Friday, March 19, 2010

The Shift - Week One



At long last I'm sitting down to take the time to write my "vegan post".

Only - it's not so vegan.

I tried to go gun-ho on the whole vegan thing after my doctor's appointment on Monday - only to discover that I have NOT THE FIRST CLUE about how to eat vegan.  And thus I just kinda stopped eating - which was very very dumb of me, I know, I know.

Had a couple days of being a total and complete BITCH  (and feeling like a dirty and wet dishrag) and then decided that going vegetarian before going fully vegan was probably a smarter way to go. I thought that since I had quit smoking ciggarettes cold turkey I could do the same with food.  Turns out my junk food addiction is much more powerful! Who'd have thunk it.

I'm gonna digress for a minute to give you a better view of my (more recent) diet.
My mom was a big time cook so I grew up on home cooked foods.  But lots and lots of it.  I have always been a well-rounded girl!

In 2000 I decided to go veggie.  I did so (very successfully - I <3 vegetarian food!) for 3 years at which point I was forced to not be one anymore due to financial reasons (was barely eating at all - though I still managed to be kinda overweight because when I did eat it was cheap, easy, and usually from the food bank, thus not very nutritious)
Lived that way until 2005 when I moved into my "girl pad" and became veggie again for a year and a few months.  I was thin, I was happy, I was healthy, I was fit... it was great. 
Then me and D moved in together, November of 2006, and out the door went my blissful vegetable, fruit & fish market diet.  For the last four years up until last Monday I have been a total junk-food-aholic.   Not a care in the world.  Well, not entirely.  I always had that voice in the back of my head telling me to STOP NOW... but I ignored it... and now? I am suffering GREATLY from it.

If I'm going to be totally honest I believe that my fibromyalgia and endometriosis are both bi-products of the junk life I have been leading. 

But it ends NOW.
And I'm going to stop beating my head with a stick every time I give in and have some yogurt.  Or cream cheese. I am realizing that baby steps are the ONLY way that this is going to happen.   
And if we are going to eat out, we will eat at Subway or at a decent restaurant where I can get a nice salad or "health-wise" meal.
NO MORE MCDONALDS!
NO MORE WENDY'S!
NO MORE BINGING ON JUNK FROM THE DOLLAR STORE.
and... this one is HARD but...
NO MORE $0.99 ARIZONA GREEN TEA in a CAN.

I'm using these books to help me along:



















I don't have these ones yet, but I'm hoping to get em in the coming weeks:























I'll keep you all posted on how things are going, and if you have ANY tips they are ALWAYS greatly appreciated!  I'm kinda obsessive really... with the checking of the comments.... :P

3 comments:

  1. Try Sarah Taylor's book "Vegan in 30 Days." It is a simple but well-researched book that makes it easy to become vegan by spreading out the process of giving up animal products, setting up your vegan kitchen, and learning everything you need to know to become a successful vegan, all in the period of approximately one month.

    Here is a link to an excellent review of the book by blogger Bianca Phillips of VeganKrunk: http://vegancrunk.blogspot.com/2010/03/vegan-in-30-days.html.

    (Disclosure: I work for the book's publisher.)

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  2. I'm so excited for you! I'm going to try out being a vegetarian for a week or two and then move into vegan-ism for a week or two. I'm nervous about the vegan aspect because I LOVE dairy (with a capital L)

    One of the books I saw at the book store was called Clean Food (I don't remember who it was by). The recipes are broken up by season. You can definitely find it online cheaper than if you bought it in a bookstore.

    I'm looking forward to reading your updates about your lifestyle change and I hope to follow in your footsteps.

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  3. Great post. I am going to be including a link to this post in my next post. I am working on it right now.

    :)

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