Day 5 - What I Miss

I know, it hasn't even been a week yet. All things considered, I think we have done well with finding lots of varied foods to eat. It's definitely helped that we ate a lot of healthy stuff to start, which made the transition to veganism pretty seamless.

I can't say it is perfect though. Most people advocate for a "break-in period" before taking the vegan plunge. They advise making small adjustments to your diet and lifestyle so that you don't go into some kind of tofu-fueled shock. It's a great idea, but I definitely didn't do it.

The day before the experiment, I had TWO sausage, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches, a french dip, and a massive plate of tandoori chicken. My plan was to make myself sick of meat so I wouldn't be tempted before starting my month. Good idea? I wouldn't recommend it, but I definitely wasn't too keen on meat the next day.

That being said, there are a few things Katie and I actually do (and will) miss. Things that we won't get for at least a month. We pulled a list together of what we will (and won't) miss during our month.

WHAT WE WILL MISS

Pizza

This will be tough. We don't eat it very often, but I freakin' LOVE pizza. Vegan alternatives are available, but it's just not the same. We'll probably avoid it.

Sushi

Yeah, sushi can be vegan. You can have cucumber rolls or asparagus rolls, but it's tought to beat the tuna/avocado combo. And when you add in the sriracha/mayo on top... don't get me started. We both love and will miss Sushiland, which we have visited almost weekly for months.

Desserts

For some reason, there are brownies in the lunch room at work at least once a week. I don't know how this happens (or who the heck keeps bringing them), but passing them up will be tough. We can always make our own if we get too desperate. Vegan baking is actually pretty easy and there are some killer recipes out there. How about chocolate mousse? Serve it to people and wait till they're done before you tell them it's tofu. They won't believe you. I sure didn't.


WHAT WE WON'T MISS

Saturated Fats - Not too many of these in veggies...

"Bad" Cholesterol - Only found in animal products.

Lethargy - Ever notice how lions and tigers are always sleeping? You don't see giraffes and antelope laying around all the time, right? Which ones are the herbivores?

Feeling Sick - Lactose is rough on a lot of people, since they lose the enzyme to digest it as they age. Take out the dairy, lose the lactose.


With all the alternatives out there, we will be able to find a replacement for almost everything. Even my customary midnight snack. Good thing vodka's vegan ;)

Be Healthy,
-Brendan

Day 4 - All Downhill Now

Alright, four days down, 26 to go in our little experiment. So far we've killed lots of zucchini, butchered the heck out of garbanzo beans, and the soy?

Poor stuff never had a chance.

So maybe it's not as exciting as hunting wild boar with throwing knives, but it's still been an interesting few days. We have learned a ton about plant-based diets and have hopefully helped others learn a little too. I'm really excited for the next couple weeks and seeing how we can make it work.

Big lifestyle changes often bring a lot of curiosity from people, which is one reason we are blogging our experiment. I'm also hoping to dispell some rumors about veganism. One major rumor being that vegans are weak, sickly little people who are desperately malnourished.

Yes, it is possible to starve yourself by using veganism. Yes, it's possible to eat unhealthy and deprive yourself of important nutrients.

HOWEVER, it is also possible to be a hugely successful runner, NBA player and professional MMA fighter.

Who am I talking about? Well, the runner is Scott Jurek.


He's pretty much the best at what he does, which is running really really far. The picture above is him running (and later winning) a 135 mile race through Death Valley in the summer. I can't think of a good gas-mileage pun with meat, so let's just say he doesn't need it to be awesome.

The NBA player is Salim Stoudamire.

Cousin to our beloved (sorta) Damon and Oregon native, this guy is pretty much anything but weak and frail.

Finally, we come to the MMA fighter, none other than Mac Danzig. He's the one on top.

All I can say is that I'm not making him eat anything he doesn't want to.

So there you go, a regular vegan-mythbusters. Now you have a couple names to drop when you are mentioning vegans. These guys show that vegans can run, jump, and beat others unconscious with the very best.

Be Healthy,
-Brendan

Booze Part 1 - Beer

Ah, my true lifeblood. A close second only to water, its praises are spoken the world over.

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
-Benjamin Franklin

"He was a wise man who invented beer."
-Plato

So for those who choose a non-animal diet, what could possibly be in beer (water, hops, malt, yeast) that's not ok to love and consume? Well, the two main reasons for non-vegan beer are the ingredients and the brewing process.

Beers with honey or milk added, like in a milk stout, will obviously have animal products and are therefore off-limits. These are usually special beers and will say "honey" or "milk" somewhere on the label, so don't worry about your Coors Light. If you stick with a regular ol' lager or ale, you will almost never have to worry about it.

Some beers with honey or lactose added:
- Dogfish Head Brewery's Midas Touch Ale (honey)
- Kalamazoo Brewery's Suzie's Sweet Stout (lactose)

Some old-school brewers, especially British ones, will use isinglass as a refining and clarifying agent in beer. Isinglass comes from fish swim bladders, so anything refined with it is off the menu. Luckily, the practice has been replaced largely with Irish Moss, a type of seaweed.

A couple beers filtered with isinglass or gelatin, another animal product:
- Boston Beer Company's Cask Conditioned Ale (isinglass)
- Dogwood Brewing's IPD (gelatin)

So how do you know who brews the good stuff and who makes the fish-beer? There are a couple sites that will point you in the right direction. They've compiled lists of vegan-friendly breweries and beers. Some of them are:

barnivore.com

veganvanguard.com

Cheers!



Oh yeah, one more little tidbit. A lot of breweries send their used grains to livestock yards for high-protein cattle feed. If you REALLY want to nitpick, you could call that non-vegan too, though I tend to think of it as recycling.

Be Healthy
-Brendan

Day 3 - feel-AWFUL!falafel!

That's how I'm feeling right now!

Brendan made a nom worthy dinner tonight, at least that's what I initially thought. We had brown rice, veggies from the garden (some from new seasons too:-), and falafel. This was the first time I had ever tried falafel, and I liked it so much I had a second serving! We also sipped sweet-sweet plum wine from my sushi party months ago.

About an hour and half later we headed out for our run - my big run for the week, a whole 4 miles! Not even halfway in I realized that all of that falafel made me feel rather awful. So there you go. feel-AWFUL!falafel! And the more I thought about all of that falafel I ate, the worse I felt. My pace slowed to a walk, which we continued all the way back home. Maybe I got a little greedy with my portion of falafel, or maybe it was the plum wine?

Much like alcohol, when consumed in moderation I give falafel a big thumbs up! And if you indulge a little too much? You come up with stupid phrases while running.

-Katie

Day 2 - Still Going Strong!

Alright, so two days vegan isn't exactly a huge accomplishment, but anything over one is a streak, right?

After an awesome dinner last night, we woke up today ready to hit the ground running. I'm still under the control of caffeine, so I had to resort to a little espresso. It is vegan, but it's never good to be under the influence and control of a drug. I'm going to get off it and find other ways to stay awake while driving. My dad brushes his teeth when he's tried in the car, which looks weird but definitely wards off the tooth decay!

Today ended up being a productive, if not lucrative, day. We had a yard sale, trying to cut back on the many things we have acquired and won't need when we move. We managed to get rid of a TV, an old iPod and... well, it's a start!

Meals were pretty casual, since we were both busy and didn't plan out anything solid. Katie had some vegan waffles for breakfast and I made my ultra-smoothie (recipe coming soon). Lunch was Gardenburger wraps and Katie made an awesome tempeh peanut pasta for dinner. I heated it up after my indoor soccer double-header and it pretty much rocked.

Katie has spent the evening making homemade hummus and some veggie patties for the week. She's in the kitchen right now, using the veggie chopper we got for our wedding. It kinda sounds like she's breaking things... maybe I should check on her.

If you are in the Portland area and want the simplicity of a fully-vegan grocery, Food Fight is definitely worth checking out. We will head down there soon and write up a review, but feel free to check the place out and send us your thoughts!



Vegan Haggis? I don't know about that...

Be Healthy,
-Brendan

We challenge you! One month - one healthy change

We challenge our friends/family/coworkers/blogreaders - whoever you are we challenge you! As we immerse ourselves in the Vegan lifestyle for one month, we would like to see others make one change to their diet for the better.

It can be as big or as small of a change as you would like. Eat out less, add less salt, put down the diet soda, get more fiber, journal your meals, eat more fresh veggies, take a lunch from home... we all have areas we can improve.

However small the adjustment might be you will start thinking about the other things you put into your body. Its a chain reaction - and a good one! You never know, you might just find yourself blogging about your healthier diet.

If you decide to take our challenge we want to help keep you accountable. Comment with your healthy change description and we will add you to a list. Hope to see some comments!

BTW - we are looking for followers! If you have a google, yahoo, or aim account you can follow our blog and have new posts emailed to you! Right hand side of the blog, click "join this blog" If you dont have an account, start one!

-Katie

Day 1 - Ribs Aren't Vegan

Alright, our experiment has officially started today. Although it has been a whole 10 hours since we woke up, it seems like this will definitely be doable.

Breakfast was decent enough, with a squash-soysage scramble with vegan cheese and salsa. Lunch was a picnic with Katie's work, so there was plenty of grilled veggies, salad, and even tofu steaks.

Not too bad. I'm not even cruelly wasting away into a starving pile of bones yet!

A big setback was the realization that refined sugar is usually not vegan. When sugar is refined, it goes through activated charcoal. That charcoal (for whatever reason) is made from bones. So if it's refined, odds are good it's not vegan.

Sriracha Hot Sauce has the dangerously-vague "sugar" in the ingredients. So does a TON of other stuff. That's why you have to look out!

Dang.

Dinner is looking promising though. We are thinking of going to Proper Eats, a vegan bakery/cafe/grocery in St. Johns.



Food I'm missing currently:


-Brendan