Ever since the beginning of this year, I’ve been throwing around the term Vegan. But I didn’t want to call attention to my “new” dietary choice then, and I wasn’t even sure how I would feel about it myself after a few months.
A few months passed, and I found myself eating solidly vegan with the occasional exception. It was if I made exceptions to prove to myself that I wasn’t being irrational about “this vegan thing”, and I wasn’t being “extreme”. I think I traumatized myself a bit after my first round of veganism. Why? Because I was all passion, and didn’t educate myself as completely as I have now, so when I ended up “falling off the wagon” due to symptoms of my now diagnosed chronic illness appearing, I felt like a huge hypocrite.
For a while I was even a cynical ex-vegan, although I didn’t go pestering current vegans. I just kept my mouth shut. Deep inside I think I wanted to go back to veganism, but I subconsciously felt like when I abandoned it the first time, I had invalidated all the arguments that made me go vegan then. So, I actually searched for OTHER reasons to go vegan during my non-vegan in between years, but I just couldn’t seem to find enough reasons to go back to it since deep in my mind I had so completely rejected it the first time.
I literally shut down the “vegan” part of my brain because of the painful feelings it generated. Of course, I was not aware of this until recently, but it is odd looking back and watching myself search for reasons to return to veganism -nothing satisfying my brain because I was thoroughly disengaged from the ethical vegan approach. I remember feeling like I *should* feeling something, but feeling nothing. Which was strange after years of being so in touch with the extreme cruelty almost every animal that somehow becomes or provides food endures. (Not to mention countless other areas of animal exploitation and cruelty)
You know what started to help me become in touch with my ethical veganism again? My chickens. My chickens even softened up QB, who was never in touch with animal cruelty. He was so fascinated to watch their personalities,and see them display emotion. Chickens!
At first I felt ashamed. I felt ashamed that I felt empathy. How distorted are our values in this country if when I am rekindling my empathy toward animals and the horrible problems of animal cruelty, I feel ASHAMED? People laugh and say, “Oh well, animals are tasty!” as if that is a reasonable response. Even in my apathetic days, I didn’t even stoop that low. I don’t think they say so as an excuse for their actions; those whose would pick those words don’t feel the need to justify themselves. Those words are only said as a means of not giving credit and recognition to the person who stood up for something they believed in. Deflection and disrespect. I know I enjoyed eating animals (I am not going to lie…but now the thought of meat is icky for me), but I would never disrespect someone like that – but that’s me.
I have DECIDED! I am going to stand for what I believe in. I am going to be openly and proudly VEGAN.
I have learned a lot from my very passionate original vegan days though. I don’t feel the need to proselytize like I did back then, but I refuse to apologize or make exceptions. If I don’t stand up for what I believe in, then I don’t stand for anything at all. Calorie Restriction IS included in this too. I am a firm believe in CRON as well. Calorie Restriction can help us definitely extend our health span, and very likely our life span hopefully long enough for technologies to be developing that can help us live hundreds of years. I’m in this for the long haul!
I want to show how I live as a vegan CRONie so others know it’s possible. I’m a big food, cooking, and nutrition freak, so to me it’s really not any harder than omnivore or vegetarian CRON. There is a learning phase like anything, but once that is passed it becomes the new norm.
If you aren’t vegan, or even vegetarian don’t feel like this blog isn’t for you! There are all sorts of recipes or CRON tips you can still pick up. Besides, I haven’t met a CRONie that ate a mostly meat diet anyway. I’m not going to chastise those that aren’t vegan/vegetarian because I’ve been there. I may occasionally talk about vegan issues that are important to me, but that isn’t the main focus of the blog. Basically, I am just not going to make attempts to obscure my vegan decision.
I now have a direction. I have focused my intentions. And I have renewed motivation.
Where ever you are with your CRONing adventure and diet path, if you need some renewed motivation make a firm decision about what foods you believe in, what foods you want to be a part of your life, and put your decisions into action!
My Decisions:
#1: Vegan! This doesn’t need much explanation, but I am going vegan for ethical reasons, environmental reasons, and because I think it is very conducive to a CRON diet.
#2: No Processed Grains or Sugars. While I never really thought these were great, I kept falling back into snacking habits with these items. Most of these items are QB’s foods, but sometimes I would buy rolls and sugary items from the grocery store as a snack. I have decided, I do not stand for these items, and I do not need to be consuming them. I can not eat any food like this with the believe I am doing myself any favors. Crackers, refined breads, sugar treats, cereal, etc.
#3: Concentrate on High Raw Fat diet, Moderate Carbs, and More Protein. I think I was eating too many carbs, and have decided to replace some of those carbs with good raw fats and proteins. I’m only upping my protein to ~50g/day, so it’s still low (which I think is good), but my carbs are down and my fats is higher too! I actually feel LESS HUNGRY! If this keeps up, I will be writing about this a lot more.
#4: Mindset. I have decided to have a more positive mindset with how I approach my diet choices, and lack of perfection. I’m a perfectionist. Always have been. But guess what? Perfection is never achieved, especially by a perfectionist. So, instead of conducting self talk about all the things I could have done better, I am going to stick by my DECISIONS, and make the best choices I can. If I DECIDE what I BELIEVE in, STICK to it, and LIVE it, then I can FEEL GOOD about the choices I have to make every day!
Those are my DECISIONS. Pretty simple, but I have already experienced a profound boost in my motivation, determination, and my ablility to to make good choices.
Last night at work, everyone brought in their Holloween candy. Bags of chocolate, and other old favorite treats were all over in bountiful fashion. If my co-wokers had done this just the day before, you would be reading how I had a candy overload most likely. But guess what? I wasn’t even tempted. That stuff is no longer food to me. I don’t think any of it was Vegan, so that made it pretty easy, but even if some was there was no way I could eat ANY of it and feel good. So, I ate NONE, and felt GREAT!
Today’s food actually looks a lot like yesterday, just a few ingredients with different amounts. So, my calorie total is slightly less! Ya!
Yesterday, although I came home slightly hungry, I didn’t have the “I need to eat” feeling. I didn’t feel bad, just a little hungry. I like that feeling. I think the extra fat and protein are helping me, but I need to have a few more days eating like this before making conclusions.
Food for November 5 2010.
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Brazil Nut (21)
Hempilicious Berry Sorbet (334)
* 120g Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
* 240g Unsweetened Vanilla Hemp Milk
* 240g Strawberries, Frozen
* 120g Blueberries, Frozen
* 15g Hemp Protein Powder
* 5.5g Flax Oil
* Stevia
Beet Lemon Carrot Kale Juice (163)
Thai Red Curry & Vegetables (254)
Simple Balsamic Salad (130)
* 120g Escarole Lettuce
* 40g Spinach
* 60g Balsamic Vinaigrette (low cal->10 cals)
* 12g Olive Oil
Seasoned Scrambled Tofu (246)
Peach & Pumpkin Chia Pudding (234)
Supplements:
3 Bone-Up Capsules
5000IU Vit D
1/8 Tablet Vit B5
500mg each L-Carnosine/Tyrosine (I alternate these each day)
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Nutrition Summary for November 5, 2010
Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.7
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General (88%)
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Energy | 1383.3 kcal 104%
Protein | 55.9 g 98%
Carbs | 173.6 g 92%
Fiber | 49.0 g 196%
Starch | 4.3 g 29%
Sugars | 71.9 g 144%
Fat | 59.2 g 118%
Vitamins (100%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 89293.1 IU 1786%
Lutein+Zeaxanthin | 41730.9 µg 835%
Folate | 686.6 µg 381%
B1 (Thiamine) | 1.8 mg 162%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 2.4 mg 182%
B3 (Niacin) | 19.9 mg 132%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 18.1 mg 363%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 2.9 mg 183%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 56.4 µg 2818%
Vitamin C | 578.0 mg 963%
Vitamin D | 3996.7 IU 1998%
Vitamin E | 22.4 mg 186%
Vitamin K | 1155.5 µg 1284%
Minerals (100%)
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Calcium | 1962.2 mg 196%
Copper | 2.1 mg 107%
Iron | 17.7 mg 118%
Magnesium | 719.2 mg 225%
Manganese | 5.9 mg 147%
Phosphorus | 1150.6 mg 164%
Potassium | 4292.2 mg 123%
Selenium | 90.1 µg 164%
Sodium | 1583.2 mg 317%
Zinc | 13.9 mg 116%
Amino Acids (100%)
===========================================
CYS | 0.7 g 313%
ILE | 2.5 g 216%
LEU | 3.9 g 174%
LYS | 2.9 g 168%
MET | 0.7 g 124%
PHE | 2.5 g 265%
THR | 2.7 g 315%
TRP | 0.8 g 344%
TYR | 1.8 g 385%
VAL | 2.7 g 159%
Lipids (69%)
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Saturated | 14.2 g 71%
Monounsaturated | 14.3 g 57%
Polyunsaturated | 24.0 g 96%
Omega-3 | 8.9 g 805%
Omega-6 | 9.9 g 90%
Cholesterol | 0.0 mg 0%
