So I'm a vegan. For now.

Yeah I haven't updated this blog in a long time. Whoops etc. I have something to say now, so hi.

I have been reading a lot of books regarding veganism, juicing, detox diets, etc...as well as watching documentaries on Netflix. Basically the idea of the corporatization of the American food industry and the effect that the American food lobby has had on the standard American diet. It opened up my eyes quite a bit. So I'm going to try veganism for a while.

Jeremy is trying it with me, which is awesome considering that watching him eat a cheeseburger for dinner while I'm eating veggies could potentially be catastrophic for my willpower. Also, we think it'll really help his blood sugar levels.

I've never been a huge meat eater in the first place. I mostly order it when we're out to eat because I don't particularly enjoy preparing raw meat personally. So I've always been teetering on the edge of vegetarianism, but sort of by accident. So now, I'm taking it a step further and committing to it with intention. We'll see how it goes.

I've been juicing for a while now - buying the prepared juices at Whole Foods (100% veggie juices, mostly green veggies) before our stuff arrived out here and I got my hands on our juicer again. Since then, I've been juicing in the mornings for breakfast...some combination of the below:
cucumbers
bell peppers
celery
oranges
limes
fresh ginger
carrots

It hasn't tasted bad at all so far. I honestly enjoy it. And then I take the pulp from the juicer and dump it in the garden in the backyard. Apparently the soil loves it. When you take your first sip of green juice, you think it tastes like grass (and it does). But then after a couple of weeks, you're really looking forward to it. It's quite interesting how adaptable your taste buds are. And I think my body was sort of like, I can do something with this. Keep drinking it.

If you're interested, I'll talk to anyone who will listen to me about it. The books I've read are:
Eat to Run by Scott Jurek (a world class ultramarathoner and vegan)
Born to Run by Christopher Mcdougall
Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr (the idea of using diet to lower your chances of heart disease and cancer...draws a lot on The China Study, which is one of the most referenced nutritional studies ever performed, basically clearly showing the link between consumption of animal protein and cancer prevalence)
Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life by Cherie Calbom
The Juicing Bible by Pat Crocker
The Big Book of Juices by Natalie Savona

The documentaries I've watched:
SuperSize Me (who hasn't?)
Food Inc (closed my eyes for 90% of it)
Vegucated (same as above)
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (very interesting, mostly about juicing)

There's another called Forks Over Knives or Forks Not Knives or something that I want to watch as well. Haven't gotten around to it yet though.

So anyway, yeah, today was day 1 of veganism. I juiced a bunch of veggies for breakfast, then had a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and candied walnuts for lunch, and 2 vegan veggie burger patties with tofu mozzarella (weird) and sliced avocado for dinner. Dessert was a frozen banana mashed up with chunky peanut butter and cocoa powder - which was actually REALLY GOOD. I didn't think it would be, but it was. Even if you have no interest in veganism - you should try that just for kicks. It's really good.

Tomorrow I'll try spirulina (algae) in my juice for the first time. It's supposed to be a superfood. We also bought raw bee pollen at Whole Foods tonight, along with two different kinds of tofu/grain sausages, almond milk, and almond yogurt.

So yeah. I'm not sure how long this is going to last. But we'll see. It'll be interesting, at least.

And yeah, you might as well say it now. She moved to California, and now she's a vegan.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Oh and I've been off Diet Coke/caffeine for the past two-ish weeks. I had one yesterday at brunch because I was just REALLY craving it and I figured why not. But trying to cut it out generally.

But don't worry - I'm not going to be a preachy vegan. And I'm not going to say we can't go to restaurants together because they won't have vegan things there. I'm sure I'll still occasionally eat meat, and I'm SURE I'll still occasionally eat dairy (CHEESE I LOVE YOU DON'T LEAVE ME). And honestly, I'm not a die-hard egg fan, but I am a die-hard fan of things that are made with eggs (um, cake?). So again...we'll see.