I'm about 68% (according to my ereader) through this book called The China Study and am feeling really convicted (well, scared, actually) that Les and I need to cut as many egg and dairy products as we can out of our diet. I've had borderline high cholesterol for the past few years, despite being vegetarian, and although blood cholesterol and dietary cholesterol are different, it seems worthwhile to try to reduce the amount of dietary cholesterol anyway. I'm also thinking that cutting high-fat dairy products like cheese out of my diet will lead to natural weight-loss.
We're still in the "eating through the bad stuff in the pantry" stage of dietary change, but we have started eating mostly vegan breakfasts and dinners. Overall, I've found many of the "fake" cheeses and the soy milk products to be pretty good, though we are trying to move down the path of whole foods rather than weird processed creations which just happen to be vegan.
We tried something like this about 8 or 9 years ago for a couple of months and didn't feel like we lost weight or saw any health benefits. Mostly we just found it terribly inconvenient because we couldn't eat all the foods that we loved (pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, yogurt, ice cream, etc.). As you can see, a lot of those foods weren't really the kinds of foods that we should have been eating anyway, but at the time, it was more about what we couldn't eat and less about what we should be eating for good health.
Online web resources are so much more robust now than they were back when we did this before. My favorite online recipe resource so far has been www.vegweb.com. As a person who doesn't really like to cook and doesn't like trying new things, such a big dietary change is challenging, but so many of the recipes on vegweb sound so delicious and seem so easy to make that I feel like I will keep wanting to try new things and won't fall into the habits of making the same thing over and over again. Les is doing cartwheels of joy at this news. He loves new experiences, especially when it comes to food.
This week's vegan dinner menu is as follows:
Sunday: Baked nachos
Monday: Mock chicken salad sandwiches and soup
Tuesday: Rice and beans + salad
Wednesday: Chana Masala
Thursday: Pasta with peas and cream sauce
Friday: Mini veggie tacos
Saturday: Tofu coconut curry
I have to also give a special shout-out to East Nashville's local vegan restaurant, The Wild Cow, who showed me how good vegan eating can be and convinced me that just because it tastes complex doesn't mean that it's complicated to make.
Enjoying this challenge and having fun eating more healthfully!
We're still in the "eating through the bad stuff in the pantry" stage of dietary change, but we have started eating mostly vegan breakfasts and dinners. Overall, I've found many of the "fake" cheeses and the soy milk products to be pretty good, though we are trying to move down the path of whole foods rather than weird processed creations which just happen to be vegan.
We tried something like this about 8 or 9 years ago for a couple of months and didn't feel like we lost weight or saw any health benefits. Mostly we just found it terribly inconvenient because we couldn't eat all the foods that we loved (pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, yogurt, ice cream, etc.). As you can see, a lot of those foods weren't really the kinds of foods that we should have been eating anyway, but at the time, it was more about what we couldn't eat and less about what we should be eating for good health.
Online web resources are so much more robust now than they were back when we did this before. My favorite online recipe resource so far has been www.vegweb.com. As a person who doesn't really like to cook and doesn't like trying new things, such a big dietary change is challenging, but so many of the recipes on vegweb sound so delicious and seem so easy to make that I feel like I will keep wanting to try new things and won't fall into the habits of making the same thing over and over again. Les is doing cartwheels of joy at this news. He loves new experiences, especially when it comes to food.
This week's vegan dinner menu is as follows:
Sunday: Baked nachos
Monday: Mock chicken salad sandwiches and soup
Tuesday: Rice and beans + salad
Wednesday: Chana Masala
Thursday: Pasta with peas and cream sauce
Friday: Mini veggie tacos
Saturday: Tofu coconut curry
I have to also give a special shout-out to East Nashville's local vegan restaurant, The Wild Cow, who showed me how good vegan eating can be and convinced me that just because it tastes complex doesn't mean that it's complicated to make.
Enjoying this challenge and having fun eating more healthfully!
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