To those of you who are crowding into gyms everywhere as part of your New Year's resolution to get fitter and healthier ... and causing the regulars to grumble because you're hogging "their" machines ... I say neener, neener. I have a six-month jump on you.
To those who have been eating healthfully since July or earlier, ugh ... feel free to tell me the same.
But hey. I have crawled back on the wagon after veering dangerously off the rails in the time leading up to the holidays -- then, going completely off the aforementioned rails during the holidays. On Jan. 2, I began a month-long vegan challenge.
You heard me right ... vegan. That way of eating that cuts out meat, dairy, eggs, and any food whose origins involve fauna.
You may recall that when I first returned to the gym in the summer, I wrote about unwrapping my mind from the ketogenic way of eating and rewrapping it around plant-based eating. At that time, the idea was giving up meat (along with sugar and bread). But give up meat, eggs -- the whites as well as the yolks -- and, like half-and-half? No way.
It took a while before I even learned the difference between vegetarian and vegan. When I did learn the difference, my attitude was pretty much "Hey, more power to the vegans. They have got to be Pod People" (double pun intended.) But, I reminded myself, I'd had some pretty tasty morsels and meals touted as vegan. Like those vegan cookies Hubby and I fell for years ago at Whole Foods and which certainly didn't taste egg-deprived.
Anyhoo, I recently began to face the fact that even though I still worked out faithfully five days a week, (1) I didn't feel as good as I thought I should be feeling and (2) wasn't as trim as I thought I should be for all my hard work, and I didn't want to simply chalk it up to it being tougher to lose weight after 50.
Then I began to notice the social-media posts from the Vegan Folk.
The Vegan Folk . . . several vegan Facebook and Instagram friends. At least a couple operate businesses by which they help people embrace this way of eating. One friend operated a vegan restaurant back in the day.
These friends diligently post pictures of their suppers, with descriptions and a wealth of hashtags underneath. My usual response was to hit the "like" button, then go back to chomping my half a cow or whole chicken or vat of cheese dip. But then I'd find myself thinking, Hmmm. This looks almost good enough for me not to miss meat or dairy.
So after reading up on the benefits of eating vegan, I took the plunge of a 30-day commitment ... gathering recipes, screen-shooting social-media pix, trying to read those doggone tiny food labels, and finding out the delightfully creative ways veggies and fruits can be mixed together and parlayed into rich, belly-filling meals. Who knew baked sweet potatoes topped with guacamole would be so good? And wow, just like with the keto world, cauliflower can be used to heal just about all food-deprivation wounds. And, what? Cashews are big in the vegan world? Yes!
Not that I've been perfect at this thing. Almost as much as sugar, dairy is basically the lustful, hands-wandering teenage boyfriend of the food world. If you tell dairy, "No. I don't want any milk, cheese or yogurt in my food," dairy will say "OK ... but how about just a little sodium caseinate?" This milk derivative "has been so altered the FDA does not consider it to be dairy," according to one vegan health blog. Although it's fine for vegetarians, strict vegans don't fool with casein. So much for "nondairy" creamer.
Then there's that flat-out, blatant devil perched on my shoulder, asking, "But what about cheese? Ahem, what about cheese dip? You know you prize it more than Golden Oreo cookies, honey buns, Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Crunch, and any brand of glazed doughnuts." I have decided to take the Scarlett O'Hara route. I'll think about spending the rest of my life -- well, the rest of this month, anyway -- avoiding cheese dip tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day. Today I'll make note of how I look and feel. And post my own vegan meals on Facebook and Instagram.
By Feb. 2, I hope to have traveled a victorious vegan voyage that has prompted another 30-day voyage ... and the flicking away of that shoulder-dwelling devil when it starts to ask, "But what about seafood?"
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Style on 01/12/2020