Don't Hate!

I realize that a lot of vegan people hate the term "veganish," posing that veganish is just another term for omnivore so I'd like to take a moment to clarify what I mean by the term veganish.  Traditionally people chose a vegan lifestyle based on their beliefs about animal cruelty.  More recently the population is becoming aware of their health as an increasing number of people are being diagnosed with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease at younger ages than ever before.  There is a push to limit intake of saturated fat(fat generally found in animal products) and increase intake of fresh foods and whole grains.  A vegan diet meets these requirements.  However, when approaching veganism from a health stand point the tiny details like having a bit of honey(not vegan) in my green tea are not an area of concern for me, hence veganish.  I definitely don't smother ranch all over my salads and call it vegan but I do have vitamin B12 in my protein powder etc.  I think everyone has the right to decide what they put in their mouth *Wink* so if having one vegan meal a week meets your health goal then that's great.  There is no rule that says tomorrow you have to start eating 100% vegan.

Before hopping on the veganish bus I used to make fun of a vegetarian friend of mine.  I truly felt that if god did not want us to eat meat then why does it taste so good.  Even the thought of being vegetarian or vegan made me cringe.  I would just think of all the things I could not eat.  That all changed when I got that high blood sugar reading and decided that I would rather do what it takes to prevent myself from getting diabetes than deal with the hassle of poking my finger every day and having side effects of medications because I have "literally" seen what its like to have diabetes and to that I say no thank you.

I now look at being veganish as what I CAN eat rather than what I can't eat.  It's not about depriving yourself of the joy of food but changing the way you see food altogether.  I will admit, there are times when I am feeding my body for nourishment and there are times when I am eating for pleasure but I generally achieve a balance between the two. Hence today's menu:

Breakfast Smoothie- handful frozen baby kale, 1/2 banana, 3 frozen strawberries, scoop of protein powder, and vanilla almond milk unsweetened(the banana makes it sweet and covers the taste of the kale).

Lunch and Dinner will be the salad bar at Virginia Mason where I do my clinicals.

Today's Menu

Anyone who knows me is aware that I LOVE to talk about food, healthy food specifically.  When I started eating vegan all I did was talk about all the creative meals I was preparing.  I resolved not to give up on taste just because my diet was limited.  I realize that I must have annoyed the crap out of some of my friends who were not vegan but shit, gloating was all I had!  They had meat and I had gloating.  Really though I was excited.  I had found something so wonderful that I wanted to share it with everyone.  To my surprise and relish a friend of mine was totally into it. She even suggested that I start a blog and write down everything I eat so she can use it as a guide.  Months later technology-challenged me figured out how to start a blog.  So today's menu consisted of:

Breakfast- Oatmeal with Chia seeds.

Lunch- Whole wheat tortilla with trader joe's cuban black beans and salsa verde, sprouted lentils, and french fried onions. 

Dinner- Sliced Portabello mushrooms marinated in sweet baby rays BBQ sauce and cooked for 25 min at 400 degrees, turned halfway through.
Salad made with mixed greens, sprouted lentils, garbanzo beans, avocado and dressing (grey poupon mustard, clove of crushed garlic, rice vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper).

Also my quick sprouting method is to take 1/4 cup of lentils and soak them in water in a 1 quart jar over night. In the morning I screw a screen onto the lid and pour out the water and rinse/swish water around and empty and prop the jar up in a way that it won't hold water, usually on the dish rack. I rinse every AM and PM for 2-3 days or until my sprouts are the size I want, then put them in an airtight container in the fridge.  I have heard of doing the same thing using a colander rather than a jar. Ya welcome!

Holy crap, I figured out how to post a picture! This is epic... I'm exhausted.

Day One

Day One, back on track. After getting an abnormally high fasting blood glucose reading last year while goofing off with the glucometer with some nursing classmates on our last day of clinical I decided to try going vegan. I had just watched Forks Over Knives and something clicked. It made sense based on my understanding of the human anatomy and physiology that I was required to become proficient in as a requirement for nursing school.  I did pretty well for a few months. I lost 15 pounds effortlessly that I had been trying to get rid of for years. I had been scared that I would have no energy but it was quite the opposite. I even stopped drinking coffee which is quite an achievement living in Seattle. As it got closer to my wedding and family was visiting it became more difficult to stick with the vegan diet. By the time we left for the honeymoon I was back to my old ways, promising myself that once I got back I was getting back on track. We all know how this plays out. I made mild efforts to eat vegan for months and then it happened, Thanksgiving! What a glorious way to slap the vegan right out of me with Christmas almost in sight.  I relished in my defeat eating all those edible comfort items I had so dearly missed.  My indigestion and waistline were a constant reminder that this was not the right way to feed my body but the pleasure centers in my brain were overriding any rational though.  It has been like this until today, Day One, where I return to making lifestyle choices not for immediate pleasure, but for the health of my body for the rest of my life.