notes from a closet vege

[Plenum]

I wrote about my spontaneous fast here. That lasted for 3 days, and was triggered towards the middle of Dec 2012.

about a week ago (very close to new years day), I received an impulse to drop meat from my meals, at least for a while. I went along with it, thinking in might be for 2 or 3 days and then I'd go back to normal; which previously included fatty meats in every meal.

well, its been more than 7 days now, and it shows no sign of abating. I have had no cravings or inclinations to return to adding meat again, but I thought I'd share some of the meat substitutions that I made that might be of interest to others. This is not an attempt at conversion :d just a sharing of method.

I basically replaced the animal meats and fats directly with:

* canned lentils
* butter
* extra nuts, though not a very large amount
* olives

this direct substitution has been surprisingly effective. I am still able to maintain my preferred one-meal-a-day approach. And the physical energy levels and sleeping patterns have not been affected much at all.

the extra fibre content did result in a thorough emptying of the bowels in the first few days, but that has settled back to normal now.

otherwise there is not much else to report. I followed my instincts on this shift; and I thoroughly acknowledge that it is a personal choice. Where it goes from here, I'm not quite sure.

[Ruth]

Real butter? So you are still getting a small amount of animal fat? I'm not chiding you, just trying to understand.

I've done this all my life - followed my instincts about what to eat. I have always fared better when I was able to comply with my guidance, and sometimes not done so well when I didn't.

Hooray for you, plenum!

[Plenum]

well, I'm not vegan as such Ruth

I guess what I meant above was animal fats as in 'off the flesh'.

a slight error in wording.

[Monica]

Quitting all animal products completely doesn't always happen at the same time as quitting meat. I was a vegetarian for 29 years before I 100% committed to giving up dairy (though I was essentially vegan off and on).

I think it's awesome that you're following your guidance on this, plenum!

[Richard]

A friend of mine defines his vegetarianism as he eats nothing that has an eye. He binges on cheese though, lol.

[Monica]

A friend of mine defines his vegetarianism as he eats nothing that has an eye. He binges on cheese though, lol.

Oh, then he misses out on blacked-eyed peas!

I don't eat anything that had a face. So that rules out old-fashioned clocks. Digital clocks are ok though!

[xise]

Or, if you're lazy like me and still want to get your protein, you can just stop by the local grocery store and pick up an protein shake drink. Those are made with whey protein, which is veg. Good stuff. Arian Foster is a vegan btw (in top 3 running backs in the nfl ):

[Richard]

Whey is a dairy product. So if you're vegan, need to keep that in mind. Go with a Rice Protein supplement for vegans. There are also new protein supplements out there, but they have varying amino acid profiles. Pea & Potato proteins are 2 of the most popular.

You'll start seeing blended protein powder supplements pretty soon. The usage and pricing of whey protein has skyrocketed in the last couple of years. Whey is actually a by-product of the cheesemaking process. As it stands right now, there is no whey specific manufacturing in the world...it all depends on the cheese market.