I'm a bit tired of defining the word, but thankful it is now moving up in mainstream conversations on Facebook, Twitter and publications. At the Tony Robbins UPW event (Unleash the Power Within) in San Jose, CA this month, I was happy to see the open encouragement of a plant based diet. UPW in itself was a powerful, life changing experience, a topic for another day, but I thought to myself at the time, what a movement it would be if 12,000 people decided to no longer eat animal products! How awesome that would be if it transcended to friends and families?
Why are you Vegan? Isn't hard to find something to eat? Where do you get your protein?...are all questions I hear often. The truth is, I get it, I was skeptical too when I was introduced to "this way of living". I have probably eaten more animals in my lifetime than most of you and once could never imagine a meal without meat. Originally, from Texas, I learned early on that everything has meat or an animal product in the ingredients. For God's sake I would put a slab of bacon and a stick of butter in my famous Black-eye pea Soup!
In my late thirties I started to see my health degrade. I was pre-hypertension, had kidney stones, constant vertigo, low energy, intestinal issues, horrible menstrual cycles and I couldn't keep the weight off. My stress was through the roof and I had bouts with depression. Because my Mom had always relied so heavily on pharmaceuticals I couldn't bring myself to follow in her foot steps, I saw the end result and it wasn't pretty.
My husband and I watched "Forks Over Knives" and "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and I realized there was hope. We made small changes, first removing everything in the house that had high fructose corn syrup. Red meat was easy, so it was second to go. Pork, was just as easy to remove from our diets and then we pealed away the chicken products and eventually fish. Fish took a little longer to remove from our diet but became easier, as it was harder and harder to find fish that was actually clean and from a good source. As we removed the animal products from our diet we added fruits and vegetables. Condiments were easy as well, as there are so many options available for salad dressings, dips, and sandwich spreads.
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| Fresh Spinach |
The result: My blood pressure drastically improved in the first 60 days, and has been excellent since. I lost 10-15 lbs over the course of 3 months and I have kept it off to this day (8+ years later). I haven't had a kidney stone since being Vegan. My energy is through the roof. It took about a year, but my vertigo is gone. I was able to get off of the "Pill" as my hormones evened out and I no longer suffer from depression. I am finally happy and health, as it should be.
Being Vegan positively impacts the environment and the welfare of animals. I may not have started my journey initially for the animals but it certainly solidifies why I will always remain Vegan as I love animals and know that we, as a society, need to shift our food consumption to plant based food.
I have many sources that I contribute to my daily routine. I have attempted to take the best from the experts. Finding what works for me and incorporate it into a life routine. First off, eating Vegan isn't hard, it is quite simple. I hope by sharing this information it will encourage you to consider a plant based diet. I will dive into the how's of Vegan food shopping and cooking in a future posts, but putting that aside this is my daily routine:
Daily
- 6:30 AM - Morning Juice (green with lots of veggies)
- 8:00 AM - Coffee with Soy Milk
- 10:00 AM - Mixed Nuts with raisins (snack)
- I try to keep this to a good size hand full
- 12:30 PM - One big salad a day (either for lunch or dinner)
- I am creative here I mix in beans, quinoa, roasted Brussels sprouts etc. Try taco salads, spinach salads, kale salads for example.
- For alternate lunch option try a Vegan Soup (chili, minestrone, lentils)
- 3:00 PM - Orange or a Banana
- 7:00 PM - Big salad or vegan cooked dinner
This is my M-F routine, I have a bit more flexibility on the weekends. I hope this information is helpful to you and if you have any questions please reach out.
Live well,
Dirty Girl Suzanne
