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.