What Our New Diet Has Been Like

So we're trying to get away from the idea that meat is the center of our meals. Before, the rest of the meal was centered around the meat. And, if for some reason something else couldn't be found, then just the meat would do :) But now, we're "re-centering" our meals, as it were.

The center is now potatoes, rice, beans, and/or pasta. These are the starch based foods that provide a solid center for a vegan diet.

Here's some of the meals we've had in the last week:
- Seasoned and baked diced potatoes, steamed broccoli and squash
- Wheat soft tacos with (vegan) refried beans, Spanish rice, lettuce, and Taco Bell sauce (surprisingly vegan)
- Beans burgers with pickles, lettuce, mustard, and ketchup with baked potato fries (Angela and Tracy Reed made patties from a bean-based recipe)
- Wheat spaghetti noodles with a garlic and herb spaghetti sauce by Ragu
- Rice with carrots and broccoli eaten with soy sauce
- Chili with Williams brand chili seasoning, pinto beans and cannellini beans, eaten with wheat crackers
- Boca brand vegan "chicken" patty on a whole wheat bun with Lays baked plain potato chips

- Tomato basil soup with wheat crackers
- Breaded and baked eggplant

For desserts we've done
- Fruit salad
- Pineapple sherbet
- Frozen fruit (cut up strawberries or blue berries)
- Vegan brownies

For breakfast we do:
- Fruits
- Organic oatmeal
- Organic or whole grain cereal

For in-between snacks and such:
- Baby carrots
- Veggie tray of some kind
- Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat or multi-grain bread
- Fruits
- Organic or whole grain cereal

Some stuff we've got coming up:
- Steamed corn on the cob
- Nutty french toast with maple syrup
- Potato boiled with fresh green beans

So as you can see, we've been eating pretty great! We've been careful to read the labels of the food we buy so as to avoid stuff with lard or milk or eggs as ingredients. It's amazing how much stuff has these things in them... especially milk and eggs.

When possible we choose things with very little or no oil/fat content and as little sugar as we can. And we've been choosing organic foods whenever possible. When presented with the choice, we choose sugar over oil. Sugar will process out of your body way faster than oil.

With this diet, Angela and I have been losing weight, and have felt healthier than we have in a very long time. We've also be amazed as how much more often we get hungry. Snacks are a must!

Why I'm Going Vegan

Short Version
1 week ago on Friday, the Lord showed me this Scripture while I was praying:  Romans 14:14-23. Romans 14:17 says "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit". When it comes to food, this verse can be the end all argument. And that's okay. Verse 22 says "so whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God." In other words, don't condemn anyone for what they do. But verse 23 pulls it back to the Spirit: "But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."

The Lord showed me that I had lost faith in my diet... in the way I have been eating my entire life. And that by continuing to do something that I had no faith in, I was sinning against myself, my family, and God.

That is it in a nutshell. The reason I have made a change. My family and I have not consumed anything containing dairy, meat, or eggs for 7 days so far. And I personally can't remember feeling this physically good in a very long time.

Detailed Version
This is a path that I've been heading toward, and even tiptoeing on the edge of for quite some time. But I had 30 years of training, habits, and choices holding me back. And for at least 26 of those years I scoffed at the idea of not eating meat and dairy. I don't remember the first time I was introduced to the idea, but I'm quite sure it was not with a positive connotation.

Since I was young, I always wanted to know the answers to questions. When I found out how to find my own answers, I would do that. If somebody told me something, I would try to see if it was true, and to find out more about it. That practice was only strengthened when I went to college.

When Angela and I moved back to Palestine in late 2006, I found out that my boss at my new job (Timothy Triplett) and his wife (Elaine) were not only vegetarians (no meat) but vegans (no dairy or eggs either)! Again, it was a concept that was foreign to me conceptually (why would they do it?) and practically (how would they do it?). Eating "rabbit food" all of the time? No thank you.

But my practice of trying to be educated on a subject worked here just the same. I was curious. And several things really impressed me about the Triplett's lifestyle.
1) The food that Elaine cooked was not just rabbit food. There were a lot of things that not only smelled very good, but tasted even better (when I could get samples).
2) Elaine's 80-something father was living with them, and was suffering from a degenerative nervous system disorder. And his home-health nurses were constantly amazed at how despite his disease he was amazingly healthy. I heard more than one say to him "You've got the blood pressure and cholesterol level of an 18 year old."

Timothy and Elaine had made lifestyle choices many years ago based on their health that lead them to eating the way they do. And they are constantly trying to refine those choices and make them better and better. As a result, over the last few years, I have been exposed to a lot of information that I had never been aware of before.

And before you say "Sure, if you're being constantly bombarded by something, it's going to eventually get through," think about this: they would have to work constantly for many years to come to get near the amount of exposure I've had to the "American diet". Print ads, radio ads, TV ads, Internet ads, road signs, billboards, family, friends... nearly everyone I know eats the way everyone else does and the way I have.

After all of my experience, the new information and different take was welcome. I started to realize that the way I had been doing things, the way I was taught, is not the best way. Our bodies have certain needs. And the food we eat matters. It matters for a whole bunch of reasons.

It is partially for these reasons that I have lost faith in my old diet. I want to live a healthy life. I want to live to be very old. I want to be healthy when I'm old. I don't want to be a burden on my wife, or my kids, or my grandkids. I don't want to be a slave to medications, or doctors.

So I'm changing my diet. We are changing. My family is changing. God brought me to a place where I am ready to do it. Last Friday, He convicted my Spirit. And he has given us the strength to change. Angela has had the desire for some time to change. But now she has my support, and we are doing it together with our kids.

Right now we are vegan. No meat. No eggs. No dairy. Whole foods as much as possible. As low fat and sugar content as we can. I don't know if this will be forever or not. But it will, at the minimum, be a "reboot". I feel, in a way, like a recovering alcoholic - the last thing they need is a drink of alcohol. So we're going cold turkey. Maybe at some point we will begin to reintroduce some things back into our diet. But if we do, it will be in a controlled way, with very small portions. The whole foods, vegan diet will continue to be the lifestyle.

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So here are some questions I've asked myself that have helped lead me to where I am now.
What is meat? Animal muscle.
How do they get muscle? By eating plants.
Wouldn't it be better if I just ate the plants? Sure. After all, everyone knows vegetables are good for you. There is nothing in meat that you can't get from plants.

What about dairy? Oh man.. that's it's own can of worms. [1] [2] [3] [4] And I especially love how the Health and Nutrition section of the Wikipedia page on Cheese has absolutely no negative information! HA! Unbiased my foot. (And did you know that the grand majority of humans on the planet are lactose intolerant? It's really not even a question of whether you are or not, but to what degree you are. Amazing. Bet you're not going to learn that little fact from the Dairy Counsel.) But it's basically the same thing as meat. Everything you get from dairy you can get a healthy selection of fruits and vegetables plus so much more.

So why get all that stuff from some other animal after they've already processed it? No good reason.