I'm sitting outside right now enjoying the warm spring weather and just being thankful for how great everything is right now! There are always things we wish we could change, or improve, but sometimes it's good to just sit back and think about all of the great things in life. I'm healthy, my kids are healthy, we have food to eat and a roof over our heads. What more could we ask for?
I live in a pretty small apartment with basically no yard. I also kill any plant that comes near me. But, this year in an effort to save some money on my new lifestyle I decided I was going to try very hard to grow some vegetables in containers on my porch. My local Rec department also has a community garden where for $30 you get a tilled plot and access to water. I sent an e-mail to the director to see if there was any space available and was told there was a wait list. Yesterday I got an e-mail letting me know that someone had dropped out and now I get a plot!! I'm so excited, but I'm also really nervous. There are a good many rules about maintaining the space, and I've only had a garden one other time in my life and my ex-husband pretty much handled that, so I have no clue what I'm getting into. I'm not going to get fancy though. I'm going to buy already started plants so I know what I'm working with and just go from there. My friend Diane has offered to help and so I'm hoping she knows more than I do, so that together we will be able to reap the benefits of some produce grown by our own hands. Any suggestions would be welcome!
Last night I finished reading Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman. Talk about an eye-opening book. If you are not familiar with him, he is a former cattle rancher who owned a massive commercial farm. He is now a vegan and food safety advocate. If you have heard of him it is probably because he was the man sued along with Oprah by the Texas cattle ranchers for her statements about beef. I know that people often say that you can't really be informed if you haven't experienced something first hand. Well, the way I see it, if you can operate a large scale farm that practices the same methods of farming as other commercial farms all over the country and then go vegan because of that, then you have walked the walk, and can now talk the talk. He knows what he did, he knows what his friends and fellow farms do to raise their animals and so if anyone should know whether or not our food is safe, it's him. He doesn't think it is.
This book is very easy to read, he's a pretty no nonsense kind of guy and doesn't bog you down with a lot of facts or terms that are hard to understand. But he is very blunt and if you really want to continue a life of eating meat then you probably shouldn't read this book. It's not quite as gross as some of the other books I've read on the subject (although there was one part about putting things back in a cow that weren't supposed to come out) but he gets the message across very well. If you can read this and not at least consider what you're eating and how it impacts your health and the environment then there's something a little off in your brain.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
No More Beatings
So I think I'm a little over two weeks into this foray and while I'm not doing well on the dairy side of things, being a vegetarian is quite easy. Vegan is still going to be a difficult, if attainable, goal for me.
I have learned a few things during this beginning part of the process. The first is that shockingly (at least to me) it is much easier to eat out at local restaurants than at chains if you are a vegetarian. I know that my local restaurants cater to a wide variety of people, but given that this is a big farming area and that pretty much everyone I know loves meat, I didn't expect to see as many vegetarian options as I have.
In the past month I've eaten out a bit more than I normally do. Part of this is because my birthday falls in this month and so I was either taken out, or treated myself to a meal out. I went with my mother to a chain restaurant while we were in another town shopping a few weeks back. This was before I decided that I had to make a clear start if I was ever going to do this, and I ended up eating meat because I couldn't figure out a better choice. We went to this particular place because they have a Weight Watchers friendly menu and we are both on the plan. I looked at every item on the menu and was hard pressed to find something without meat. I also couldn't figure out what I could order that would still be a real meal without the meat and not kill me with the other stuff. So I went with the safety net of the WW chicken. You would think that chain restaurants would be all about catering to the special diets given that they are much more likely to be sued by someone for not having something on their menu that they could order. I'd never consider suing because there was no vegetarian option, but we are a sue happy country.
Since that meal, I've eaten meals at two different local restaurants and was very pleased to find vegetarian entrees clearly labeled as such. They were also amazing! So once again, eating local wins out and I'll be going back to support local businesses who support my eating habits!
I also learned (and here's where the post title comes in) that meat and dairy in some form are in EVERYTHING!!! Seriously, it is very hard to avoid some variant of meat or dairy product in any processed food. Even things you wouldn't really think to look for them in. I'm trying to avoid processed foods as much as possible, but some pretty simple things I'm used to being able to use have meat or dairy in them. I noticed that I had started to become a little obsessed with reading labels to check for these hidden things and that I was feeling bad when I found them in something I thought would be safe. So last night I decided that I won't beat myself up over those things. I'm only two weeks in for starters and this is a major life change for me. I also have a pretty limited range of stores to shop in here and so my ability to find some of the better versions of common items is not that easy. So, I'm just going to keep doing the best I can. I realize that simply cutting the actual meat itself is a huge step and helps the environment and my body. Hopefully as time goes on I will learn more substitutions and find new things to enjoy that help me move away from the things that I was beating myself up over naturally.
I have learned a few things during this beginning part of the process. The first is that shockingly (at least to me) it is much easier to eat out at local restaurants than at chains if you are a vegetarian. I know that my local restaurants cater to a wide variety of people, but given that this is a big farming area and that pretty much everyone I know loves meat, I didn't expect to see as many vegetarian options as I have.
In the past month I've eaten out a bit more than I normally do. Part of this is because my birthday falls in this month and so I was either taken out, or treated myself to a meal out. I went with my mother to a chain restaurant while we were in another town shopping a few weeks back. This was before I decided that I had to make a clear start if I was ever going to do this, and I ended up eating meat because I couldn't figure out a better choice. We went to this particular place because they have a Weight Watchers friendly menu and we are both on the plan. I looked at every item on the menu and was hard pressed to find something without meat. I also couldn't figure out what I could order that would still be a real meal without the meat and not kill me with the other stuff. So I went with the safety net of the WW chicken. You would think that chain restaurants would be all about catering to the special diets given that they are much more likely to be sued by someone for not having something on their menu that they could order. I'd never consider suing because there was no vegetarian option, but we are a sue happy country.
Since that meal, I've eaten meals at two different local restaurants and was very pleased to find vegetarian entrees clearly labeled as such. They were also amazing! So once again, eating local wins out and I'll be going back to support local businesses who support my eating habits!
I also learned (and here's where the post title comes in) that meat and dairy in some form are in EVERYTHING!!! Seriously, it is very hard to avoid some variant of meat or dairy product in any processed food. Even things you wouldn't really think to look for them in. I'm trying to avoid processed foods as much as possible, but some pretty simple things I'm used to being able to use have meat or dairy in them. I noticed that I had started to become a little obsessed with reading labels to check for these hidden things and that I was feeling bad when I found them in something I thought would be safe. So last night I decided that I won't beat myself up over those things. I'm only two weeks in for starters and this is a major life change for me. I also have a pretty limited range of stores to shop in here and so my ability to find some of the better versions of common items is not that easy. So, I'm just going to keep doing the best I can. I realize that simply cutting the actual meat itself is a huge step and helps the environment and my body. Hopefully as time goes on I will learn more substitutions and find new things to enjoy that help me move away from the things that I was beating myself up over naturally.
Monday, March 22, 2010
I'm In Love With Jamie Oliver
It's been a long time since I've felt this way about a man and I'm just ticked that he's married.
Seriously though, did you watch the sneak preview of his new show called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? In the pilot episode he went to an elementary school in Huntington West Virginia to see if he could not only make over the way the children were eating in school, but at home as well. Huntington was recently voted the fattest city in America which is saying something because we're the fattest country in the world! I have family near this area of WV and my cousin spent a lot of time in a hospital in Huntington when she was born, so I thought it was pretty interesting to watch a show so close to home so to speak.
I was prepared for how bad the food situation would be. I was NOT prepared for how much of a fight Jamie was going to have or how terribly nasty people would be to him about this. What shocked me the most was the cafeteria staff and how down on the whole idea they were. I mean I guess I could see feeling a little threatened by some stranger coming in and messing with your system, but I could not believe how strongly they defended what they served!! You would have thought he had walked into their homes and criticized their cooking. Funny thing, is that he actually did go into the home of one family and told the mother how horrible the food was that she was feeding her family and she thanked him! Not these women though! They did nothing to help him, nothing to support what he was trying to do and before all was said and done he was in tears!
I won't spoil the whole show in case you haven't seen it. If you want to watch it, you can find the full episode here. The season premiere is Friday March 26 and I hope that they get on board with him fast!
Seriously though, did you watch the sneak preview of his new show called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? In the pilot episode he went to an elementary school in Huntington West Virginia to see if he could not only make over the way the children were eating in school, but at home as well. Huntington was recently voted the fattest city in America which is saying something because we're the fattest country in the world! I have family near this area of WV and my cousin spent a lot of time in a hospital in Huntington when she was born, so I thought it was pretty interesting to watch a show so close to home so to speak.
I was prepared for how bad the food situation would be. I was NOT prepared for how much of a fight Jamie was going to have or how terribly nasty people would be to him about this. What shocked me the most was the cafeteria staff and how down on the whole idea they were. I mean I guess I could see feeling a little threatened by some stranger coming in and messing with your system, but I could not believe how strongly they defended what they served!! You would have thought he had walked into their homes and criticized their cooking. Funny thing, is that he actually did go into the home of one family and told the mother how horrible the food was that she was feeding her family and she thanked him! Not these women though! They did nothing to help him, nothing to support what he was trying to do and before all was said and done he was in tears!
I won't spoil the whole show in case you haven't seen it. If you want to watch it, you can find the full episode here. The season premiere is Friday March 26 and I hope that they get on board with him fast!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Is It Official?
So when are you an official vegetarian? How long do you have to abstain from eating meat before you can call yourself a vegetarian to others? I guess it has technically only been a week since I've eaten any meat. I ate on campus last Saturday and due to the very limited choices I had a little bit of sausage gravy. I'm not sure there was actually any sausage in it...but I believe the essence of meat still counts as meat.
The only remaining meat in the house is some of my oldest son's deer bologna and some soup that contains meat. I don't anticipate eating either of those things myself, but they are here. I still haven't given up dairy. I am using up the last of my cow's milk and it won't be replaced. I still have a lot of laughing cow cheese wedges and sour cream and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do without those. My youngest loves sour cream and so I doubt it will be banished from the house. I'm giving myself a lot more time on the vegan conversion though. Funny how I thought I didn't like dairy that much, but there are those few items that I just seem to have to have.
If I had any internal debate about becoming a vegetarian it was gone quickly when I read a few more chapters of Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman the other night. His description of his practices on his factory farm sealed the deal for me. I won't go into any details since you might be eating and reading, but it involved putting some items back into the cow that never should have come out to begin with. So, while I may have a slip up from time to time, I think I can call myself a vegetarian. Perhaps just saying it out loud will help me avoid the slip ups all together.
The only remaining meat in the house is some of my oldest son's deer bologna and some soup that contains meat. I don't anticipate eating either of those things myself, but they are here. I still haven't given up dairy. I am using up the last of my cow's milk and it won't be replaced. I still have a lot of laughing cow cheese wedges and sour cream and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do without those. My youngest loves sour cream and so I doubt it will be banished from the house. I'm giving myself a lot more time on the vegan conversion though. Funny how I thought I didn't like dairy that much, but there are those few items that I just seem to have to have.
If I had any internal debate about becoming a vegetarian it was gone quickly when I read a few more chapters of Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman the other night. His description of his practices on his factory farm sealed the deal for me. I won't go into any details since you might be eating and reading, but it involved putting some items back into the cow that never should have come out to begin with. So, while I may have a slip up from time to time, I think I can call myself a vegetarian. Perhaps just saying it out loud will help me avoid the slip ups all together.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Politics - I'm Over Them
I used to really enjoy politics. I liked the excitement of an election and learning about the different candidates. I have almost always been on the losing side considering I'm a very liberal person in a very conservative area. I have my opinions like everyone else, but I feel like I give them pretty respectively most of the time. I can't say that I've never been disrespectful, but I do try to watch what I say. I think I'm more aware of this because I have so many conservative friends. It comes with the territory. I was even married to a conservative man. You just can't avoid them here ;)
So, yes, I voted for Obama and no, I'm not sorry I did. He still represents what I believe in and I still think he has the ability to bring us back from a horrible time. But, I am so over politics. Being on the "winning" side this time has made me loathe it. During the eight years we had Bush I just listened to the conservatives around me and most of the time I kept my mouth shut. I didn't like it, but making my friends mad wasn't the way to change anything. They have their beliefs and I have mine. He was the President of the United States and I respected his office. I didn't put foul bumper stickers on my car and I didn't join any anti-Bush Facebook groups until he left office.
I don't know how my conservative friends felt when they saw anti-Bush sentiments from their liberal friends. I hope that I never made them feel bad. But, I can tell you how it makes me feel. It makes me wonder why you are my friend? When you say nasty things (and I don't just mean disagree with him, I mean nasty) about the President that I voted for, or the causes that I truly believe in then it makes me wonder why you like me at all. This is part of who I am! I have spent years respecting and being friends with a lot of conservatives and while I may have disagreed with them, I don't feel like I slapped them in the face. So, if you feel so strongly that liberals are the devil and that we will be the ruination of this country, then you are essentially saying that I'm a horrible person who doesn't care about the US or its people.
I am very far from being a conservative, but if I felt like my conservative friends had nothing valuable to offer this country and were just a waste of oxygen, then I wouldn't be friends with them. So, why are you friends with me?
So, yes, I voted for Obama and no, I'm not sorry I did. He still represents what I believe in and I still think he has the ability to bring us back from a horrible time. But, I am so over politics. Being on the "winning" side this time has made me loathe it. During the eight years we had Bush I just listened to the conservatives around me and most of the time I kept my mouth shut. I didn't like it, but making my friends mad wasn't the way to change anything. They have their beliefs and I have mine. He was the President of the United States and I respected his office. I didn't put foul bumper stickers on my car and I didn't join any anti-Bush Facebook groups until he left office.
I don't know how my conservative friends felt when they saw anti-Bush sentiments from their liberal friends. I hope that I never made them feel bad. But, I can tell you how it makes me feel. It makes me wonder why you are my friend? When you say nasty things (and I don't just mean disagree with him, I mean nasty) about the President that I voted for, or the causes that I truly believe in then it makes me wonder why you like me at all. This is part of who I am! I have spent years respecting and being friends with a lot of conservatives and while I may have disagreed with them, I don't feel like I slapped them in the face. So, if you feel so strongly that liberals are the devil and that we will be the ruination of this country, then you are essentially saying that I'm a horrible person who doesn't care about the US or its people.
I am very far from being a conservative, but if I felt like my conservative friends had nothing valuable to offer this country and were just a waste of oxygen, then I wouldn't be friends with them. So, why are you friends with me?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Heaven in a Pan!!
I've been reading a blog called Green and Crunchy. This woman is amazing! She feeds a family of seven an entirely vegan, and mostly raw diet. I just read in awe! But, I got bold and decided to make one of the recipes she posted because it just looked so amazing. I tried out my hand at making these chocolate covered energy bars. I didn't have exactly the same ingredients, but everything was similar. They were very easy to make and didn't take long at all. My only mistake was having the pan sitting on my warm stove. It caused the coconut oil to separate from the rest of the mixture a little resulting in a slightly greasy bar. But putting them in the freezer for a few minutes like she suggested anyway almost took care of that problem entirely.
Let me just say that these things are SO incredibly good that I could eat the whole pan!! I won't always put the chocolate on them (she doesn't either) but they will be a great replacement to the bars that I normally buy for the boys.
Let me just say that these things are SO incredibly good that I could eat the whole pan!! I won't always put the chocolate on them (she doesn't either) but they will be a great replacement to the bars that I normally buy for the boys.
Friday, March 12, 2010
FoodMatters and My Thyroid
I watched FoodMatters last night. I enjoyed it and found it very informative. I also visited the website associated with the film and found a few things I don't care for. I don't believe in colonics. I'm sorry if you do, but I've watched enough Dr. Oz and The Drs. to believe that it's just not necessary or even safe to have a procedure like that performed. Aside from that, I though there was a lot of very good information in the film.
The thing I found most interesting was one of the teachers talking about how the body heals. She said that you can't cure heart disease in a person and not cure other ailments they may have. She didn't mean, of course, through procedures designed for one specific ailment. She meant (I assume) that when we heal our bodies through proper diet and exercise and other healing methods, then our body is healed. You can't pick and choose healing. I thought that was a very interesting idea.
I've been on thyroid medication for an under active thyroid since tenth grade. It's hard to tell how long I'd really had the problem, but this is when it was finally found. Over the years I've noticed that the level of medication that I need is very much dependent on my weight. The heavier I am, the higher dosage I need. As soon as I start to lose weight, I have to come down in dosage. The last time I had blood drawn for my thyroid test I had lost close to 20 pounds. My doctor called and said they needed to lower my dosage. I figured they would because I'd noticed my hair had started to fall out more than normal. So, I switched does. Now I've lost over 30 pounds and I can tell that the medicine is still not right. I'm tired all the time despite all of the exercise I am getting and how much better I'm eating. I have to go back in and have another test. I'm very curious to see what he will say this time.
So now I'm thinking, am I curing this? Is it possible that as I eat better, exercise more, and lose more weight I won't need the medication anymore? I've been told, and read in a variety of places that my type of thyroid condition is not a curable version. Some people are able to go off medication, but I've always been told that I will be on it for the rest of my life. I'm starting to think that's not the case and looking forward to seeing if this will go away as I heal my body through proper diet and exercise.
The thing I found most interesting was one of the teachers talking about how the body heals. She said that you can't cure heart disease in a person and not cure other ailments they may have. She didn't mean, of course, through procedures designed for one specific ailment. She meant (I assume) that when we heal our bodies through proper diet and exercise and other healing methods, then our body is healed. You can't pick and choose healing. I thought that was a very interesting idea.
I've been on thyroid medication for an under active thyroid since tenth grade. It's hard to tell how long I'd really had the problem, but this is when it was finally found. Over the years I've noticed that the level of medication that I need is very much dependent on my weight. The heavier I am, the higher dosage I need. As soon as I start to lose weight, I have to come down in dosage. The last time I had blood drawn for my thyroid test I had lost close to 20 pounds. My doctor called and said they needed to lower my dosage. I figured they would because I'd noticed my hair had started to fall out more than normal. So, I switched does. Now I've lost over 30 pounds and I can tell that the medicine is still not right. I'm tired all the time despite all of the exercise I am getting and how much better I'm eating. I have to go back in and have another test. I'm very curious to see what he will say this time.
So now I'm thinking, am I curing this? Is it possible that as I eat better, exercise more, and lose more weight I won't need the medication anymore? I've been told, and read in a variety of places that my type of thyroid condition is not a curable version. Some people are able to go off medication, but I've always been told that I will be on it for the rest of my life. I'm starting to think that's not the case and looking forward to seeing if this will go away as I heal my body through proper diet and exercise.
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