Well, that didn't take long.

OK, we're out.
Don and Diane are still slogging away at it, but we are D-U-N done.
There are multiple reasons.

1. Vegan meals can be incredibly tasty and very filling. However, we did not find very many of them that were really satisfying. Maybe one recipe in the slightly more than two months that we tried. The quinoa stir fry was very good, and a belly full of that was nice. But You miss something and that something is...animal bits. I have found similar reports on other forum posts and even pro-vegan sites. You can cram alot of food in, get full, and mostly that's it. Not terrible, not horrible. It's not a deal breaker by itself. The vegetarian meals with a little egg, some cheese, those are satisfying. So it must be the fat.
2. It's difficult to split the household. Me eating vegan meals while Denise eats vegetarian while The Boy eats whatever. Tough. Tough to do. This is also true of weight watchers and any other diet. The folks around will make or break you. There are studies that prove that, as well as cliches. "Fat feathers tend to clump together." Or something like that, however it goes. There are spiritual parallels that we will discuss at another time.
3. blah, blah, excuses, excuses

But, I know now why vegans are militant, evangelistic folk. And yes, sometimes mean.
They have to be.
If you are not 100% sold out to the process, if you haven't swallowed all of the non-horse hoof derived Kool-Aid, you won't last.
If you aren't convinced that the earth itself will become a barren wasteland if you continue to eat animal products, you won't make it.
And we are not. And that's why we couldn't sustain it as a life style.
Also, for Denise and I, we got confused. My weight didn't drop, even while doing P90X2. We no longer knew how to eat right, lose weight. Proper portions? Who knows! The P90X2 nutrition guide even has a vegan eating plan, and says it's almost impossible to "over-feed."
But my fear of hunger, fear of not getting enough protein led to eating more than I need to. Before, eating a bowl of oatmeal was enough. But now, I needed a cereal and some extra coconut milk poured on top of my oatmeal, and a smoothie to wash it down.
It's not working for me.
I can't commit.



So we are going to switch to back to eating like Jack and Jill. Or a pregnant version there of. A sustainable version. Or the Warrior diet. Or something like it.
We'll figure it out.

Excelsior!
Cliff

Myth #1: Vegans never get sick

You here lots of folks bragging all the time, "I eat [insert mystery ingredient here] and I never get sick." Or even better, "I take 10,000 mg of [insert magic pill/potion here] and I never get sick."

Well, you would think with all the healthy eating around here, bacteria would shrivel and die if they got within 3 feet of me.

Nope, I got smacked around by The Crud for over a week. A mean version of bronchitis/laryngitis/fever/blech. Had to take some antibiotics to get over it.

Denise has been sick with it for about a month. And here's a little insider tip for you: Sick pregnant women make lousy vegetarians. That's all I'm saying about that.

So that was pretty disappointing. I can count the number of times I've had meat in the past month on one hand, but I still got sick. Most of the times when I "cheat" on the weekends, I'm eating something with cheese like a spinach pizza or having some eggs.

Now If I were putting a political spin on it, I would say thank goodness I am eating a whole foods plant based diet so that I was only sick for a week and a half. Other people have been sick for months with the same crud, where as I was only sick for half that time.

Or, if I were in a self condemning mode, I would say that the reason I got sick was because I have been cheating with some eggs and cheese on the side. If I were really 100% committed, I wouldn't have gotten sick.

I guess that's what they are saying about Davy Jones, dead at 66.

"He was a vegetarian, and there was not an ounce of fat on the guy," Jacobson said. "He lived on the beach in Florida and ran miles every morning. This is the last person I expected this to happen to. He couldn't have been in better shape."

Whoops! The best quote about it came from my friend John Peterson and I totally agree with him, " As relates to exercise and diet, let me just say that the man never suffered and was able to enjoy himself to the very end of his short 66 years of life. In my opinion that is far better than slowly dieing for 30 years."

Nuff said,

Cliff

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