A few years ago I heard Alicia Silverstone was a vegan and that she wrote a book about her choice and how she lived the choice. I had always had a strong desire to become a vegetarian but never made the commitment. When I heard about her book ‘A Kind Diet’ I have to admit I was intrigued to see if the actress that once stared in ‘Clueless’ was able to educate me on vegan living. In parallel my roommate was reading ‘Skinny Bitch’ which is also a book written on a vegan lifestyle that I have not yet read.
Vegetarian- is one that does not eat the flesh of an animal. If you still eat fish you are not a vegetarian. There are subsets of vegetarians; ovo, lacto and ovo-lacto vegetarian. I am ovo-lacto vegetarian. Meaning I eat eggs, dairy, honey etc. but not the flesh of animals.
Vegan- is one that does not eat flesh or any animal products: dairy, honey, some wines, eggs, and gelation. There are even subsets of vegans but I won’t go into them. They are not something you will jump into tomorrow.
I purchased Alicia’s book and read it in no time. It is a quick and easy read and she keeps you engaged with real-life stories of hers and others. I have to admit I thought it was a great starter book to get me motivated to change. What I liked is that it gave perspective on why she went down the vegetarian/vegan path. She shared the reality of how my bacon cheeseburger was raised, feed, slaughtered and processed. She gave insight on this impact on the planet. And she gave insight on the reality that you can live and thrive on a vegan diet. I was like many people. I liked the idea of my meat not resembling the animal it was and I liked not knowing how it got to my dinner table. Funny thing is that as I talk to friends and family that is what they always said.
‘I am happy being ignorant, Valerie. Please don’t make me think about and know where my burger came from!!!”
In 2010, however, I felt it was time to begin to face reality and understand what I was doing to my health and the planet’s health. (I will go into more details in other posts). So after putting down Alicia’s book I began changing. I won’t say it was easy because it wasn’t and still is not always easy. I did have an advantage. I didn’t eat fish, could care less about having steak and only pork I liked was bacon. It will be a bit harder if you like all more than I did. So I slowly cut out food. At the time I lived alone so it was easy to change my diet and just not have the meat around. It was a bit harder when we went to a wing joint with friends. My husband still eats meat and it can make meals a bit more complicated. Oh, I still have 1 meat meal a year, Thanksgiving. I just can’t give that holiday up. However, with that said you will begin to notice that you feel different eating less and less meat, you feel cleaner, lighter, healthier, have a bit more energy and a bit happier. I loved how I felt after I gave up meat for a month or so. I felt so good in fact that the temptations were no longer temptations. Another added bonus is I haven’t had a sick day since. Don’t get me wrong, I have gotten stomach viruses and colds, even the flu but I don’t stay sick for as long, and I feel better when sick. I can often get a little extra rest and feel like myself again. (I will admit that I have the luxury that I can work from home on days that I feel under the weather and that allows me to work with a fever).
So what do I eat that separates me from a vegan? Well I do my best to reduce the animal products I do consume but I do eat dairy, eggs and honey.
So I use vegan butter, Earth Balance, which tastes amazing! Be warned it is all oils.
I drink almond milk at home and soil milk when I am out. You can make the switch slowly by going for the sweetened kind then the un-sweetened. I never have the sweetened milk any more
I switched from ranch dressing to balsamic vinaigrette (most of the time).
I eat less and less eggs and hold the mayo as much as possible and make a few other changes from here and there.
What I noticed is that you will begin to taste things. I mean really taste them. They won’t all taste like fats, salt and sugar. It is great but makes me less than thrilled with most restaurant food but almost all restaurants have at least a veggie burger on the menu. I love being a vegetarian and have been going back and forth on vegan for some time now. I imagine that at some point I will make that move too.
Here is a great website that was developed after Alicia Silverstone published her book.
Also maybe you will find it interesting to see who else is a vegetarian!!!
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