My 30 Day Challenge

The ripples in life are funny.  When a stone hits a pond, you never know how far its ripple may go.  A ripple started for me this past summer when I was at home in Ohio, in a pedicure salon of all places.  The girls that were doing my mother and my pedicures were having a good ol' time chatting with each other and with us.  The one girl mentioned that she had lost 60 pounds.  She looked fantastic.  I asked her what she did, and she told me that she had read this book called Skinny Bitch, which encourages a vegan lifestyle.  She had done this, and changed a few other things in her life, with great results.

Now, I've always had a few pounds extra, but by no means was I looking to lose a crazy amount of weight.  I was, however, intrigued by what she told me, and I downloaded the book on my iPad.  I download a lot of books on my iPad, which is why it was easy for me to kind of lose track of this for about a month. 

Fast forward to August 2nd.  I was on the train, on my way from Guangzhou, China, back to Hong Kong.  I normally work during this 2 and a half hour trip, but I was pretty exhausted and wanted to read something non-work-related.  I flipped through my iPad selections, and saw Skinny Bitch.  I started reading and could not stop.  I nearly finished the entire book on my trip (don't think I'm a miracle speed-reader - it's not that long.)  I decided that very minute that I needed to at least try eating a vegan diet.  Thirty days seemed like a reasonable target, so I got home, told Brian, and away we went.  He was about 50% in.  Eating vegan requires a bit of prep - making lunches to take to work, making sure good ingredients are on hand, etc.  So, when we are together and eating at home, he eats vegan with me.  When we are out at a restaurant, he eats whatever he wants, but tries to get at least a vegetarian option.  When I'm away on business trips, I don't want to know what goes on... but the stack of pizza receipts on the front table sort of clues me in...  I'm okay with that.  :) 

So... why did I decide this, I know you must be asking?  I've only known a few vegans in my lifetime, and I never really understood why they were doing what they were doing either.  It seemed like a total pain in the ass, to be honest.  Special butter, no milk... ugh.  My roommate in college was vegan (I think...), and I REALLY didn't get it at that point (but, like I mentioned in my last post, I had A LOT of things I needed to figure out at that point in my life).  There are really two reasons that I wanted to try this: 1) for my health - there are so many studies linking meat and dairy with both cancer and heart disease that I thought I needed to give this a try and see how I felt - I owe it to my husband at the very least and 2) there is a lot of gross stuff that goes into meat and dairy, even "free-range" stuff.  Seriously.  Check it out for yourself.

I've found so many resources to help find recipes that are fun to try, and really yummy to eat.  Every time I make a vegan meal, Brian and I look at each other after the first bite, and are both surprised at how delicious things taste.  It's been a fun challenge trying to combine different things, and we both feel so good.  The main things that I have noticed are my energy level (much higher than before - workouts feel amazing) and my mental health (despite an insane amount of travel and three stressful negotiations, I feel amazing and have not had any of the anxiety attacks that have plagued me since college).

Now, I know you are asking, but, what about protein?  Are you getting enough iron?  And, calcium, don't you have to drink milk to get that?  The answer is, I have never paid more attention to making sure I am getting enough of all of these important nutrients in my life, and I would argue that I'm actually getting more of them now.  You can get protein from all kinds of things that are not meat: beans, lentils, soy milk, quinoa to name a few (um, and peanut butter - hello, yes please).  Iron: same - edamame is a source of iron, along with kidney beans, green leafy veggies... Calcium: green leafy veggies, almonds, tofu.  Yep, it's all in there, so not to worry. The one amino acid that you can't get through a plant-based diet is B12.  I already took supplements for this before giving up meat  and dairy (it's good for stress!), so I think I am covered there too.

What is the hardest part?  Well, I travel a lot for my job.  On the road, sometimes it is hard to find exactly what you want.  In Vietnam, I went into a restaurant near the office, and they had NOT ONE THING on the menu that didn't contain meat or dairy... so, I asked them to make something up for me out of ingredients that I did want to eat.  It was not ideal, but it worked.  On the other hand, I asked my colleague in Fuzhou to find a restaurant that at least had some veggie options.  No chicken feet for me this time, please!  She went one step above and took me to an entirely vegetarian restaurant - in FUZHOU (AKA po-dunk) China.  It was amazingly delicious.  So, I'd say, while it is challenging, it is not impossible. 

I don't want to shove anything down anyone's throat - this a personal choice, but I wanted to share some resources if you are curious in reading for yourself. 

Obviously, I started with Skinny Bitch.  It's an easy-to-read book, which actually made me laugh out loud a few times.  Not for those who can't tolerate some colorful language. 

I also watched the following documentaries:
Forks over Knives
Food Matters
Vegucated
Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead
Food, Inc.

Watch if you want to - once I started, I couldn't stop, and it helped to keep me motivated to keep doing what I was doing. 

Can I do this forever?  I don't know.  To be honest, I was never a big meat eater to begin with.  So, that part is easy.  Dairy is hard for me.  I think it would be easier in the US, where there are so many health food stores with lots of vegan options.  Here, I was able to find one brand of vegan cheese only... makes it difficult, but not impossible.  We'll see how this goes, but I can say that 30 days went by in the blink of an eye.

Again, this is a personal choice, but after seeing how good I felt after this first 30 days, and knowing the health benefits of what I'm doing, I couldn't help but share with my friends and family.  It comes from a place of love.  :)  And, if you want to eat a big, juicy steak in front of me, I will not say a word.  Just also don't say a word if I'm nibbling on a tempeh burger.  :)