Evaluations and Transitions

It is day eleven of my vegan, no oil, lifestyle. I feel proud and am finally over the hump of the adjustment. I have learned a lot about making vegan meals and feeding myself so I’m not constantly hungry. I finally slept better last night too. I have seen patterns, my eating when I’m exhausted, my picking at the kid’s mac and cheese, hot dogs, and quesadillas. I have been tempted to fall back into these traps, but I have been able to abstain. I have weened the kids off these quick dinners for the most part, but sometimes I just don’t have it in me to make them a healthy meal that I know they’ll eat. I always serve fruit and raw veges on the side for them, but I do worry that maybe they shouldn’t eat that crap at all.

I realized yesterday what pressure it is to feed and take care of myself, in the healthiest way I can, and feed and take care of my husband and kids the healthiest way I can. It’s a lot of responsibility. I need to get the family trained better in helping me clean up after meal time. That’s phase two of this transition.

I always wanted to be a Vegan and have tried many times before, but never with any success. I’ve found it easy to be vegetarian. The crazy thing is as I look through my vegetarian cookbooks the recipes all need to be reworked. Most of the dishes include tablespoons of olive oil, cheese, nuts, and avocado. I realized I’ve been trained to look at the saturated fat content or trans-fat content in the food I consume. I was brain washed to think that if it was mono or poly unsaturated fat it was O.K., it was healthy. My husband passed an article to me yesterday, from the Huffington Post, https://www.graphic.com.gh/lifestyle/life/ghana-news-why-we-actually-need-to-eat-fat-in-our-diets.html

The article celebrated fats and recommended buying tons of avocados. I find this article very irresponsible. This is the exact information I have been following and look at me now. I’m one step away from having advanced heart disease. Several years ago, I was at my doctors after a cholesterol test that was too high, no where near where it is now, and he said no more avocados. I thought he was crazy! I love avocados, they are super healthy. I tried to cut back and found it difficult. I don’t remember talking about “Healthy oils”, but he said I needed to bring down my HDL too. Again, I thought he was wrong. HDL is healthy, right? Apparently not as healthy as we think!

I think it’s really hard to find reliable information. Right now I’m reading The Spectrum by Dean Ornish http://deanornish.com/ornish-lifestyle-medicine/ and http://www.dresselstyn.com/site/, How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. It’s ironic because my mom had a copy of an old edition of Dean Ornish on her book shelf. I found it after she died, and I tried to read it then but couldn’t follow it. I’m following the recipes in DR. Esselstyn mainly. I can’t get into the nutritional yeast, it tastes really disgusting to me! I’m also having a hard time with whole wheat pasta and the kids won’t eat it either.

I can’t wait to take my blood tests in two and a half months!  I’m feeling good, I’m getting healthy, I’ve lost four pounds!