First Week of Veganism

“Only when the last tree has been cut down; only when the last river has been poisoned; only when the last fish has been caught; only then will you find that Money cannot be eaten.” ~ Cree Indian Prophecy

My third day into my new lifestyle, I thought I was dying. I have always been a healthy girl rarely getting sick, so when I awoke in the middle of the night not being able to breathe through my nose, I thought it was quite strange but I did not put much thought into it and tried to go back to sleep.  When I woke up the next morning I had severe nausea, my nose was completely stopped up and my throat hated me every time I had to swallow.

After skipping class to try an sleep off the cold, my nose was so clogged and when I had my mouth open, the air hit the back of my throat with a stinging vengeance making a nap quite an impossible task.  Being forced to stay awake,  I thought it would be a good idea to do some research as to why I was feeling how I was and to find information on my new vegan lifestyle.  To my amazement, there was an abundance of information to guide me step by step into this new regime.  Articles, videos, blogs, and websites explained to me why I was feeling how I was and that it was simply my body detoxing from all the junk I had fed it previously. http://www.rebelleepoque.com/2012/01/21/vegan-detox/ My internet research also showed me what NOT to do while being a vegan, how to spice up meals, and what would be my main food staples from here on out.

http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html#conversation

http://thecoolvegetarian.com/blog/

Some of the research I found allowed me to find a Katie Couric interview with Ellen DeGeneres discussing why she would always be vegan and what propelled her to stick with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSA2j4oiDA She recalled watching a movie called Earthlings and when asked if she had seen FoodInc as well, Ellen swiftly responded that FoodInc was a Disney movie compared to what you saw in Earthlings. http://earthlings.com/  I immediately jotted down the name in hopes of watching it in the future. Fortunately a quick google search showed me that I could watch the entire hour and a half movie on Youtube and that is exactly what I did.  I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to become more aware of how we are depleting the world of its natural resources and the inner workings of our slaughterhouses.  Many people fear losing their appetite or having disturbing mental images if they watch a film like this, but in actuality, movies like these should be played in schools for our children and educators to understand the damages our western diet has on our entire world and our bodies. Consciously disregarding the maltreatment of animals and the physical damage our planet has undergone on behalf of our western diet is simply horrifying and the movie Earthling does a good job at tackling what is going on and how we can change the system.

Starting off, I  purchased many fruits and veggies, carrot juice, some cereals, pastas, falafel, pita bread, crackers, and non dairy milk. Many people assume that i will be starving and forced to eat only fruits and veggies, but that is in no way the case.  I think it is quite important to have those staple foods in your regime that you can count on, but that is not all I can eat. After returning home with all my groceries, I remember seeing fruit and vegetables at my parents house and thinking how annoying it would be to peel, slice, cook, and prepare all that food, so I rarely ate it even when I wanted it. Now living on my own, I had the brilliant idea of peeling, slicing, and preparing all my food before for immediate snacking in order to cut down on preparation time in the future. It takes a bit longer after the grocery store, but for the week you will be using that food, it is well worth it and this deemed to be quite successful for me.  No more feeling sad that nothing was prepared, whenever I was hungry I could easily grab whatever I wanted and it was ready to go straight in my mouth.

 

Being in France,  they do not have all the comfortable commodities that us Americans are priveed to, like the joys of a plethora of dressings and various other things.  So I decided the cheaper and more effective plan was to make my own dressing which I did fairly easily.  As a study abroad student, I did not buy measuring cups and all that, so I just combined some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little big of mustard, some lemon juice and voila you have got yourself a yummy homemade dressing for pennies less than a manufactured dressing. I do not think I will ever buy salad dressing again especially knowing what kinds of unnecessary stuff they put in those bottled dressing.

These simple prep steps made my first week of veganism quite simple and smooth. Despite my night of terror, living a vegan lifestyle has been quite refreshing. While on this regime, I have realized that a Western Diet has conditioned us to believe we must consume food 3 times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I have found while eating vegan, I do not get hungry as often and I can be satisfied with only 2 meals a day. I eat when my body wants nourishment and energy, not when our man made watch tells us it is 12 pm and it is obligatory to have a massive lunch that does not even give you energy but makes you even more groggier than before. I believe if you are putting in the right type of food, your body can go longer with less because it has the energy from the healthy food you gave it.

All in all, week 1 of Veganism was a success and I look forward to seeing even more changes in the weeks to come.