Sensibly and Slowly

I had a lot of unexpected negative pushback on going vegan as a family. It's not healthy for kids. They need milk for their bones to grow. They need meat. Lots of protein. You need protein or you'll get low energy, and calcium to keep from getting osteoporosis. Since that first day, though, we've received a lot of advice, and hopefully we'll be able to make this change. Slowly...

Seeing as we had a whole fridge and freezer full of food we bought before watching Forks Over Knives, we decided to do this sensibly and slowly. We are still eating meat but have greatly decreased the amount and frequency. Sometimes we have dinner with no meat or eggs or cheese, but it is not very often yet. Last night's dinner was scrambled eggs and spinach. Dairy - stopped giving the kids milk to drink at every meal (unlearning the food pyramid). Now they are delighted to share my vanilla soy milk. It is a little sweeter than skim milk b/c it has added sugar, but it's organic and similarly thick like milk. We're going to make our way through a pound of Gorgonzola we bought a couple weeks ago and then call it quits on cheese, or at least try to call it quits.

I figured out the reason for the title of the movie (Forks Over Knives) , while I was emptying the dishwasher two days ago (1 week late on catching the meaning). Knives - you really mostly use them for eating meat. Ah-hah. Now I get it. I'm way too serious.

Even though we decided to make the switch slowly, it was in the back of my mind, those images of the cancer cells growing in my body when I ingest animal protein... But the images didn't stop me from eating a couple pieces of bacon and some ham. The ham didn't taste very good - too salty (now that's two steps in the right direction, lower sodium and no meat). The chicken fingers were pretty good, but again not great. What am I going to do the next time we go out to eat, and the only vegetarian/vegan option is a side dish? I'll have to make sure we go to a better restaurant, I guess. Speaking of better restaurants...Mc Ds makes perfect sense right here.

We made a trip to Mc Ds, where I managed to eat a grilled snack wrap, but it didn't taste good at all, gave me an "it's all in your head" stomach ache, and I didn't even feel like I had consumed anything of value, not even calories. I vow to eat only a hot fudge sundae or french fries the next time we end up there. With little kids, it is bound to happen! They love Mc Ds, especially because of the playground. And the Happy Meal.

My mother in law, Peggy, has already given me 6 vegan recipes. Soon Dan and I will be ready to venture there. We can do this. We bought some Boca burgers, which I tried to eat last night, but they taste yucky alone. (Probably not actually considered good by the Forks Over Knives docs either, since they're processed food.) They're probably good in tomato sauce with pasta. The last time I tried eating vegetarian, I ate them on a bun and with ketchup and mustard, and they were ok. I've had a little trouble with low energy, but surely it's just a lack of imagination in meal planning. I want this to be easy. It will not be easy.

One more thing - what to do about the kids and school food? We're not ready yet, to make lunch for them every day. For the next year probably, they'll keep eating school food. Maybe they'll continue eating school food after that, too. I would hope that through eating the vegetarian or vegan diet (whichever plateau we are able to hit here) at home, the kids will learn lifelong habits to keep from fulfilling a cancer, diabetes, or heart disease statistic. Good for all of us. The first step to change the habits of a country is to start small, so we'll start with our family.