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!