My Life as a Vegan now Vegetarian - Day 69

It has been a while since I have written about my journey. I have added Transcendental Meditation to my route. I am having no problem giving up meat or eggs or milk. Cheese on the other hand is very difficult. It has casein and is just as bad as eating meat. I must be stronger. No more Mexican for a while.

The meditation has forced me to focus on what makes me happy and that has caused me to begin to make some changes, not all I can share today. I have been accepted and will be going back to school for my doctorate! Yeah! However, I am not going where I want to go for two reasons. Fear of not getting accepted and my hubby does not want me to leave. So I stay here to study. That is fine for now, but my desire to travel has grown. NC has never been my home. It is where I live with my husband.

I have decided that since I love to travel, I will make every effort to get out of town more often. My job has returned back to the travel position for which I was hired...this is nice. Except I cannot do theater because I travel a lot and cannot commit to rehearsals. This makes me sad. I can deal until I graduate. Then I can do shows during the school year and travel during the summers!

I still have a dream of living abroad. Mr. Holmes does not want to live abroad. I may have to go for a short stint. 1-2 years instead of the longer term I was planning.

I am finding the answers to my questions in meditation and this is great! I began my Spanish lessons on CD while on the road. I am supposed to be fluent in 10 days! Whoo! Hoo! Next is French!

Lastly is my health. This blog is about getting healthy, right? Well I started where I did because I have to heal all parts of me, not just my physical self. I had meat on Thanksgiving weekend only. I have lost very little weight which has been frustrating. However, I have not suck to any workout regime. Insanity was a bit more than I can handle. I have a major collection of equipment and videos that should have me in the best shape of my life but I am a failure in this endeavor. I cannot do it alone. I keep trying and I keep failing. I cannot trust myself in this area and it frustrates me to no end. i wish i could afford a trainer who would force me to do it. But I don't. There is only me and right now, I can't trust myself to keep my word to ME! Ugh!

My Life as a Vegan - Day 22

I can't believe this is our 4 week of veganism coming up. We have not had any meat for 22 days. To be completely honest, we haven't missed it. I can't believe i am saying this. But we don't. I have really begun to cook. Not just heat up foods but actually cook them from scratch. I think I am also a bit gluten intolerant so for the next few weeks, I am cutting those out. That is tougher than not eating meat. I haven't dropped the weight as quickly as I had wished, so we are following Dr. Furhman's Eat to Live. This is our first week. :)

Last week I started Insanity. It whipped my butt. I also decided to no longer take birth control. Is this TMI? I decided that I didn't want to put anything in my body that was not natural. I contacted my Ob-gyn and she recommended an IUD....and IUD really??? The answer was no. Still looking for a better alternative to condoms so any advice would be good.

We found a fabulous vegan restaurant in Raleigh, we have gone for several date nights now. So excited about that. I have tried a few different things. Tim get the country fried meat-less steak. It's so yummy. It's called Remedy Diner!

I am working on reducing my stress level at work. I have not taken my laptop home in a while. I used to take it home every night. My role is wrapping up so I look forward to whatever the future brings.

I am also thinking more about going back to grad school. I will admit, this is a scary idea but I want to teach. It is challenging getting a teaching gig with only a Master's degree. Wish me luck.

Football season has started. There are some very good changes there as well that I will reveal in a later post! P.S. We have some amazing new recruits!!!

Finally, I was asked to work with my Black Poetry Peeps. Excited to be doing something creative again. I am getting in line with my intention.

My Life as a Vegan - Day 2

When you make a life change as we have it doesn't come without some soul searching. Something I have known years but rarely done is do what makes me happy. I find myself volunteering to help others with their dreams and ideas. However, when it comes to mine....I am usually on my own...this is probably self-imposed. I'll have to come back to that at a later time. I have the type of personality that will just do it. I have a certain standards. I want things done a certain way. Also, I have been disappointed many times when asking for help so I prefer not to. My dad taught me to be self-sufficient. He used to tell me if you don't expect anything from anyone then you won't be disappointed. I must say when i forget this rule, I get the sharp spanking of disappointment.

I keep coming back to my true love of teaching. I love teaching. I have wanted to teach at the University level. I have a master's degree with 14 years experience. I cannot seem to find a job teaching. I tried about three years ago to teach HS in an effort to get experience teaching in an educational environment, but because of No Child Left Behind, the school system was not hiring lateral entry teachers. I didn't really want to teach HS so I probably put this energy out in the universe. I do want to teach Community College and Online. I would love that! I do teach part-time now and I get to travel around doing it which is like my two loves in one job, but that is only 3+ times a year. I said all that to say I have been thinking about grad school. I figure if I get my doctorate then maybe I will get a chance.

Ok, back to the veganism. I lost 3.1 lbs after my 1st day. We are juicing during the day and eating a vegan meal for dinner. I am using my Vitamix blender and using Odwalla juice as a base then adding spinach or kale, celery. a beet, cucumbers, an apple, ginger, carrots and I add a powder spirulina and wheatgrass. On Monday I added garlic...bad idea. We split 1 clove of garlic. We had garlic coming out of my pores. Ugh! It was too strong. So today I omitted the
garlic and the juice was fabulous!

I announced on facebook that I was converting to vegan and I got a lot of support. It was great! Folks came out of the woodwork to offer support and to tell me about their journey to eating veggies. I really love my Vegan and Vegetarians FB group!!! They are fantastic.

So we decided to start working out next week. Walking to start, then working our way up to doing "Insanity." Tim is doing it with me. This has been great! However, he has been experiencing some pain in his hip and shin and his foot. Because of this, I have made sure to include celery to our juice. This may take some time, but should help with his aches and pains because he is too stubborn to go to the doctor.

I have bouts of mild depression where I can't put my finger on what exactly is causing the issue. I have had this for years and have learned to live with it and hide it. But I remember when I fasted on juice for a week...I was happier. Part of that was due to the fact that I was working out and the dopamine was making me feel good. It was great! Then I read that meat some of the poison that is put into our food can cause depression. In the Kind Diet Book, Alicia Silverstone talks about feeling more at peace. I think for me....developing a regular meditation schedule, getting on a regular work out schedule and getting a job teaching or going back to school would be great! Maybe allowing more time to read and going to the mountains and places in nature just to re-connect would help me out as well.

Ok, so I apologize for dumping like this....lol... I will try to focus more on the food but with this transition, you never know what you will get.

P.S. I made a bucket of beans and some brown rice. Yummy but very experimental :-)

One more day til my new program begins

I have begun sharing my new decision with friends and family. I am so encouraged by all those who are vegans or vegetarians who have offered their support. I am hoping that by blogging this I will be able to help others. This has been quite a journey for me. I have learned so much already and I haven't even started...lol. We...I...cleaned out the pantry and the refrigerator. I kept the butter because we are cooking dinner at Christmas and I pomised my family Turkey. We also have some salad dressings for others. We kept some canned tuna because I know Tim would buy some more anyway. Everything else that had poison in it had to go. We got rid of a lot. It was cathartic. I am starting to feel free-er. Not sure if that is a word.

I am also looking at adding meditation into my life. I am also thinking about going back to school to get my PhD. I want to teach when I grow up. Am I having a mid-life crisis? Maybe I am...I did buy a new car last year. I woke up and realized that I am not exactly where I wanted to be in my life at this point. I am not doing the things to make me happy. Teaching and traveling makes me happy. I will be working towards making that happen.

I know these thoughts will just get more intense as my body begins to cleanse and clear out toxins. It becomes an emotional cleanse as well. This is good I think. I have read that with the type of change in lifestyle I am undertaking, I will have more clarity of thought. I look forward to that.

I will welcome whatever change comes out of this transformation.

My New Path

So the juicing was an amazing experience. I lost quite a bit of weight in a short time. However, that was not the biggest benefit. My eyes were opened to a whole new way to nourish myself. I was feeding myself poison. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is poisonous. I knew on an intellectual level because I am a food documentary junkie. However, after watching "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" as well as "Forks over Knives" my eyes were opened. There is something to this plant-based diet. There were so many misconceptions I had about needing milk to be healthy, needing protein from meat to be healthy...all these were lies. There are NFL, MBA & MMA athletes who are complete vegans. People are not only curing themsselves from diseases but are living very happy healthy lives.

What made me really understand it was that after juicing and feeling great from the increased energy and beginning to be more happy, I went on vacation. We took a cruise and there were minimal options for healthy eating. The whole time I felt sluggish, unattractive, sad and tired. I have basically felt this way since vacation. I have been traveling for work so I decided to get back on track after our travels. It has directly affected my mood, my energy, my libido...everything. I can't wait to get home so I can begin juicing again. Really, I can't wait to stop putting these toxins into my body. I can feel their affect.

If healthy doesn't get you...read "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone. This is what has made me decide to not only juice, but to become a vegan. I know. I never thought I would say that but we vote with our pocket books. We are being fed angry meat. No wonder we have issues. No wonder our kids have ADD and are obese. It's in their SAD diet. I would consider occasional meat if I know the farm where the animals are raised and know 1st hand that they use decent methods for putting the animals down. Until then, I have grown to really like soy sausage, beans and grains. I love veggies & fruit already. Raw kale is amazing. My new staple.

I will be adding meditation and exercise to my regular agenda because being Kind is not just about how we eat, but how we treat ourselves. I have treated myself poorly.

I will share my journey. Stay tuned..... Pics will come soon.

Day 5 of Juicing

This morning I woke up feeling great! I weighed in at 210.8 and the hubby @ 338.  Together we have lost 22 lbs in 4 days. Pretty amazing.  We decided that this reboot was a success. We will juice today and have a salad tonight. No regrets! Well what about stopping earlier than originally discussed. We realized that this was a lifestyle change for us. It was not about losing weight although that is part of it, it was about healing a disease although disease prevention was part of it. It was about leading a healthy lifestyle. We have bought Dr. Furhman's book called Eat to Live.


My husband even said tonight that he was committing to eating less meat. I almost fell out of my chair. He is craving a steak right now.

For dinner we went to Jason's Deli because they have organic veggies and they purchase from local farmers. I have a cup of organic veggie soup which was amazing. I had never had it before. I also got the salad bar. All fresh veggies. It was yummy. I couldn't finish it all. I did bring it home. The challenge with this new lifestyle is finding ways to use leftovers quickly. Without all the preservatives, food goes bad. I am used to packing the frig with leftovers. I got to change that habit.

Day 4 of Juicing

Woke this morning and weighed in at 211.8. Seriously?? Yes! Hubby weighed in at 340.5. Ok, so we decided to take it day by day. We are very pleased with the results. I can apply for health insurance and get a decent rate once I am under 200 lbs. That is my immediate goal.  I made tea today so hopefully I won't have those hunger pangs like I did before. It really would be good if I can keep this up through next week while working out. I have been going to bed early.  I have also been getting up early.  Odd change in my sleep cycle.

I must say I feel good. As far as the hubby, it looks like his hair is starting to grow back! That was wild. He doesn't like because he is used to being bald and now he will have more to shave, but for those wanting hair what a great way to get it. It makes me wonder if this affects testosterone...hmmm.....

More to come

Ok...I went through the afternoon and forgot about my last juice til about 5pm. Wow! The toughest is still on the way home when we would normally stop and have dinner or pick up take out. We are still taking it day by day, but it seems likely that we will add a salad in for dinner starting the weekend. The hubby was craving some chicago style pizza and steak. I don't really crave anything. I just miss eating. Weird huh? I have been told by a couple of people that I look like I am dropping weight and it's only been 4 days now. I do feel good. I sleep good.