At this point, I am vegetarian while observing an almost-exclusively vegan diet. I say "almost" because there are certain suspiciously non-vegan products which I have not yet eliminated from my daily intake primarily because they were purchased, already open and needing consumption from prior to my dietary change. Products such as Skippy or Jif brand peanut butter, for example. My first step has basically to begin to purchase vegan-only products for future consumption. This causes the same shift to happen in your purchasing that will eventually happen in the consumption - add the good to filter out the bad naturally.
Certainly there has been a sense of loss. Some of my favorite foods are no longer "available" to me. The toughest mental challenge is accepting that I do not want them, but could eat them if I really wanted to. I simply choose 'Not' to have them. Then again, with pizza being my numero uno guilty pleasure I certainly have no choice but to abandon aforementioned favorites; adult onset lactose intolerance decided that for me. However, nothing says I couldn't choose to just eat some; I would just be choosing to suffer as well.
The mental drain of constantly fighting to choose what to eat, and what not to, is most likely the number one challenge. Trying to scramble to figure out something to eat at the end of a work day was proof as to why the prepared food industry thrives despite the nutrient vacant quality of 99% of the products out there. Simply put, its "too much work" to be healthy, for most people. Planning ahead is key.
Then there are the physical withdrawal symptoms. Beyond the caffeine reaction, I've had a sugar decompression sickness that left me with headaches, waves of nausea, bloating and a number of other unmentionables none of which I want to endure. So the big question is,"Why am I experiencing withdrawl symptoms if there was nothing wrong with mainstream food I had in my diet?"
Let's just say there is nothing wrong with it, in which case, I am certainly questionable for going against the flow of general society, and nothing proves that more than the reactions one gets when making the statement,"I'm (going) vegan."
The reactions are almost priceless.
See, I've decided to go against the grain, to speak both proverbially and literally. It's almost like Dorothy choosing to follow the Red Brick road.
In reality, maybe Dorothy would have been better to follow that route? Who decided she really needed to go see the Wizard in Oz? That road was littered with risk and fraught with danger. What if the red brick road went to the GO station, and she could have hopped an L-Train to Oz? We'll never know.
See, the way I figure it, I can choose whatever road I want in life; this really is just a race against myself. The question is merely which route do I want to take. None are predetermined. No route is guaranteed. The destination is final - but we won't argue about where that is on this blog, that's a different site.
What I can tell for sure, just two weeks in, is that I feel considerably better already. I have more energy. I am sleeping better. I enjoy the (new) foods I am eating. And if I truly detoxed leaving the mainstream foods, did I really just spend 35+ years on a dark path?
Now, there is no proof that I can tangibly put down on paper. What I can say is that a particular farmer featured in the documentary Fresh explained it in a way that makes absolutely the most sense to me. Joel Salatin, a homesteader in TN, was featured indepth. His farming style is simple: re-enact the migratory patterns of livestock in the wild and let nature take its course. Everything is a cyclical.
Salatin grazes his livestock in sections on the farm, cycling them from one grazing paddock to the next. Each day they basically move on to greener pastures. Just like they would have prior to domestication, or if left unattended on a large field (and by that I mean, not stacked side by side in a mud pit as is seen on typicaly revenue-driven mass meat farms). After the cows have moved on, the chickens are brought in. Their natural pecking and fertilization happens. And so continues the cycle.
The cows are fed naturally occurring greens. They move on, leaving behind pure, organic fertilizer whch is sorted and processed by the chickens. What's left after the chickens is easily broke down and reabsorbed back into the soil to continue again.
Rinse. Repeat.
Now, I'm not a farming guru by any means (Although I did run a mean streak on Farmville!) but I have to tell you that Salatin's process makes sense. After all, I'm pretty sure with just a minor effort I'll find this migrating-grazing technique is pretty standard going right back to Laura Ingalls' day's On The Banks Of Plum Creek, and beyond. It Just. Makes. Sense. It's all about the Roaming capabilities of your livestock, never mind your cell phone. I can't even BEGIN to explain the part about population percentage-to-area ratios.
Compare that to the stall-kept, hormone-fed, over-stimulated milk and beef cattle that are processed for mainstream consumption, at the end of that yellow brick road - and by yellow, I do mean gold - because obviously big Agro biz is all about gold in the coffers and not the quality. Or the wellness.
Never mind the reaction people have to me ditching the low-quality food. Why don't I have a reaction to them insisting on staying on the bad stuff? I'm starting to believe that I am going to end up extremely flustered as to why people would blindly consume what they don't truly know about. After all, the latest news flash today was that there is potentially an artificial calamari on the market that is actually pig rectum. Now this report seems he-said-she-said and likely a hoax, but the fact that we should be reassured that this would be no worse than standard process meats is unnerving. As stated, there is always a likelihood that typical sausage and processed meats already contain fecal matter as a standard ingredient anyhow! And in the US, the FDA even has guidelines to allow for it. Yum!
The simple fact is, big business farming goes against natural processes and laws of nature.
So back to my question of my detoxing. What if this IS the red brick road. And what if it's not easier and in fact, actually harder, but healthier? And what am I missing? I have not even begun to tackle the tougher change in living vegan: personal hygiene products, clothing, and so on. Naturally, the second topic to tackle after the kitchen is the bathroom, as I'll strive to swap out deodorants, toothpastes, soaps and other health-related items to eliminate the mainstream brands that presumably alter my bio-chemical wellness. Tough terrain ahead, I don't doubt.
I may be underestimating this life change in choosing paths to follow, but so far, the benefits are worthwhile. Now, to stay the course!
Grazefully yours,
FatGuy
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