Not that they are overselling it. No way, no hyperbole here.
Actually I did like the movie/documentary. And at least there is some science backing up their claims. (We'll look at it in greater detail and even point out some of the holes in later posts. )
We watched it with my in-laws, Don & Diane. They share our interest in healthy living, but never really made a hardcore commitment to it.
Until now, that is. They want to go Vegan.
The film pushed them out of the realm of contemplation and into action mode. I'll let them tell their own stories, but they pretty much have the typical diseases we in America think are supposed to be normal for folks in their 60's.
But what if everyone is wrong? What if the Hippies have had it right all along?

And why does all that mean I can't have milk, again? Didn't we already try this last year? Yes, we dropped processed food, but we still had organic meat, cheese and eggs. And Honey. Sweet, sweet honey. Unfortunately it started falling apart around the 6 month mark. By Christmas, we were back to the typical western diet feeding trough.
But guess what, we did feel better eating like health nuts, despite the near crippling inconvenience.

So in a show of support, and in the spirit of scientific exploration, we are going vegan too. For 6 months. Possibly longer, if we feel as amazing as the vegan evangelists claim we will. Maybe we'll lose weight, feel better, live longer and all my hair will grow back. That would be nice.

We are starting the blog during the planning phase, trying to give everyone a look into our thoughts as we drag ourselves into health.
Goals for this week:

1. Find recipes that sound good
2. Find out what we can and can't eat.
3. Mentally try to focus on the positive aspects of what we are doing
4. Have fun with it.
5. Choose the vegetable option when we can right now until we have completely revamped the pantry.
   

That's all from me tonight. Now it's your turn, leave your comments down below.

Excelsior!

Cliff