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.