Today is the 8th day of the self-imposed vegan challenge and I think I'm doing okay with it. The challenge has been challenged severely only once in the first week when I took my mother to a steakhouse for her birthday dinner. The look on the waiter's face was priceless when I informed him that the 3 out of 4 diners were vegan! He followed up his astonished facial expression by asking me if I knew that that was a steakhouse! When I told him why we were there, his demeanor changed and he was bending over backward to try to find things that the girls & I could eat. All-in-all, it really wasn't too bad of an experience and it taught me that even the most red meat oriented restaurant could be worked around in order to allow me to stick to my eating plan. We were happy, my mom enjoyed her meal, & the waiter got a nice plump tip.

Another obstacle I've come up against is my sugar cravings. I'm not craving meat or any dairy products but I have been going a little crazy with sugary treats (which ends up defeating one of my reasons for going on this challenge). I couldn't help myself. There are soooo many yummy alternatives in this category that I felt that I needed to try them, just to make sure they were all as good as they looked. They have vegan cookies, cakes, whipped cream, pies, cheesecakes, & candy bars that taste as good (& some tasted better) as the mainstream products! With that said, I have returned to a more realistic sweet tooth soother in the last few days -- fruit. Also, there's this new creation for vegans that was created by a chef - MimicCreme (http://www.mimiccreme.com/ ) and they have a whole line of different nondairy cream substitutes. I've been using their sweetened creme (it's like sweetened condensed milk) and pouring a few tablespoons over sliced strawberries mixed with sliced mango and it's really, really good...good enough to calm my sweet cravings.

Cooking at home is still difficult for me now with the house going on the market and not knowing when I'll get a text from someone wanting to show it, but I'm trying. We still use a few of the prepackaged things to make meals faster, just in case. Everyday I learn more about the healthy benefits of removing animal products from one's system. So far, the biggest improvement in my health is the feeling of being lighter and having more energy. Even my trainer noticed this past week that my muscles weren't fatiguing as quickly, even though she'd increased my weight amounts (she does this a little every week). On a side note, I'm happy to report that as of last week I was leg-pressing 400lbs, which seems a lot but I don't think so...going to keep pushing that increase so I can tease Sean that I'm leg-pressing a quarter of a ton :D

Other things I learned this week:

1) Fat stored in all of our muscle cells (called intramyocellular lipid) & what that means to our metabolic health.

Insulin escorts sugar & protein from our blood to our cells to be quickly converted into energy, right? The efficiency of this process depends on how much fat is built up inside the cell. If there's too much built up inside these cells, insulin has a lot of trouble being able to open the cell membrane to allow glucose inside. And, if glucose can't get in there, then it doesn't get converted to energy, if it doesn't get converted to energy, what do you think happens to it? BTW, the buildup of fat inside the cells is what leads to insulin resistance then type 2 diabetes. The other big problem is once there's too much fat built up, it also partially turns off the genes that produce mitochondria ("burners" or metabolizers) which makes it HARDER to burn off fat! (See the study http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v28/n4s/full/0802853a.html )

2) Fish oil isn't as good as it's being promoted to be.

15%-30% of the fat in fish is saturated fat -- look up the definition of saturated fat and you'll find that it's been found to increase cholesterol levels. Also, a study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2006; 332:752-60) found that neither fish nor fish oils protect against cardiovascular disease or cancer. They've found that switching to a chicken & fish diet only lowers LDL by about 5%...wow, only 5%?? I won't mention the lowered percentage found by changing to a plant-based diet :D (okay, yes I will...20%-30% lowered LDL).

3) Grilling has been pushed at us for years now as being the preferred, healthier way of preparing meat but is it healthier? Well, not really...ever hear of carcinogens?

When meats are heated at high temperatures, cancer-causing chemicals called "heterocyclic amines" form inside the meat. It's due to the alteration the heat causes to the amino acids, creatine, & other compounds (or man-made compounds stored in the animals cells) stored in the muscle tissue. And which is the biggest source for those chemicals? They occur in all grilled meats but the biggest culprit is --- chicken!

Well, that's what I've learned over the last week. It's certainly given me some food for thought of whether I will return to animal products wholeheartedly when the 21 days are over or limit my animal products to once a week (or every two weeks) or stay vegan for the rest of my life. Well, I've got another two weeks to think about it.

21-day Vegan Challenge, Day #2

Starting yesterday, my girls & I have challenged ourselves to be vegan for 21 days! This comes about from having read some interesting studies and a book written by Dr. Neal Barnard entitled "21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart". This is a good choice for me (the girls came along on this journey by their own choice) considering that I have already been removing most dairy products from my diet because of my seasonal allergies and have been decreasing the amount of meat because of cholesterol issues. Plus, it's not just about avoiding animal products, it's also about watching the fat content and keeping oils (all of them, including olive oil) down to a minimum.

Most people that I've told that I was starting this challenge have expressed skepticism. One of the questions that I've gotten a lot is "Aren't you afraid you're not going to get enough calcium & protein?" Answer is "No, I'm not" because I know that there are higher & better sources of these (& other vitamins & minerals) than eating the muscle tissue of an animal and eating/drinking an animal's milk that was meant to fatten its offspring. Another question has been "You know you'll get really sick when you go back to eating meat, right?" Not after only 21 days and even if it did happen (the getting sick part) doesn't that say something about what our bodies really think about ingesting other animals? If our reaction after being on no animal products for awhile is to get physically ill after going back, doesn't that say something about, maybe, meat is more of a poison than a nutritional necessity?

I'm not saying I'm all gung-ho about veganism, I love the taste of meat - pork, chicken, beef, fish, shellfish - and I'd like to think I'll be able to be vegan most of the time with small vacations into omnivore-land. Hell, I love hot fudge brownie sundaes too but I know those aren't good for me either. I'm not going to try to lure/coerce my friends or family members to do this and I'm not going to limit going out to restaurants with people just because I'm vegan right now. I've learned enough to be able to go to just about any restaurant and get a vegan meal that isn't just a salad :D so I don't think my lifestyle will be affected either. I am hoping that my cholesterol levels will drop and maybe some pounds will go too.

Plus, this is an awesome era to try this out in because there is SOOOO much out there, even at Walmart (yes, not including the produce section)! The girls and I have been doing our research throughout last week (and ongoing) about what is sold where. We started a list of the things we've tried and what we've liked, what we didn't like, etc. Since we've been working hard on getting the house ready for showings, I haven't had much of an opportunity to do a lot of cooking so we've been trying a lot of the frozen meals and prepackaged foods. The girls are even better at reading those ingredient labels than I am (did you know there's dairy in frozen onion rings?) Here are the things we've liked so far: vegan bacon (even though it looks like those dog treats "Beggin' Strips"), beans & rice burritos, sweet & sour chick'in with rice, blueberry pancakes, "beef" jerky, coconut ice cream, lasagna, potatoes with peppers & mushrooms, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, seasoned ground "beef", black bean chili, lemon poppy seed muffins, oatmeal with fruit, Tom Kha Gai coconut soup, vegan chocolate, and some candy bars.

So, this is a journey for us that seems to be off to a fun start :D Let's see how far the girls & I can get...I bet I can go all the way through the 21 days!