ADSactly Personal - Descent to Veganism
Descent to Veganism
How an Ordinary Omnivore Was Tempted By the Vegan Lifestyle
I am an unabashed omnivore. That is to say, I’ll eat almost anything that won’t eat me. If it’s properly prepared I may even eat things that will eat me.
I have no particular argument with people that eat vegetables, I do so myself in proper relationship with the food pyramid. They have never seemed to harm me in any particular way and some of them are quite tasty.
I was raised on a farm. Yeah, I’m that kid in your class that knew exactly where babies and pork chops come from. No mystery in the life cycle for me. I’ve been eating meat as long as I’ve been eating.
In my younger days I didn’t have a care about my diet and what I ate, so long as there was plenty of it. For the first half of my life I was an athlete in training and needed a high calorie, high protein diet just to maintain my playing weight. In fact, I didn’t really hit my weight until I was in my early 30s.
For the second half of my life I have been somewhat less active, and actually had to start watching my weight sometime in my late 30s. I made all the right choices: I drank light beer and limited myself to no more than 10 cheeseburgers per week. I fluffed out the food pyramid by eating pizzas with vegetables on them. I ran 30 miles per week.
That all came crashing down on me just after I turned 40. I had a new less active job and promptly puffed up to somewhere north of 300 lbs. I gave up alcohol completely and started eating with more sanity and discretion. By my 42nd birthday I was under 230 lbs. Life was good.
Fast forward to my 62nd birthday. I had suffered a career ending back injury and a major medicine change. I was living a life of enforced sloth and feeding myself well. I got back to 300 lbs. My weight started limiting my life, including my ability to ride a motorcycle for long distances.
I embraced a low carb diet. In 6 months I was back to 230 lbs and feeling good. I started modifying the diet to include more carbs and for protection ate more meat. Lots of red meat. Yes, the cheeseburgers were back in my life. I made them myself, and loved it.
Until I got back over 280 lbs. This time I was bound and determined to eat a more plant based diet. I started on the Mediterranean diet and began losing the weight in a slow and steady fashion.
Vegan is hard.
I don’t mean that the vegetables are necessarily hard, I mean it is hard to be a Vegan in the modern world.
You might guess there is a backstory here. There are a couple of young people I know that are Vegan and militant. Just for being allowed around them I have to try stuff that I really don’t want to try.
One of my friends lives on a remote exotic Island. Heaven on earth for most people. She routinely publishes Vegan recipes that are tasty looking and actually good for me. I tried a couple of the recipes and liked them and told her so. The next thing I know is I am being pressured to test a certain variety of Vegan Burger because it just isn’t available in Paradise where she lives.
How Hard Can It Be?
It’s vegetables. We are surrounded by them. The world is literally awash with vegetables.
It turns out you can’t just chomp on vegetables. You need tools. Now that’s something I can get with, tools.
Image Source: The Author I phone 6S
This photo is not a piece of medieval torture equipment, though I have no doubt that is where it’s genesis is. It’s a hand spiralizer that is available on Amazon and is utterly necessary to one of the recipes that I wanted to try.
The Best Pasta, she said. Turns out it really doesn’t have any relationship to pasta in my lexicon. It’s zucchini. Not noodles, zucchini. Served cold. But you need the spiralizer to make zucchini look like noodles. So I bought the thing and it came without one word of instruction. Except the warning printed on the plastic bag in six languages. Not one word.
It cost me 3 zucchini to get something that looked sorta like noodles. Being the waste not want not sort that I am, I ate the first two mistakes. OK, they weren’t really mistakes, the damn thing works, the first two just didn’t look much like noodles. Looks are apparently important in Veganville.
So. I have the noodles. Sort of. Now it’s time to make the sauce. Food Processor? I don’t need no stinking food processor, I’ll use a blender.
Amazon Next Day. Food Processor.
I’m getting very close to $300 into my plate of healthy spaghetti. And I haven’t gotten it in my mouth yet.
Did I mention spices? Not just any spices, but exotic stuff I’d never heard of. That my local market doesn’t carry. I’m not exactly spice bereft here. I have at least 7 kinds of peppers. Not to mention Salt AND Black Pepper. Who knew?
It’s off to town to the one and only place in the county that might possibly have what I need. 40 miles round trip but I can save some time because that place is the only one in the county for the burgers that I promised to try.
No, I don’t have any pictures. I typically do not take pictures of what I am about to eat. Particularly stuff that I have made. Use your imagination, it was beautiful. OK. Maybe not beautiful in the classic sense of the word. Probably not in any sense of the word.
It was, as a matter of just pure fact very edible. Probably not $300 worth, but just mighty tasty if I do say so myself. I actually liked it to the point that I am really looking forward to testing those burgers today.
The Downside
Of course there is a downside. I may have slightly overstated the cost. I actually do have a food processor and am relatively competent in the kitchen. I didn’t need many spices. But there is a distinct downside.
You see, I am 66 years old. I really have in my mind that I want to be utterly used up when I die. If I don’t impale myself on a Buick Bumper with my motorcycle I might die healthy if I follow this sort of diet. What a tragic waste that would be.
Besides, do you have any idea how many pork chops I could buy for $300? How much BACON?
My thanks to @heart-to-heart for a wonderful recipe. It’s not the only one I’ve tried from her.
Authored by: @bigtom13
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Funny start of your post.lol I’m not a vegetarian, but I do eat vegetables a lot along with meat or some other staff. As a matter of fact, my friend is a vegetarian. Just a few years ago her body weight was about 250 pounds, than all of the sudden she stopped eating any meat. Within one year she lost 130 pounds and she still keeps it the same now. She is happy of course. I do admire her. Even tough I have never been overweight, I do understand how easy it is to gain weight and how hard it is to loose it. As of your life story, in my childhood I was exactly the same. Didn’t pay attention to my diet, ate everything that was put on my plate. Actually one time my dad made this horrible sup, no one could eat it.lol Anyway, I could tell, even though you say you ate no more that 10 cheeseburgers per week, it’s still a lot. I, myself ate probably 10 in my entire life. Believe it or not. On the other hand, you did great with your excersise running 30 miles per week is a lot. When the weather allows me, I run once a week 4 miles. I have to admit, your weight swings kind of scared me. Since my 20th birthday my biggest weight swing was 10 pounds. I’m glad you have your vegan friend looking out for you. However, I wouldn’t believe you would turn into vegetarian for a second. I’m a meat lover, you have to eat meat. We humans are build to eat meat.
Great and at some point funny post!
HI @milano1113, I'm the vegan friend @bigtom13 is mentioning so I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in here ;)
I am not a militant vegan activist by any means, my main will and want for promoting the diet is due to the tremendous health effects I saw in myself before I started studying nutrition and becoming a health coach.
Let it be known that I used to be the most emotionally attached carnivore you would ever meet so if I can change, literally anyone in the world can. It's not about giving up meat, it's about creating better, healthier, more sustainable options that help the body and environment thrive.
Nothing any specialist or doctor diagnosed me with or prescribed me with ever fixed my health problems. No amount of money was enough. Nothing could cure me until I changed my diet. Now I've devoted my entire life to trying to inspire others to give it a try.
I'm always happy to offer nutritional advice and coaching to anyone interested. Otherwise there is a plethora of amazing meals and recipes on my blog to check out and try.
Food is my passion and my life. I spend all of my time trying to ensure that I can make things that will help others heal while having delicious meals at the same time! :)
XO,
Cece
Nice comment @heart-to-heart. Your name says it for itself. All I can say is, “if my health depended on it, I would do anything that’s necessary in a heart beat”. Including becoming a vegetarian with baby steps of course. Just what my friend did. Of course, it would be hard in the beginning, but after while you get used to it. And yes, diet is important in my life as well. Don’t think I’m a crazy meat eater. My diet includes not eating meat few days a week at all. Afterall it’s your most precious health.
I truly believe that taking steps, even little by little is the way to see the change. It can be too much to adjust to if it's too dramatic all at once but you are right, by cutting down bit by bit and even going vegetarian first, it all helps with the adjustment to take it in your own time.
Some people that come to me go vegan right away and are successful and that's wonderful but there is usually a powerful reason that drives them.
Other people take it in tiny steps and ease into their comfort zones. No way is wrong, every body's body is different and it's just figuring out the best way for them :)
If you find your why you'll be able to make the changes you want :)
You're not a vegan. You eat plant based food. Veganism is beyond being just merely a diet.
Hey there @alphashay! Don't you go being so hasty! I don't think we know each other for you to be making such an inaccurate assertion about me just yet!
I could go onto defend my 'vegan' label in a plethora of ways but I don't feel it's necessary since this is clearly a misunderstanding likely steming from the fact that I was choosing to deliberately only speak to the nutritional side of veganism in this comment :) I'm going to drop my friend's recent link here to help others identify the difference between plant based and vegan it's here for anyone if you care to check it out!
In short a vegan is one who does not partake in any exploitation of animals... that is why I have chosen to identify with such a label. I am not a militant vegan and my activism is passive and with loving kindness though I have a lot of mission that goes to the cause behind the scenes of my delicious recipes here ;)
Plant based refers merely to dietary stance. Ie. Someone who does not eat animal products but may utilize animals and their byproducts in other ways such as wearing leather, visiting zoos etc. (Activities I do not condone, btw.)
Thank you for the opportunity for me to be able to share the difference with the community! It's a common misconception and it's something that should be brought up! :)
I don't think I will ever go completely to the other side. But I need to tell you that it really opened my eyes to what is available and actually how tasty Vegan can be.
There is no doubt at my age and stage that it is good for me!
I love that you're such a go-getter @bigtom13, you truly inspire me because you're so willing to try it just melts my heart and am here for you to help in anyway, always :)
You are at least partially at fault here. Or more correctly I blamed you :)
Thank you!
I think you have one little correction necessary... by 'descent' I think you meant Ascent ;) <3
Ahahahaha. I only missed it by a couple of letters??
Seems so :)
What's about meat and vegetables?
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Brow raiser from the headline, past the 2nd paragraph, not only I could relate, figured I'd stay awhile. Veganism isn't bad, as much as it is really strict. Healthy would be a completely separate concern. If you have particular dietary needs, such as enriched foods for mineral deficiencies or allergies, or in an environment that has restrictions on certain products, such conservative dietary suggestions could only be reserved for those who choose to afford it.
I don't have to explain the exuberant benefits of lowering personal intake of acidic, even synthetic food products, as the common American diet consists of mainly vegetables and their by-products machine processed into various forms (i.e potatoes chips, potato fries, potato hash browns.) with varying amounts of cooking oil and saturates to preserve either it's color, flavor, or shelf life. However, there's simply far too many going hungry to waste so much food and too many houses to allow the chronically homeless to live on the streets.
By the same logic, my family is from a small Caribbean island, where there's no USDA label organic to put your minds at ease when you bolt through the produce section at your local grocers, or even necessary to reiterate fruits and vegetable products void of any artificialities. It was either building material...or natural food. Obviously, we eat one and the other would make better drywall insulation than neatly folded in sprigs under my wheat toast. Sprinkle anything with a bit of salt and spritz of lemon, it will go down with a smile. Gluten-free? You mean bread and wheat by-products? Sure, it's a bit dubious on your immune system if you're dealing with the effects of Celiacs' Disease...Aside from the horrendous amount of stabilizer agents and additional mineral content for boosting vitamin intake, you can't go wrong raising your own loaves with a bit yeast, flour, and water. Batch them out in the freezer and BOOM bread for weeks.
Living in South Florida, I understand America is of the multitude and many people move here for a better life. We benefit greatly from the cultural exchange, that our diets are among the most diverse and empowered. However, again, aside debilitating medical concerns, alls exploit is the nature of the cultivator. Responsible consumption is the aim. The future is about an accurate one, not about being perfect, so it seems best to appropriate to your own rhythm and what works for you. Harmony is the name of the game and our bodies, like dancing, do all the same.
Thank you for sharing this @adsactly!
I have actually been reading labels and shopping carefully for the last 20 years. When I was a kid, anything I ate was carefully raised and 'processed' meant that it had passed through my mom's kitchen. This really represents a late life desire to have better health. And have some fun.
vege. is one of the most nutritious food on earth and make sure you eat a vege raw, if it is cooked the vitamins will be gone and it's pointless to eat it. And also it is very important to have a protein, carbs and calcium in your plate too.
Ascent to Veganism!
Veganism is indeed ascent and not a descent.
Hi @benadam :) I agree with you and see the massive amount of movement supporting this! In terms of environment, it's necessary. Same goes for health and even spirituality. I think the world is turning onto this, it's just going to take some time to break the chains that we have to the emotional connection of tradition.
This made me laugh, I had to upvote it. I hate to say better because I don't like to compare my way (vegan) to others (non vegan) but I can say for myself that I do feel better, perform better, think better, I'm faster, stronger, smarter, healthier. So all in all, I know for myself, being vegan makes me better than I ever was before :) <3 ;)
I've been trying go vegan for a while now, one the most hardest journeys I ever had to walk but I will get there. However, I have manage to reduce the amount that I consume. I enjoyed this post thank you for sharing. It is motivational for me.
Hi @obeyempresz, I found this comment because this article is written about me ;) I am the vegan lady convincing @bigtom13 to buy vegan burgers ;)
Listen, I am a nutritional coach, I would love and be more than willing to help you in any way I can. I deal with transitions in diet all of the time and really feel that I have a lot of experience and advice at this point that can help. You're welcome to reach out to me if this is something you're interested in. I also have a lot of vegan, delicious recipes on my blog that can start you off if you need inspiration. I believe that by having yummy options to eat, it makes it so much easier to switch and then the benefits all come in :) <3 Let me know! XO
I appreciate you reaching out @heart-to-heart. I definitely need help. I am starting to find meat repulsive but I cook meat for my family and I am the only one who wants to make the change. I'd say grocery shopping is my biggest obstacle at the moment.
That's no surprise to me that you say that. It's common in my clients for one person to want to lead the change while the others resist. It can be a challenge and cause you to give in and just continue with the traditional way of meals to please them but there are creative ways to get them on board.
Grocery shopping is a hugeeee step. I know it can be difficult but I actually advice people to clear out the stuff they are trying to knock out of their diets and donate it or give it to friends and family. If it's there, chances are you'll eat it.
Learning what to buy and how to prepare it takes time. If there's anything you need help with, feel free to reach out. I can help walk you through it :)
Ok, I'll get started with your blog.
Begin by just making meals and presenting them to the family as usual....when they say "wow, that's delicious" Smile and thank them. Don't tell them they are eating "vegan" and you will be surprised I promise :) If your kidlets don't help you prepare meals yet, encourage them too...they will be proud of "their meal" and will be proud of themselves.
We don't label our diet but eat mostly plant-based with meat on Sundays. My children 5 children aged 15-8 never really noticed the change as they aren't fussy eaters. I have found some of my children opt out of meat on meat Sunday because they say they don't like the taste and texture of meat now.
My grocery bill for a family of 7 more than halved now.
I had planned to do so already lol. This is some great advice. I appreciate your input.
I don't expect to be a complete Vegan. I do expect to live a healthier life style for the rest of my days.
I just love to eat, so it's important to me to find good tasting food that improves my health.
All I can say that vegetation should be adopted by everybody as it reduces cabon emmision and that is the most challenging part
I seriously tend to agree with your assessment. That is a part of my consideration.
We have to spread this further thank you
Vegan is hard but healthy
Eating non-veg foods have countless health benefits as they are excellent source of the high quality protein, healthy fat, vitamins and minerals including all the essential amino acids which body requires for important functioning.
Both non veg and veg food is important part of life.
On discovery channel they showed that when people stuck in jungle("I shouldn't be alive"), they have to eat everything near them whatever they get.
So, in this way we have to eat everything. Otherwise, it's your choice
Thank you
I am certainly not going to go full Vegan. I am going to change the balance point of my diet. It's all about the balance.
Hi @kouba01 =D I just wanted to point out something to your comment: ALL PROTEIN COMES FROM PLANTS! That's where animals first get it, so it's actually a myth that we need meat to get our protein. It's actually been proven that many plant based sources contain much higher amounts of protein because we're digesting it right from the source instead of having it come from already digested material (through an animal)
I'm going to link this in for your information :)
See a clip explaining what I'm speaking of regarding protein here!
It's only 3 minutes but it may give you some more insight into why people are choosing to go vegan ;)
Its always tough to change your life style.Whatever you are it is really difficult.Having vegetables is always helpful for people.All kinds of junc food creates problem to your health.But vegetables are always safe.Being vegan is a tough task but very helpful.Thanks for the post.
I almost hate to admit this: I bought a bunch of asparagus this week and didn't ever get it cooked. I ate them all raw as snacks during the day. Better than potato chips for sure.
Of course better than potato chips.