Many of you might be wondering why. Why start this "radical" change now? No, I am not doing it because I am a member of PETA, although I do LOVE animals...and I'm not doing it to be cool. I am doing this for health reasons.
I recently watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives (completely streamable on Netflix, just FYI). It was recommended to by my uncles girlfriend, who just became a vegan herself this past year. Now, I usually not one to be easily persuaded but this documentary was pretty compelling. It discusses the health benefits of a whole grain, fresh fruit and vegetable diet and shows the correlation between higher meat and dairy consumption and disease rates such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. It also discusses how diet can help cure disease.
After watching the documentary, I decided that I should at least give this a try. Now, I am young and healthy (just had a physical a month ago and all my labs including cholesterol is fine), but like millions of other Americans I could stand to lose about 25lbs. I am not obese, but am slightly overweight. Also, diabetes is very prevalent in my family and I have seen it's effects first hand. I want to do anything and everything to prevent getting that disease. My big plan is to transition to veganism...very slowly....using multiple steps. First give up red meat, then pork, then poultry, then fish, then try and give up dairy.
So today began giving up beef. This is probably the easiest step for me. I really don't eat too much beef, unless it's in a hamburger or spaghetti sauce.... Yesterday, on New Years Eve, I had my last hamburger. It was great...Had everything on it! See picture below...I will definitely miss those.
I also went to the grocery store and bought healthier foods. Lots of veggies and even some Quinoa...I've never cooked with it before but heard that it's pretty good and high in protein. Anyway, any encouragement, tips, recipes, etc would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.
