Living Without Meat

As my juice fast was coming to an on Sunday, my teeth were restless. All I wanted to do was chew something!

My morning started out with a breakfast juice of an orange and a couple of carrots. For my first snack, I made a digestive aid using 4 large carrots, some jicama, and half of a pear.

After these two juices, I was so ready to never see a carrot again, but equally enticed by the recipe that I had picked out for a cold carrot soup for lunch. I juiced a few carrots, then blended it with an avocado and some cumin. It was so creamy and satisfying, but I really wanted a cracker or piece of bread to go along with it. I stayed strong though.

The mocktail for happy hour was fantastic! With the juice of one tomato, half a cucumber, some fresh cilantro, and a chunk of lime, it created a fun version of a Bloody Mary.

Then it was time to drink dinner: a juice blend of apples, spinach, parsley, and lemon that is meant to target the colon’s cleaning needs. I am surprised to say that this was my favorite drink of the day. It was light and refreshing. However, for the first time during the day I felt hungry and headachy. It was the least fulfilling … I may have had a little homemade hummus with carrots and celery at this point.

Drinking so much juice, I wasn’t really thirsty and only finished about one tall glass of water. I did, however, brew a pot of detox tea and sipped it throughout the day.

To round the whole day out, I treated myself to a tropical taste of pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, and ginger juice, blended with a touch of soy milk and some ice cubes.

In the end, it wasn’t a whole day of nothing but juice, but there is no denying that I had a very healthy day, offering my body a replenishment of nutrients.

I have always wanted to do a day of only fresh juice, but have never buckled down and actually done so. But with all of the birthdays, picnics, and celebrations going on this time of year, I am finally planning a fresh juice fast for this Sunday, followed by light raw vegan foods and more juice on Monday.

Today’s mission is grocery shopping in preparation.

MY JUICE FAST GROCERY LIST:

**All organic if possible**

* 5 red delicious apples
* 1 green apple
* 3 vine-ripened tomatoes
* 2 kiwi
* 1 pineapple
* fresh ginger
* 1 pack celery
* 20+ carrots
* 1 head romaine lettuce
* beets with greens
* 1 pear
* 1 avocado
* cumin
* 1 cucumber
* fresh cilantro, basil, and parsley
* 1 lime
* 1 lemon
* 1 orange
* 1 grapefruit
* 2 bunches of spinach

From a juicing book that I snagged at the Dollar Tree, I have a lot of great sounding recipes planned out for the day including a chilled juice soup and a bloody Mary mocktail.

Check back on Sunday for specific recipes and more.

I once had a doctor ask me “How do you get your exercise?”

“I walk. A lot,” I replied.

“No. I mean exercise. Walking doesn’t really count.”

While impressed that a general practitioner would take the time to ask a patient about their workout habits, I have been forever disturbed by her disbelief in walking as exercise.

I was reminded of this instance recently as a coworker and I have been chatting about walking lately. We both take our half an hour break to walk around outside. But this week she stepped it up a notch: she’s been wearing a pedometer … and she has an extra one that she gave to me!

Today is my first day counting my steps to a healthier system. Yesterday, said coworker topped 11,000 steps. The recommendation is at least 10,000 per day.

Game on! Here I go … (”walking down the street/ I get the funniest looks from/ everyone I meet”)

***

A pedometer is a small mechanism that clips to the waistband of your pants, and keeps track of how many steps you take. It counts by tracking each bounce created by your hips, so take it off when riding in the car.

For a free pedometer of your own, join Tylenol Arthritis Pain Relief’s Keep Moving Program and receive one along with a DVD.

Step counters are also available for purchase at sporting goods, health, and other stores. If you spend more money, you get more reliability and more functions (such as calories burned, time, etc.).

With exotic health foods becoming trendy, I have noticed that I don’t know how to pronounce some of the things that I am eating. So I will use my ignorance and a bit of research to clarify a few pronunciations, and while I’m at it I’ll tell you what exactly they are.

* Açaí (assai) : a small, round, blackish-purple, palm fruit used with increasing frequency in juices and teas. This nutritionally packed fruit shows high concentrates of fiber, good fatty acids, phytosterol (a cholesterol reducer), protein, and antioxidants. (Shown in picture, click to check out a site all about the acai berry.)

* Cacao (kuh-kah-o, also kuh-key-o): a vegan’s delight! Cacao is the plant from which cocoa and chocolate come. When cacao is the ingredient, this means that you are getting pure, raw chocolate - no milk added (unless also listed as an ingredient).

* Goji berries: this one needs an explanation just for the name. Most cultures actually call this little red fruit a wolfberry. The origin, and thus pronunciation, of “goji” is uncertain. Possible connections would suggest gou-qi, but people probably won’t know what you mean unless you say go-gee.

* Quinoa (keen-wah): the part we eat are tiny seeds from this grain plant. It cooks up similar to rice or couscous, but with a chewier texture. Protein content is extremely high, and it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids which is rare for such a grain. It’s gluten-free and a good source of iron, fiber, magnesium, folate, and phosphorus.

Recently I came across an archived article, titled “Should You Become a Vegetarian? Think Before You Eat,” from Ebony magazine’s July 2003 issue. It’s a good read, and good press coverage of a vegetarian diet, but I’ve devised a quicker way to decide if you should become vegetarian or not.

Answer each question with a yes or no:

1. Do you want to be healthy?

2. Do you like living animals?

3. Do you respect your body?

4. Do you believe that you are what you eat?

5. Do you feel that no creature should live a life of torture, confinement, abuse, and general mistreatment?

6. Do you like to eat delicious, nutritious, colorful food without feeling guilty?

7. Do you want to feel physically, mentally, and emotionally better?

8. Do you hate touching and preparing raw meat?

9. Do you want to be trendy and jump on the green-friendly or educated-consumer bandwagon?

10. Do you want to be in the company of celebrities like Paul McCartney, Carrie Underwood, Kristen Bell, Emily Deschanel, and Tobey Maguire?

If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, then you should become a vegetarian! (And if you answered yes to all of them … what are you waiting for?!)

Every time a vegan child passes away, or is found to be quite sick, the diet “forced” on them by their parents is blamed in the newspapers and by the law.

With previous headlines like “Death by Veganism,” and current quotes like, “the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet needed to be highlighted,” the media’s point of view on this subject is fairly clear.

The most recent case takes place in Scotland, with a 12-year-old girl and her vegan parents.

The girl was taken to the hospital recently, and found to have severe bone issues - rickets, degenerative spine, and several that had been broken over her life. Her health problems were decided to connect to a lack of Vitamin D, which you can get your daily dose of just spending time in the sun.

But her “strict meat and dairy-free diet” is getting the blame.

If she had not been vegan, the conclusion would have been different, not blamed on diet at all. Lack of sun and broken bones? Sounds more like a physical abuse case to me. Or, perhaps the girl has a illness that effects her bones.

Regardless of what’s to blame, there is a 12-year-old girl in bad health and the doctors can’t look past her diet, which may or may not have anything to do with it all.

When Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Super Size Me came out in 2004, and gained instant fame with it’s coveted win at the Sundance Film Festival, I thought: it’s a cool idea to film your demise while eating nothing but McDonald’s food for one month, but I don’t need to watch it because I don’t eat fast food.

Boy was I wrong! This movie was phenomenal!

To begin, I had no idea that his girlfriend was a vegan chef. Having been eating her healthy, delicious cooking for so long, it’s no wonder Morgan tosses his fries when trying to eat his first super-sized meal.

But here’s where the shamelessness comes into play. If my review of this movie gets the most “I Like this Review” clicks on the social/movie site Jaman, then I win $1,000 from Whole Foods!

So if you have a second, won’t you please head over to Jaman - an online, social, movie-interest community - and check out my review of Super Size Me? My username is “SallyAndersen” and my review is all about sex. Seriously.

I sang that in elementary school, and remember it clearly to this day.

Upon starting a 9 to 5 office job I picked up a coffee habit, drinking a minimum of one large mug of coffee with soy milk per day. As I continue reading Skinny Bitch, I have had a maximum of one coffee drink per week for the last three weeks.

I feel great. Coffee really isn’t for me.

What if you couldn’t afford to feed your family? What if your parents were out of work and couldn’t provide you with a hot dinner every night? What if you still wanted to eat good, vegetarian food?

This Saturday, May 10, is the 16th annual largest single-day food drive in America. It’s time for Campbell Soup Company and the National Association of Letter Carriers to team up once again in their efforts to Stamp Out Hunger!

All that you have to do is put non-perishables such as boxed and canned goods in a sturdy bag, and set it next to your mailbox before your mailman arrives this Saturday.

Food drives like this are a tremendous help, but they collect a lot of chicken broth, meat-flavored rice mixes, Spam (canned ham), and meaty soups. What if we provide vegetarian goodness for those who need help filling their plate? Just because someone is in need, does not mean that they can’t be smart enough to choose a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Let’s help them!

This weekend, put out some or all of these items:

*Canned vegetables, beans, fruits, and potatoes (2 for $1 at the Dollar Tree)

* Box of tofu and soy milk that don’t need refrigeration until open

* Peanut butter

* Sealed container of nuts and trail mix

* Vegetarian soup … better yet, try to find some vegan ones

* Rice and bean box mix

* Healthy grains such as granola cereal, whole wheat/veggie/semolina pasta, crackers, and brown rice

* Tea bags, in a box

* Dried beans, lentils, and other legumes

* Ener-G egg replacer, TVP, and other vegan staples

* Jars of pickles, asparagus, beans, beets, fruit salad, salad dressing, jelly, baby foods, and more

I’m a little late to the game with appreciating the New York Times Bestseller Skinny Bitch, but I love it! During my morning commute today I learned about the evil sugar substitute aspartame (I take public transportation; I was not reading while driving!).

I love the comical, straight-forward way that Skinny Bitch is written - you should definitely check out the book. But for now, here are just the facts, incorporated from the vegan-in-disguise bestseller and my own additional research.

What is aspartame?

* It’s a chemical compound that is 180 times as sweet as sugar, but has no calories or “sugar rush.”

* It was accidentally discovered by a chemist who was working on an ulcer drug.

* Equal and NutraSweet are aspartame. Also, many products such as diet sodas contain it.

Why is aspartame bad?

* Once ingested, it turns to formaldehyde, a neurotoxin, that in turn preserves your fat.

* It’s method of being approved by the FDA was highly suspicious and controversial.

* There are over 92 known side effects, including headaches, weight gain, brain tumors, brain lesions, seizures, depression, and lymphoma.

* The FDA originally denied it eight times. After offering jobs to opposing parties, the aspartame team finally (sort of) won.

* There are aspartame victim support groups.

* The company has been blatantly misleading with consumers, advertising that it is “natural” when it is not.

* It alters your body’s natural PH balance.

* Although promoted as a great alternative for Diabetics, the health risks associated with it outweigh the benefits for people with Diabetes.

* Several lawsuits have been filed claiming that aspartame is poisoning the public.

What are the alternatives?

* Equally as bad alternatives include: refined sugar (hidden animal product alert: refined sugars are often processed with charred animal bones), Splenda, Sweet & Low, and high fructose corn syrup.

* Better alternatives are: Stevia, evaporated cane juice, raw sugar, beet sugar, date sugar, maple syrup, molasses (hidden animal product alert: syrups and molasses that are not 100 percent pure may contain lard), barley malt syrup … the list goes on and on.

The newest way to lower your blood pressure and become a healthier you, according to several American organizations including the National Institutes of Health, is to follow Maria Heller’s book-and-diet plan known as the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet plan.

Reporting success with weight loss as well, the DASH plan lays out meals under a new food pyramid that includes more plant-based nutrition.

… hmm …. to me, this sounds like my diet plan six months before going vegetarian: slowly backing away from eating meat; increasing veggie and fruit consumption; finding new and better ways to fill your belly, and get plenty of protein.

Check out the Top 10 DASH Diet Tips. You’ll find not one mention of meat. Plus, replace the word “skim” with “soy” and you’ve got one healthy vegan diet, my friends!

Top 10 DASH Diet Tips

1. Use grocery store salad bars for lots of cut up fresh vegetables.

2. Frozen vegetables make it easy to add 2 or more servings of veggies to your meal.

3. Double up on veggies. A serving is 1/2 cup, so a full cup makes 2 servings.

4. Berry-licious is having fresh berries on your cereal.

5. Nonfat fruit yogurt, artificially sweetened, makes a wonderful snack or quick breakfast.

6. All nuts are heart healthy. Making yours salt-free boosts their DASH benefits.

7. Some convenience foods make your DASH diet great. Look for bagged ready-to-eat cut up veggies, like baby carrots, broccoli sprigs, lettuce, cabbage slaw, broccoli slaw, cauliflower tops, etc.

8. Make your plate colorful. Add 1 - 2 cooked vegetables and a side salad with more than just greens.

9. Make your coffee a latte with 8 ounces of skim milk.

10. Smoothies made with skim milk, fresh fruit, and no added sugar make a fast way to maximize the DASH potential of your diet.

To learn more about the DASH Diet, including purchasing info, click on the picture above.

According to recent research studies and reports from Swedish Research Council, and specifically the Karolinska Institutet, scientists believe that “a gluten-free vegan diet may improve the health of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.”

The research confirms that following a gluten-free, vegan diet promotes cardiovascular health. Reports also made a connection to the study participants’ vegan diet having a “positive effect on symptoms of the disease.”

Check it out in a March 18 Swedish news article, translated to English.

Brad’s Deals is a coupon code Web site and so much more (read all about it *here*).

Now … let’s all gather around and send a big “thanks” to Brad’s Deals for offering up a sale hint that also happened to be a tip for vegans who want to avoid the pale and pasty stereotype.

Gaiam Sunless Tanning System, originally $179, is now on sale for $59.99. With the coupon code (CCAB, expires 6/30) that Brad’s provides you can take off an additional 15%, making the price just $50.99.

But this is not your average spay-on, sunless tanner.

“True to the Gaiam theme,” says Brad Wilson of Brad’s Deals, “this is a plant-based solution.”

That’s right! This set that includes an applicating mister, tanning solution, exfoliating polish, moisturizer, and balm is vegan!

Go for it: be tan, break stereotypes about vegans. Do it all without getting skin cancer.

Here are a few brief headlining articles that work their magic as PR for animals, vegetarianism, and healthy goodness in general.

Enjoy! (Links are in the bold text)

* CNN Living provides a great look at both sides of the declawing debate, speaking to PETA, Humane Society, and a pet owner who recently declawed her cats.

* CNN Money was in on the game, too, with an announcement of a new soy milk product put out by Canada’s best-selling soy brand, So Good.

* Michigan , Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio faces a 2,000+-pound chicken recall, reports All Headline News. Meijer Inc. recalled their Discovery Cuisine Red Curry Chicken and Jasmine Rice after the U.S.D.A. reported suspecting listeria (a harmful bacteria) in the product.

* redOrbit takes from a BBC News report and studies at University of Minnesota to conclude that eating breakfast every day gives you a slimming edge over your peers. But my mom already knew this.

* Yahoo! News covers medical studies about, and one mother’s direct experience with, the ability for diet to impact - both positively and negatively - hyperactivity and ADHD.

I made something this week for the arts and crafts class that I lead at my local community center that I think you will love!

I call it “Miss Green Clean,” but you are welcome to just refer to it as an all-natural spray cleanser.

My inspiration came from Craftbits’ Antibacterial Yoga Mat Spray; although, I, of course, did not really follow the recipe.

Whip yourself up a batch and spray down doorknobs, light switches, and toddler toys to ward off germs. Then make a few extra to give as gifts: to the hostess, along with a “get well soon” card, or for a housewarming.

MISS GREEN CLEAN

You will need:

* Rubbing alcohol
* Clear vinegar
* Water
* Tea tree oil (a natural antiseptic)
* Essential oil (take allergies into consideration!)

* Spray bottle
* Sharpie permanent markers

1. Decorate and label the spray bottle. Be sure to list the ingredients on it if you are going to give it away. Consider making fill lines so that the recipient can make more when they use it up (i.e. draw a line 1 inch from bottom and label it vinegar; 1 cm above that, label a line alcohol; etc.).

2. Funnel in about: 1/4 cup vinegar, 3 Tbs. alcohol, 1 tsp. or 12 drops of tea tree oil, and 1 tsp. or 12 drops of a scented oil (I found a tea tree-lavender blend at GNC).

3. Fill the bottle almost to the top with water. Tightly screw the top on, give a little shake, and go spray crazy!