Reflections

Today marks exactly 2 months of being vegan! It’s hard to believe that much time has passed already, but as I reflect on the past 2 months I realize that I’ve learned so much about veganism, about how it applies to me personally and how it affects various aspects of my health and well-being.

·         I don’t miss meat.

·         I don’t miss cheese.

·         I don’t miss fast food.

·         I love tofu.

·         I like more veggies than I realized.

·         I need to continue improving my veggie intake, especially greens.

·         I love fruit, but I’m still diabetic so I have to be more careful of eating too much fruit (good sugar is still sugar).

·         I don’t miss soda; I still occasionally have some, but I no longer crave it.

·         I am no longer attached to aspartame.

·         I know to be careful with any kind of artificial sweeteners because they trigger sugar cravings.

·         I drink a lot more water.

·         I make more conscious decisions in general concerning food.

·         I don’t care for vegan cheese.

·         I really enjoy a bit of chocolate almond milk.

·         It takes a lot less now for me to feel full.

·         I still eat “junk food” sometimes but the more I avoid it, the less I crave it (and even then it’s usually just chips and salsa or hummus).

·         I am much more aware of the adverse effects of meat and dairy consumption, the benefits of a plant-based diet and some of the science behind both.

·         I am more aware of animal byproducts in various foods and even other products (hygiene type products, clothing, etc.).

·         I rarely need any painkillers; I experience less headaches and other aches and pains.

·         I have less severe/less frequent allergy issues.

·         I am more aware of the affect the modern food industry has on our environment and animals.

·         I am more aware of GMOs, what they are and that they can’t be avoided entirely but there are ways to consume less.

·         I sometimes get a little grossed out by meat.

·         I sleep better.

·         I generally have more energy.

·         I need to make better use of my energy and be more active to promote further weight loss.

·         I have lost 12 lbs. without really trying.

·         I am learning how to better recognize my cravings as my body telling me what it needs.

·         I am amused at the variety of reactions I get from people when they learn I’m vegan.

·         I do not expect others to accommodate my dietary/lifestyle choices; that’s my responsibility.

·         I do not expect everyone to agree with me concerning veganism.

·         I do appreciate when people respect my choices and/or disagree respectfully.

·         I will not try to force my opinions on others, but if you ask, I will share honestly – in this scenario, getting defensive and argumentative accomplishes nothing on either side.

·         I don’t like it when people try to pick fights with me concerning my health and veganism especially since I don’t pick fights with meat-eaters about their health.

·         I don’t like being asked frequently about where I get my protein… plants have protein, beans have protein, nuts and seeds have protein… you get the picture. Meat may have more protein than some of these things, but our bodies do not actually require those amounts of protein (believe it or not there are even vegan body-builders; I follow several on Instagram).

·         I don’t like being asked if being vegan is healthy… it’s plants… not animal carcass.

·         I am saddened every time someone says to me “I gotta have my meat.” It doesn’t mean I am upset with you or don’t love you, I’m just far too aware of the workings of the food industry as well as the effects of that meat on your health to not be saddened by it.

·         I am continuing to make cruelty-free changes in other aspects of my life as much as I am able to.

·         I have witnessed firsthand the positive emotional and psychological effects of eating a plant-based diet; I am happier than ever and more content than ever with who I am.

·         I enjoy the challenge of writing about this journey and being transparent about it; it provides a source of accountability and allows me to help inspire others.

·         I get so excited when a friend is inspired by my journey and shares this with me.

·         I greatly value the support of my brother and sister on this journey as well as the encouragement of many of my friends, vegan or not.

·         I am still excited about the changes I’ve made and am still motivated to keep going.

#nevergoingback #govegan #totallyworthit :)

Delicious and Nutritious

Last night my sister and I tried a recipe we’ve wanted to try for a while. You can see a picture of it on my Instagram (username: stepheranne), but I thought I’d take this opportunity to share the recipe with you.

It’s basically just vegan lasagna, but the actual name of the recipe is “Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato-Vegetable Lasagna” by Rip Esselstyn of the Engine 2 Diet. It can be found in the book Forks over Knives by Gene Stone, which features the research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 small head of garlic, all cloves chopped or pressed

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 head broccoli, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 can corn, rinsed and drained

1 package firm tofu

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon rosemary

2 jars pasta sauce (kinds with minimal or no added oil)

2 boxes whole-grain lasagna noodles

16 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained

2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed

6 Roma tomatoes, sliced thin

1 cup raw cashews, ground

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 400°F.  Water sauté the onion and garlic on high heat for 3 minutes in a wok or nonstick pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until the onions are limp and the mushrooms give up their liquid. Remove them to a large bowl with a slotted spoon. Reserve the mushroom liquid in the pan.  Water sauté the broccoli and carrots for 5 minutes and add to the mushroom bowl. Sauté the peppers and corn until just beginning to soften. Add them to the vegetable bowl. Drain the tofu by wrapping in paper towels. Break it up directly in the towel and mix into the vegetable bowl. Add spices to the vegetable bowl and combine.

2.    Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish/pan with a layer of sauce. Add a layer of noodles. Cover the noodles with sauce. This way the noodles cook in the oven, saving time and energy. Spread the vegetable mixture over the sauced noodles. Cover with a layer of noodles and another dressing of sauce. Add the spinach to the second layer of sauced noodles. Cover the spinach with the mashed sweet potatoes. Add the final layer of noodles and a last topping of sauce. Cover the lasagna with thinly sliced Roma tomatoes.

3.    Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, sprinkle with the cashews, and return to the oven for 15 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Now we did a few things differently.  We didn’t add the corn because we forgot we used the last of what we had last week.  We also only had one jar of pasta sauce and it could have used more, so the recommended 2 jars is best. The sweet potatoes we didn’t have cooked quite well enough to mash them like we should have, but it wasn’t bad. However instead of the sweet potatoes having their own layer, we mixed it in with the rest of the vegetable mix.  The onions we basically minced instead of chopped and cooked a little longer with the garlic and mushrooms than the recipe calls for, but the flavors really came out well.  We also used fresh spinach instead of frozen and thawed/drained.

I would recommend cooking the sweet potatoes first to ensure they’re cooked well enough and can cool a bit before mashing them so that you don’t burn your hands like we did (haha!)  I would also recommend doing all of your chopping and cutting before you start any of the cooking. We were kind of chopping as we went and ended up rushing some of the steps as a result.  We also didn’t use quite all of the ground cashews, but now we have some for next time.  Also, you may not need quite so many tomatoes depending on how much you want since they just go on the top of the lasagna.  We only used 2 or 3.

The finished product was delicious! It’s a recipe we will definitely be doing again at some point and may even try different variations down the road. It does take time to make and is helpful when you aren’t doing it by yourself, but it’s definitely worth it.

Enjoy!

Transparency

I’m not generally one to make “New Year’s Resolutions” and more often than not the resolutions I did make would never last more than a couple months, much less a year.  This year was different though.  For the first time ever I made a resolution that is still going strong.  It’s a “work-in-progress” type of resolution, but I’m so excited about the progress that has been made.

Over the past seven years I have been on a weight-loss journey with lots of ups and downs.  When I graduated college in the summer of 2008 I was at my heaviest weight… 360 lbs.  I was (and have continued to be) blessed with amazing family and friends who loved me and encouraged me, however I did not love myself.  I was miserable.  I hated what I saw in the mirror and in pictures and anytime someone would say something about me being pretty or beautiful I would think “oh they’re just saying that because they’re my friend, they don’t really mean it” or other things of that nature.  I truly believed no one could ever find me attractive or love me as anything more than a friend.

Fast forward to the fall of 2014 – I was fluctuating between 250 and 260 lbs. and while that’s more than 100 lbs. lost I still felt like I looked the same as when I graduated.  Even I was surprised every time I saw an old picture of myself because I didn’t feel like I looked that different.  All the while I still had that deep desire to be loved, to know what it felt like to have someone genuinely be attracted to me.  But I still didn’t feel loveable.

Then one day some dear friends of mine introduced me to a rather amusing and unconventional TV show called RuPaul’s Drag Race.  Now many of you may not think this is the kind of show that inspiration can be drawn from, and I wouldn’t have thought so either at first, but there is a line RuPaul says at the end of each show that really stuck with me… “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”  I had heard things like this before, but it had never struck such a chord with me like this did.  It finally dawned on me that I didn’t love myself and I couldn’t expect anyone else to love me if I didn’t truly love myself first and treat myself with care and respect.

It was time for a change.  It was time to start loving myself and taking better care of myself in every respect.  So that’s when I decided on this resolution, which in a nutshell was simply to “love me”.  This consisted of a few different things.  First, I had to change the way I think by acknowledging that I am not the same person I was seven years ago, by coaching myself through the struggles and negative thoughts, by taking notice of things I like about myself and by deciding to do something about the things I didn’t like.

Second, I had noticed that in the past I tended to feel better and more confident when I put more effort into my appearance so I needed to do this on a regular basis, to take more pride in myself and my appearance.  I could do this by cleaning out my closet of clothes that no longer fit, investing a bit more into the clothes I do wear by trying new things and wearing things that are more flattering (once again a mental thing too, recognizing that I really can wear flattering clothes regardless of my size and shape).  I could also take the time to do more with my hair than just putting it up in a ponytail while it’s still wet from the shower and doing more makeup than just eyeliner, not because I “have to” but because it makes me feel better, prettier, and more confident.

Third, I needed to take better care of myself – mainly, my health.  I decided to make better choices with my food and tried to be more active, but I was still struggling in this area.  Despite the struggles, I finally broke 250 lbs. in the spring of 2015 and the changes in the other areas were making a significant difference.  I even attempted a bit of online dating and while it wasn’t really successful, I still learned a valuable lesson.  I am loveable.  I am beautiful.  I don’t have to be that to everyone, but people can and do see me that way.  The more I accept and love myself, the more confident and comfortable I am in my own skin no matter where I am in my weight-loss journey. 

Now I realize all of this happened before I went vegan and that’s what this blog is about after all, but there’s a reason I’m sharing this.  While going vegan was not part of the “plan” it has played into my resolution perfectly.  I feel better now than I ever have.  It’s still a work in progress, both the resolution and my weight-loss specifically, but I weigh less now than I did all through high school (currently sitting at 231 lbs.), I have more energy, I sleep better, I no longer desire foods that were so detrimental to my health… and that’s just the physical aspect of this stage of my journey.  Going vegan has done wonders for me emotionally and mentally.  I am happier, I have less negative thoughts and bad moods, and I’m passionate about this change and have more motivation than ever to keep going with it (for multiple reasons: dietary, ethical and environmental).  I can focus better, think clearer and all in all I just feel so much better about myself.

Sometimes people ask me why I’m doing all of this (not just the vegan thing), if I’m doing it to impress people, to be liked by people, or if I’m doing it for myself, and I can honestly say with complete confidence that I am doing this for me and no one else.  I used to think I had to be skinny to get a guy and be loved and I tried using that as motivation, but it never worked.  Now that I’m not doing it for anyone else, it is working.  Not only do I love myself more and have more confidence in who I am and how I look, but I have never been more content in my singleness in my entire life.  I feel like I am finally living my life and being myself.

This change has been gradual and I still have plenty of room to grow, but I’m amazed at how far I’ve come in the past 8 months.  I’m blessed with family and friends who love and support me, my God who loves me unconditionally, and a new confidence that has made a world of difference in so many aspects of my life.  I can finally say with belief and conviction: I love me!

Learning Opportunities

I’ve learned a lot about nutrition and the food industry over the past several weeks.  Up until now I’ve shared more about my own experiences during this vegan journey, but I want to take some time to share with you some of the nutritional information I’ve learned.  If you are interested in learning more about a plant-based diet, I will have listed at the end of this blog some documentaries and books to look into.  For now, I want to focus on just a couple of these resources – Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell.

Dr. Fuhrman specializes in plant-based nutrition as a source of treatment for his patients.  He believes that eating a plant-based diet not only improves health, but can even reverse chronic diseases and illnesses such as allergies, asthma, autoimmune disease, depression, diabetes (type 2) and even heart disease.  Dr. Campbell likewise promotes a plant-based diet and his research has proven the connection between animal proteins (both meat and dairy) and various health conditions, more specifically cardiovascular disease and cancer.

First, let’s step back and take a look at the state of our nation’s health.  According to Dr. Fuhrman, “In spite of the more than $110 million consumers spend every day on diets and ‘reducing’ programs (more than $40 billion per year), Americans are the most obese people in history… A whopping 34 percent of all Americans are obese, and the problem is getting worse, not better” (Eat to Live, introduction).  If a person’s body is made up of more than one-third fat, they are considered to be obese.  Unfortunately now this is becoming more and more prominent in children as well as adults.  In addition, one-third of the American population has or will have heart disease in their lifetime.  Many of us even suffer from more than one health issue at the same time.  “By any number of measures, America’s health is failing.  We spend far more, per capita, on health care than any other society in the world, and yet two thirds of Americans are overweight, and over 15 million Americans have diabetes, a number that has been rising rapidly… Half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, and over 100 million Americans have high cholesterol” (The China Study, introduction).

With so much being spent in this country on health care, how is it that the problem is getting worse rather than better?  The heart of the problem lies in our diet.  Dr. Fuhrman and other doctors who share in this belief point out that our current diet involves eating foods high in calories but low in nutrition.  We are eating highly processed foods that lack the nutrients our bodies need so our bodies continually think we need more in order to get those nutrients, but instead of meeting that nutritional need we continue to eat those same foods rich in fats, sugar and empty calories.  So we are essentially over-eating and starving ourselves at the same time and the result is a plethora of deficiencies and medical conditions.

The plant-based nutrition that Dr. Fuhrman implements with his patients is best proven through Dr. Campbell’s findings.  There is a great deal of research and evidence to be discovered through “The China Study”, but there are a few key points that should be made known.  Protein is vital to our diet, yes.  We’ve been taught that meat and dairy are our primary sources of protein, however protein can be found in a number of plants, including wheat and soy.  In fact, contrary to popular belief, people can live on the protein solely provided through plants.  In Dr. Campbell’s study it was learned that “casein, which makes up 87% of cow’s milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process” whereas proteins from plants did not.  “What made this project especially remarkable is that, among the many associations that are relevant to diet and disease, so many pointed to the same finding: people who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease.  Even relatively small intakes of animal-based food were associated with adverse effects.  People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease.” (The China Study, introduction)

What’s even more impressive through Dr. Campbell’s research is that by lowering the animal-protein and increasing plant-protein, cancer growth not only stopped, but actually reversed.  Through Dr. Fuhrman’s treatment, many of his patients were able to lessen or even go off their various medications entirely, essentially being cured of their conditions.  It seems too good to be true.  Could the answer to so many of our nation’s health problems be as simple as changing how we eat?  The answer is yes.  Unfortunately, you won’t hear this from much of the health-care world.  Money drives so much of what the public is told.

Just think about it for a moment.  What would happen to the pharmaceutical companies if doctors quit prescribing medications to their patients and promoted plant-based, whole food diets instead?  What would happen to the hospitals and urgent care centers if eating healthier prevented many of the conditions that served as their primary sources of income?  Let’s take it a step further… what would happen to the food industry that pushes so many processed foods and profits so much from these cheaply made products if we were told that our health would improve drastically if we stopped buying and eating those foods?  “The distinctions between government, industry, science and medicine have become blurred.  The distinctions between making a profit and promoting health have become blurred.  The problems with the system do not come in the form of Hollywood-style corruption.  The problems are much more subtle, and yet much more dangerous.  The result is massive amounts of misinformation, for which average American consumers pay twice.  They provide the tax money to do the research, and then they provide the money for their health care to treat their largely preventable diseases” (The China Study, introduction).

We could delve even deeper into the food industry aspect of this, but that’s a whole other can of worms.  However this snapshot of the issue helps us understand why more people don’t know that many of our common illnesses can be much more simply and accurately treated by changing the way we eat.  “Eating to live does not require any deprivation.  In fact, you do not have to give up any foods completely.  However, as you consume larger and larger portions of health-supporting, high-nutrient foods, your appetite for low-nutrient foods decreases and you gradually lose your addiction to them.  You will be able to make a complete commitment to this diet style for the rest of your life” (Eat to Live, introduction).

Whether you do or do not have medical conditions, eating a plant-based diet has been proven to improve overall quality of life.  Higher energy levels, better sleep, clearer skin, mental clarity, improved focus and even increased emotional wellbeing (such as more positive attitude, less irritability, etc.) are all potential, even probable side-effects of making the change to a plant-based diet.  I have seen this in my own experience already, as well as in my brother and sister through their lifestyle changes.

If you don’t believe me, check out some of these resources, and I challenge you to give it a try for yourself, even just for one month, and then share your experience with me! I’m no pro, but I’m excited about the changes I’ve seen already in my life and would love to be a source of support for you as well :)

Books:

Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell

Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.

Videos (available on Netflix and/or Hulu):

Forks over Knives

Hungry for Change

Vegucated

Fed Up

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2

Food, INC.

GMO OMG