Day Six - Don't eat that steak! Your intestines are too long!

If there were such a thing as a professional web browser, I would have all the qualifications.  I am a prolific googler.  I have so much useless knowledge as a result of this it's uncanny.  Although I'm great as a Trivial Pursuit partner, this yearn for trivial facts is pretty much useless.

On my quiet Sunday afternoon, I googled "vegans and digestion".  You'd be amazed what I discovered!  Now, I realize everything you find on the internet isn't always true, but what I found did spark some interest that may lead to further investigation.  Apparently, there is some question as to whether humans are designed to be meat eaters.  True carnivores have sharp needle-like teeth that rip flesh while humans have blunt teeth designed to mash vegetables into oblivion.    Apparently adding to this speculation is the length of our small intestine.  Yes, you heard that right - the human small intestine is just too damn long.  Apparently size does matter.

Carnivores (including lions and your beloved house cat Fluffy) have relatively short small intestines allowing food to pass through relatively quickly.  Humans, on the other hand, have a freakishly long intestine and food can take 12 to 19 hours to pass through.  When a human eats meat, it begins to rot before making it's grand exit releasing dangerous free radicals into the system.  Free radicals, apparently, have been linked to cancer.   Meat also chugs along at a snails pace and hangs around inside of you way past it's welcome.  This loitering meat in turn blocks the small intestine's ability to absorb nutrients making you eat more to get satisfied.  So basically, this rotting flesh in your guts makes you fat and gives you cancer.  Damn you, rotting flesh!

Tonight I marinated a portobello mushroom in italian dressing, tossed it on my trusty George Foreman grill and ate it on a bun with lettuce, onion and pickle.  I will say that I am not going hungry at all and I am eating less.  I think there may be something to this absorption thing.  I am definitely satisfied when I eat.  My challenge is to keep it interesting.  Thank you for all the comments and suggestions!  It really does help.

Day Five - Earthfare, Beans and a Happy Colon

It's been a few days since I've posted and I apologize for not being on top of things.  Life happens, though, and we don't always get to do everything we want to do.

I bought a 9 bean soup mix at a health food store a while ago and decided to give it a try.  I soaked the beans overnight on Wednesday and tossed them in a crock-pot Thursday morning with some water and onions and let them cook all day.  After work on Thursday, I tossed in some tomatoes, frozen mixed vegetables,  textured soy protein, garlic powder and chili powder.  I then let that simmer for a couple more hours and stuffed myself silly with this soup.  It's VERY filling and the textured soy protein adds a "meaty" texture to it, but as far as I can tell not much flavor.  The only drawback seems to be, without getting too graphic, what goes in must come out - and in the case of this diet, much faster than a meat based diet and apparently in greater quantities.  I'm sure you get the picture.

I've mentioned in an earlier post that I live in a meat-eaters town and this attitude is reflected in the products that are available.  Some of the grocery stores have small vegan selections and there is a pretty good small health food store, but it would be nice to have a store with a large selection.  This morning, a friend called me and said he was going to Columbia for the day and wanted to know if I wanted to ride along.  Since there is an Earthfare in Columbia, I hitched a ride and away we went.  I think if I had been better prepared, I could have made a list and stocked up for the month, but I was a bit overwhelmed at the selection and didn't really know where to start.   I did pick up a few items and was pleasantly surprised to find that although my local health food store is much smaller, it does have a similar selection and is competitively priced to the big guys.

My energy level is definitely up and I feel good, so this has been a good start this time.  I'll keep you posted.

Day Two - Oh, My Aching Head

It happens every time I drastically change my eating habits - the second day headache.  I am a seasoned dieter.  When people ask me how long I've been on a diet, I say "since 1985."  I am seasoned enough to know that after the bliss of day one comes the pain of day two.  It's my body saying "What in hell are you doing to me?  FEED ME!!!!"  Only this time, it's not a diet.  This is not the last headache I will suffer through, but this is the last time I will suffer through it because I have so drastically changed what I eat that my body goes into shock.   OK, realistically, it may happen again when I finally decide to give up caffeine, but you get my point.

Today was a good day.  For breakfast, I had Cheerios in soy milk to which I add a little real sugar (remember, I'm not giving up EVERY vice).  I actually prefer the flavor of soy milk to bovine nectar in cereal.  It has an almost nutty flavor.  For lunch I made another ramen noodle creation.  I'm going to have to start packing a fork to take to lunch, because it's really hard to eat noodles with the plastic sporks they provide at work.  For dinner, I had whole wheat capellini topped with mushrooms and marinara.    I realize I'm hitting the starches a little hard - I need vegetables!  So, for dinner tomorrow, I'm making a vegetable bean soup in the crock pot.  I'm soaking the beans now and will toss them in the slow cooker  tomorrow morning along with other veggies and such.  I love soup on a cool evening!  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Day One - Nutritional Yeast and Other Mysteries

Today was my first totally vegan day.  Last weekend I found a book in Barnes & Noble that was basically a vegan guide for college students.  Now, granted, those college years are long past, but I have the same core values as a student:  I like things cheap, easy, and fast.  In this vegan guide, it touts the value of nutritional yeast for the animal-free diet.  What is nutritional yeast you ask?  I asked the same thing.  It's basically a yeast (translation: fungi) that is cultured with a mixture of sugarcane and beet molasses.  It has a texture sort of like potato flakes and can be mixed in with food to give it a cheesy flavor.  I haven't done it yet, but apparently it can be mixed with liquid to make a sauce.  Now, I love cheese as much as anyone, so I rushed out to my local health food store and bought some of this magical powder.  For breakfast, I mixed some in my grits (yes I'm southern).  Note to self: a little of this stuff goes a long way.  It wasn't bad, just should be used sparingly.  Imagine if a chunk of cheddar and an almond had a love child.  This child would taste like nutritional yeast.  Not a bad flavor; just not something you want to overpower the flavor of what you are actually eating.  So, that lesson learned, I decided to give these yellow flakes another chance at lunch.  My fast, cheap, and easy vegan book suggested a lunch of ramen noodles (oriental flavor with no animal stuff) with the liquid drained before adding the aforementioned yeast.  Now, this was good. Five minutes prep time and something I can prepare at work.


All in all, it was a good day.  No cravings and I stayed satisfied.  Now I'm off to find something else to sprinkle this fungi of the gods on.

The Day Before

Tomorrow is the big day.  I just ate my last meal with animal products.  Starting tomorrow, I am vegan.  No animal products.   No meat, eggs, cheese, gelatin, marshmallows, milk, butter, etc.  More importantly, though, is what I'll be gaining.  Better health, smaller body; lower chance of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes; a smaller carbon footprint meaning I will be doing more to keep the planet greener; and a chance to practice what I preach in regard to animal rights:  I love animals, therefore I will not eat them and will do far less to contribute to their suffering and slaughter.  Overall, I feel pretty damn good about this.

This is not my first attempt at going vegan.  In fact, it's my third try.  Third times a charm, right?  I'll do things different this time.  This time I will:

• Not accept the all or nothing mentality.  In past attempts if I failed, I gave up.  I accidently ate something with cheese in it?  Oh hell, I might as well eat a side of beef!  If I am not 100% compliant one day, it will be ok and I'll do better the next day.
• Cook.  It is absolutely impossible to dine out in this deep-fried-wrapped-in-bacon town and maintain a vegan diet without becoming bored as hell with it.  Starting tomorrow, I take my lunch to work and I start searching for new and different things to prepare - which brings me to my next point:
• Educate myself.  Learn about and experiment with ways to make my favorite foods in a new and different way.  I will learn about ingredients and what I can use to substitute.
• Not give up ALL of my vices at once.  Last time I went vegan, I also gave up processed sugar, artificial sweeteners, and diet sodas.  Come on, I need SOMETHING unhealthy to do!
• Blog.  I need the support that blogging offers.  Did I mention that I live in a not-so-vegan-friendly town?  People here think they are being vegan if they just add the bacon grease to the pot of beans instead of just throwing the whole pig in.  Blogging gives me a chance to connect with other vegans for support and maybe some ideas along the way.

Tomorrow morning I will get up and weigh myself first thing to have a starting point for my weight.  I will not publish my weight here for a number of reasons, including:

1. It's really not anyone's business.
2. If I told you, you pass out from the shock - and then I'd be sued when you recovered from your fall.
3. I don't want my weight to be the focus of this journey.  I'm not Jared and this ain't Subway.

So, join me on this journey.  Let me know your thoughts and offer me advise.  When I learn something, I'll share it with you.  This is one journey I hope never ends.