Vegan

Ten days of eating Vegan are under way.  This is the food experiment I am dreading the most, but I will try my best.  

Why am I wanting to try Vegan?

• Amount of Protein.  I am curious if I am getting too much protein with my usual carnivore diet.  I haven't convinced myself that I will be calculating my daily protein consumption, but maybe this will give my body a break if I am getting too much.  So far, I'm sticking to my grazing-3 meals and 3 snacks a day & will try to balance them all with protein, fats and carbs.
• Alkaline State.  Vegan diets support your body being in an alkaline state, which is better for us for many reasons and if I find the time that would be a blog post alone.  I threw this comment out to a practice member and she suggested we get some pH strips to measure, so we did.  (Just from our Health Food Store, but apparently you can also get them at Home Care Centres.)
• Inflammation.  Too much of the wrong types of fats can lead our body into the Inflammatory Process.  I'm curious if I will feel any difference in joint pain or over all achy-ness being on a Vegan diet.  

We've also debated how being Vegan can be approached in either a healthy or unhealthy manner.  French fries, breads, sugars, pasta-all technically can be Vegan but may not be in our best interest.  We're aiming to keep on the healthy end, but I definitely hold a belief that eating Vegan is "healthy" for us, which isn't necessarily true.  

What am I eating so far?

Day 11- Meals so far have been easy.  I swapped almond milk and still had coffee and fruit and granola for breakfast (I added some chia and hemp hearts).  Lunch was a spinach salad with avocado, hummus, peppers and mushrooms.  Snacks were a shake (gross-avocado, misc. fruit, juice, hemp... We've now bought Vega Shakes for the rest of the week) and almonds.  Dinner will be easy-a kidney bean, sweet potato, pepper and mushroom braise.  (See World's Healthiest Foods Recipes for ideas!).  I'm not too excited by the food yet, and felt laggy today, but we'll see what's to come.  

We pH tested and I'm acidic... 6.2 saliva 6.6 urine (good is 6.75+; 7.5+ resp.) 

Day 12 - I'm hoping this isn't the start of a slide.  I attended a seminar today and was so proud of myself for NOT eating the scones, and taking the meat and cheese off of my sandwich, but I just had my first bread in 12 days (technically I think I can still say I'm eating Vegan) and I ate a semi-sweet biscotti.  Dinner was more on track.  I'm not loving the amount of legumes I'm eating, although I'm expecting my body to get used to it soon.  I've planned for the next weeks meals and feel more prepared, with many of our meals coming from Healthy Happy Life, which has all Vegan recipes.  I'm still not clear in my mind if I should be off gluten at this stage.  Scott is going primarily wheat free, but I will still be eating some bread. 

I bought some crazy fake food at Superstore-rice cheese, coconut yogurt, soy yogurt, silken tofu... Ideally, I would like to base this diet on vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, but I'm not feeling too strong.  This will probably be the only time in my life I will buy rice cheese, so why not now.  (so I bought this "cheese" and get it home-it has casein, a milk protein.  Ha.  And don't get Scott started on the ingredients of the Vega shake.)

First satisfying meal so far-Tofurkey sausages, brown rice and a salad.  A few people had said not to touch this stuff, but at 29g of protein, I wanted to try it out.  

This Vegan meals looks attractive doesn't it?  

Day 13 - I'm thinking that I should have kept the sugar out.  We made gluten free pancakes for breakfast-2 versions as Scarlett would not touch the ones using chia as an egg replacer.  I had left overs for lunch-salad and the above mentioned black bean braise.  Then I had a muffin we made this morning-gluten free, vegan, (pumpkin cranberry loaf from the Healthy Happy Life site above) BUT a small amount of sugar, and crashed. I feel like I'm not getting enough protein to sustain my sugar levels and I wish I remembered my nutrition classes better.  (this is still eating avocado, some nuts...)

It's still early in my 10 days, but its looking like I will not be Vegan past January 21st! 

I haven't done the pH papers again (I will sporadically) but my weight is fluctuating a lot and my energy is up and down like crazy.  I complain to Scott that I feel I need to eat until I'm over full, but rarely feel satiated.  

Dinner- "Cheesy" Chickpea Quinoa on Spinach from Clean Eating Chelsey.

It makes me feel better to see that the food was pretty, but at the moment I'm in awe of anyone who follows this Vegan diet and lifestyle.  

Sorry for my complaints-it is one of those First World problems.  Do challenges like this deter you from making food or lifestyle choices?  Or does it challenge you a little more to keep going?