Yesterday I hit the one month mark as a Vegan.
The Good: Way better sleep, I feel lighter, I am down 5.6 pounds, loving the new meals and extra energy in the gym. I feel a lot better mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
The Bad: Lots of cooking and washing dishes
🤣
😂 The Ugly: My skin is still breaking out
Overall though its been great. If I had it to do again I would have done a gradual change vs going cold turkey but yes one whole month since I accidentally turned Vegan lol When your sister the Doctor (of more than one species) says you should look at this documentary "What The Health" you do and mannnn I ain't looked back since! Funny I re-watched #WhatTheHealth with my husband who is going meatless for August with me and the animal cruelty was like a flash in the pan but I remembered it sooooooo much you couldn't tell me it wasn't the main focus
😂🤣 so it was good to re-watch it and really catch the rest of the information. The health implications and the environmental impact is really startling. The other hard pill to swallow is how long this information has been around annddd how the money trail explains it all. As Maya Angelou says "Once you know better you do better..." so that's where I am.The positives: The people that are supportive are super supportive. My friend Dawn has shared her veggies from Gather Baltimore and I have made some great food! And I share! Real community living now! My personal trainer and his fiancee had a pre-wedding cookout so those of us going to their destination wedding could meet before hand and she made a point to buy Vegan burgers for my husband and me! How sweet is that? They also cut up a ton of veggies and grilled it up for us! I mean that is SUPPORT! Love it! The burgers were really good too and she gave us the box to take home. Totally going to BJs to buy more! Restaurants are also very accommodating. Shout out to The W who modified a pizza for me last week!
The other positive there are a lot of vegans and vegetarians out there... many I know but didn't know or realize they were vegan.Even my maternal Grandmother
😲 How How cool is that? I have a lot of cousins that are either vegan or vegetarian as well so the concept is not foreign to me or my family so I think that's a plus. Even my husband was vegetarian at one point...chileeee and he even had dreads so you know he legit gets the honorary Jamaican status lol The online community is AMAZING. Its like a whole new world. I swear it's like The Matrix. The Black Vegan community is very strong and impressive not for their "accomplishments" but just how they are using their time on earth mostly outside of Veganism. Its dope. Its all about alignment. I was saying to my sister its like when I would not buy Stag beer in Trinidad because their slogan is "Stag... A man's beer!" I was SOOOOO offended! Like WHAT? I vote with my dollars and if its one thing I pride myself on its being consistent. I am very black or white when it comes to what I feel is right or wrong and so this has been a pretty easy change for me mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. There is an endless supply of resources out there and its been so informative.
If it was "just" for health I think it would be more of a struggle for me. This is not a diet for me. Health is a nice side benefit but honestly despite being overweight my cholesterol is under 100, my blood pressure is like 110/70 and all my other numbers are well within healthy ranges. My sugar number (Black I know lol) was higher than my doctor liked last year and my goal was to lose 20 pounds and she felt that would reduce that number, so I am looking forward to my annual physical in October.
I feel a lot more energy at the gym even though during the day I am napping more consistently lol I tend to be high energy except for inside the gym. I tend to drag myself around when I workout, now that may be mental but I have noticed I have way more energy to workout lately.I set a commitment to workout at least 35 minutes a day for the rest of the year when we were at day 146 from the new year. Yesterday was Day 15 of 146! I've gone over 100 days before so I know I can keep it up. I have been busy and still on track from New York for my 25th to DC to back home. I am making the time. I notice that I can go 90 minutes even when I plan to workout for just 35 minutes when I get there so that's great.
Knowledge is power. There is a lot of information out there and that's another positive I like learning and I'm still researching. While some think What the Health was too over the top... think about it even if what they said was half of the truth that is scary as hell!!!
The negatives: The people who have posted such anti/messy/ negative things I find totally bizarre. I've engaged some and its a good opportunity to dialogue. I think its a bit weird to care what another person eats or doesn't eat on both sides but no one likes feeling judged and if you are compassionate and passionate I get it. I'm not in the conversion business even when it comes to my faith. I'm Team Jesus but I know that's not for everyone but there are certain things that are Christ-like and I am striving to exhibit that if that brings someone to Christ cool I think I have done my part. Ultimately, if my sharing helps someone understand a bit more and cut back on eating so much meat and dairy for compassionate reasons and try a more Plant based diet that's great... if not, no judgement. We all have one life to live and we do the best we can.
A lot of people have emailed me about resources so I am going to list some of those things and in a different post I will do some sample menus. Below are a few documentaries, doctors and organizations where you can look things up and get more information. Click names below to go to the websites!
Netflix has:
What the Health
Forks Over Knives
Earthlings
Vegucated
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2
Doctors:
14 Vegan Doctors (Article)
Dr. Michael Greger M.D. - Awesome FREE resources
Neal Barnard, M.D., F.A.C.C
Kim A. Williams, Sr., MD First vegan Doctor to President of the American College of Cardiology
Bloggers:
Brown Vegan I purchased her Zero to Vegan training course! very informative!
Sweet Potato Soul great recipes
#BlackVegansRock a list of 100 Black Vegans
32 Vegans Celebrities
Well that's all for now! So I will check back soon with menus and restaurant reviews! Thanks yall!!
