July has come and gone, and so has the vegan experiment. Much to my surprise though, I loved every minute of it! There were a few meals that weren’t worth repeating, but the majority of my discoveries have inspired me to continue down a primarily vegan path since July ended and as August has begun to unfold. Here are few of the things I have found:

• I have been sleeping better – generally.
• I eat *all* the time! My friend and I call ourselves “The Hungry Vegans”
• I have only lost a few pounds – nothing much of note (but I have not been trying to lose weight either), but I feel leaner and slimmer even if there is nothing on the scale to point at.
• My workouts feel different. I haven’t been working out a ton during the month, but since August started I have tried to really get back on track. My stamina is greatly increased and the likelihood of me wearing out before I actually run out of time is nearly non-existent. Plus I have a very short recovery time!
• Having a friend or spouse participating makes being vegan *much* easier. Quite honestly without the daily support of a good friend who also participated in the plant month experiment, I wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun, encouragement, or the desire to push forward. Not having to negotiate social situations solo made life a lot easier!

All in all I plan to continue eating a primarily plant based diet. My exceptions will mostly be social situations where I would rather not make friends feel uncomfortable – and the occasional treat that I know Brad will want.

I’m a bit behind in recipe posting but thought I’d do a quick Plant Month update. It is one-third of the way into the month and the experiment has been going really well. Not only have I had a lot of fun trying new dishes & recipes, but I do notice a difference in how I feel.

Specifically I am sleeping so much better over the last week-and-a-half. For the past several months my sleep has been choppy – regularly waking up at about 2a then having to go back to sleep. Feeling unrested when I would wake up in the morning. Not only am I sleeping solidly and uninterrupted thru the night since going vegan, but I feel energetic and well rested when I wake up!

My other favorite thing is that when I eat a large meal now, I do not feel tired or bogged down. I feel full of energy and ready to just keep going.

Many recipes are coming!

Yesterday was July 4th. The official day of BBQs and hot dogs. Unless you are doing the Plant Month gig. Then your menu may consist of seitan “ribz” – which Brad will quickly assure are not at all related to any type of animal rib.

First off though, we went to Whole Foods to grab a few items I needed for the “ribz” and decided to just each lunch there. After carefully identifying what had animal products and didn’t, I settled on a pasta with fresh basil and garlic. Along with green beans and a carrot side dish. Delicious! Only the pasta had cheese in it – which I realized after the first bite. Doh. So there went half my lunch into the “cannot eat” category. However at least the green bean & carrot dishes were fantastic.

We headed to a movie that afternoon and I carefully packed up some cherries and sesame snacks which I munched on when I got hungry. They weren’t quite satisfying though. When we got home I started working on dinner. The seitan “ribz” as well my all time favorite Fennel & Avocado Salad. The salad was delicious as alway, and the “ribz” were just “ehh.”

The next problem arose when I woke up around 3a starving. And I couldn’t bother to get out of bed and eat anything so I struggled back to sleep for the night.

Big lessons learned:

• Read the ingredients more carefully!
• Be sure to eat enough that you aren’t hungry in the middle of the night.

Note: the seitan “ribz” recipe can be found on Fat Free Vegan. I do not think I will post my version since I didn’t love it, but its an interesting dish to try if you are looking for something different.

I realize it is only July 4th – i.e. 4 days into Plant Month, but so far the experience has been outstanding.  I can imagine a question looming out there is – “what do you eat??”  So here is a picture into my daily diet:

Tuesday:

• oatmeal with almond butter & dried cranberries
• Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookie – these have proven to be very handy snacks!
• large rice 9-Grain Rice bowl with ginger-chili simmered tofu and fresh seasonal veggies from Medicine Eatstation
• fresh cherries
• black bean patties with fresh cucumber salsa wrapped in olive oil tortillas
• cherries, apricot, and strawberries

There are recipes forthcoming, things have been busy over here recently though.  The list of dishes I’m anxious to try keeps growing though, so plenty of excitement on the way.

Happy 4th everyone!

Plant Month is officially underway!  Yesterday started off really nicely with grocery runs, auto accident, and family party.  Oh wait – the car accident had nothing to do with Plant Month, did it?  Only that it was when leaving Whole Foods with groceries that I swiped the side of the car along a corner.  Sadly the corner won.

This small incident flattened my mood and excitement a bit – although of course it had no relation to the change in my diet.   I made a big salad for lunch and then had a fantastic vegetable salad & delicious fruit salad at the family party I went to.  Followed by some of the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies I made of course!

My initial impression of Plant Month is that while challenging, this is going to be a great experience!  It really makes me recall my vegetarian days in college – very interesting.  One of my good friends is also participating – she decided that she will include honey in her diet but is working to exclude every other animal food product.  Brad is iffy on participation, but besides the meat, cheese, and milk – he seems to be on board. 

2007 is rapidly approaching its half-way point. Isn’t it amazing how time flies? To kick off the year I did a one-month diet modification excluding all products with HFCS. In fact, that was part of what spurred me to start this website. To welcome the second-half of 2007, I’m going to do another month long diet modification – an all plant based diet.

In May I was lucky enough to see Mitra Ray, PhD speak when she was visiting California. I have listened to several of her presentations but this was the first time I saw her in person. She is an amazingly vibrant woman – she literally glows with health and well being. One particular statement she made stuck with me and is what led me down this path. She said something along the lines of: “You will never get fat just eating plants.”

I realize the statement doesn’t sound profound but think about it over the next few days. It genuinely opened my eyes to the amount of animal products I consume daily: cheese, butter, steak, fish, etc. I decided to learn more and do some investigating. The idea for a one-month experiment came to me a few days after seeing Mitra Ray speak, but I have to admit – I was a bit scared of it at first. Then from my mother I borrowed the book that Mitra Ray mentioned: The China Study.

Reading The China Study has really opened my eyes to the overwhelming effects that animal protein has on our health. The China Study focuses on the specific health impacts of consuming greater than 10% animal protein. The flip side is the additional impact of eating large amounts on animal protein on our environment. Over the next few days I will begin to introduce some of the statistics about health and environmental impact.

One thing that is important for me to do here is swallow my pride and some of the statements I’ve made in the past regarding vegetarian & veganism. I was a vegetarian for over 7 years. For some of the years I ate fish but no beef or pork, and the fish was rare. The day I woke up from a dream about a hamburger, I knew my vegetarian phase had come to an end. I should also be clear that I was not a particularly good vegetarian. I don’t mean that I cheated – I did not. I did not however really learn how to incorporate legumes, beans, soy, increase my fruit & vegetable intake, and all the other things you really should do as a vegetarian concerned about their health – which is how I described myself. I was great at eating cheese, beans and rice on a tortilla, granola, lots of milk products, and anything else that crosses the path of a typical high school or college student.

This time I’m approaching things differently. I actually understand the principles behind being a vegetarian and the nutrition requirements as well. I want to incorporate legumes, beans, soy, increase my fruit & vegetable intake, find new grains to eat, and more! I consider this to be an adventure rather than a period of doing without.

So back to the “swallowing my pride” statement. I’ll just sum it up by saying – I’ve been harsh with my criticism and I’m eating my words. I’m interested in exploring and learning – so here we go!

If you are interested in joining me in the July experiment just let me know. If there are enough people participating I may start a message board for us to share our experiences.