Going Vegan

Whaaaaaaat? Seriously?

I thought your front license plate says "EAT BEEF." I thought you're from Kansas and your father grew up on a farm? I thought you consider a plate of food without meat a non-meal? And milk? I thought you loved milk, drink it all the time?

All of the above are true. What's also true is that I've been reading a lot lately and learning about what's good for you in the long run. I just want to TRY the whole vegan thing out. Just for 2 weeks. I promise.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. I'm always interested in how to make my diet healthier. Since I work in healthcare, I feel the responsibility to pass on only the best and most helpful information to my patients.

2. A few blogs I've been reading from cancer survivors have let me realize that eating a plant-based diet isn't that hard. They usually post great recipes and I've tried a few!

3. I'm reading the book The China Study. It's pretty hard to argue with. Basically the research has shown that people who eat plant-based diets live longer and have less disease than people who eat animal-based diets.

4. I just went grocery shopping and it was a breeze! I spent most of my time in the produce section, and very little in the other aisles.

5. I've also recently seen Dr. Sanjay Gupta's (CNN medical guy) documentary on heart disease and in it, he talks about plant-based diets, including the hometown Austin Engine2 diet.

So here we go. I wanted my menu to not be all vegetables and grains - I wanted to try some substitutions and see if they measure up. I'll let you know when I make sloppy joes out of the meatless meat grounds I found. (It's really just fungi.)

Here's to the next two weeks!