Post #1!

I decided I felt like writing about vegan issues and plant-based diet nutrition enough that I should really start a separate blog to deal with this stuff, and leave the other for the more personal stuff. 

To those wondering what the heck I'm doing with myself lately, I'm basically devoting myself to learning home ec full-time. I’m also really enjoying cookbooks and trying new recipes. This is such hard stuff! I hope when I have kids that I’ll have the energy to focus on teaching them the home economics most people of my generation are struggling to teach themselves. It’s an often sneered at subject that occupies the center of most of our lives, like it or not. 

We see this as an investment in our finances, health and the health of our future family: my long term goals are to reduce spending on groceries and eating out, learn to garden and harvest my own produce, and have a solid enough understanding of nutrition, food and cooking that I can effectively teach others.

So, here it is. I’ll be sharing my process here: what I’m learning about nutrients, a balanced plant-based diet, the challenging (and the surprisingly not-challenging) stuff. (Giving up cheese? Easy. NEVER. WOULD HAVE. BELIEVED IT.)

So far, here’s what has surprised me the most:

All my life, and I mean ALL my life, I have fought a (mostly losing) monster battle against sugar cravings. Many have commented on the coincidental rhymings of “Mandy” and “candy,” given that wherever I am, candy isn’t likely to be too far from my side. When I was a kid and my dad indulged me for the two or three weeks a year I spent with him, I always had spending money and thus I always had a brown paper bag of candy by my side. My cousins knew this. They would seek me out instead of walking to the Amoco when they wanted a Now and Later.

I didn’t grow out of this like most people do. I tired, to some extent, of kiddie candy, but I still constantly was plagued by this desperate need for ice cream, cookies, chocolate.

Since I’ve gone vegan, and I swear on everything holy I am not making this up to sound like a Miracle Diet TV ad (this is not a diet—I eat plenty of fat and calories!)—the cravings are gone. Seriously. Just gone. Every night, at the time I’m used to craving sugar uncontrollably, I stop and think about it. I focus on my body and search high and low for the desperation. I think about ice cream, cupcakes, frosting, brownies. And while of course the memories of how these treats taste are pleasant ones, I find that I don’t want or need them every night anymore. This blows my mind. Sometimes when I find myself wanting sweets, I notice that after 3 squares of dark chocolate I really don’t want any more. Where in the past I would have inhaled the whole bar in one sitting.

Maybe it’s the increase in complex carbs—I’ve been determined to avoid the vegan pitfall of eating too many white carbs and not enough protein and have thus drastically reduced my white rice and pasta intake. I stick mostly to brown rice, quinoa, beans and lentils, and sweet potatoes for my carbs (these foods are not only complex carb sources, but also add significant amounts of protein to my diet). I know this helps with blood sugar issues. Or maybe I was secretly lactose intolerant all my life and never knew. I did have a bad dairy allergy as a kid but seemed to ‘grow out’ of it—maybe my symptoms simply hid themselves better.

Whatever the reason, I’m beyond thrilled. I would crave the sweets and give in, and they would be so satisfying, but inevitably leave me feeling sluggish—that ‘lead weight’ kind of exhaustion every day. It was awful.

Now my typical dietary day (which is a work in progress) looks something like this:

Morning: coffee. (gah, I’m going to have to cut this when I try to get pregnant, which is going to suck.) a handful of nuts, a nut bar, or peanut butter with crackers. fruit. I’d like to upgrade to doing green smoothies (fruit and greens) and add flax seeds to give me the omega-3s I’m no longer getting from fish or fish oil. That’s my next project.

Lunch: the weakest spot of my day. On a good day, sometimes I’ll heat up dinner leftovers. On a mediocre day I’ll eat a raw veggie or fruit. Sometimes I fall into letting myself starve and then pigging out on chips. Trying to avoid gluten and not eating meat has rendered my old lunch sandwich standby obsolete, and my poor little neural pathway just doesn’t know where else to lead me. My journey to improve my mid-day nourishment will be documented here.

Dinner: This is my forte. I love planning and cooking dinners. I’m learning, slowly but surely, how to blend flavors without the crutch of a recipe, and how to put together the foods I have leftover without wasting them.

A typical dinner at my house might be something like: a stir fry or curry with veggies and tofu over brown rice. Sauteed brussel sprouts with apples and pecans and a side of quinoa. Sweet potato tacos with peach salsa on corn tortillas. Cajun red beans and rice (a southern classic I’ve become addicted to since moving to Mississippi). Sauteed mushrooms with wild rice. Chickpeas and spinach, modified and made the easiest thing ever from a pinterest recipe. Occasionally I’ll indulge in Thai-style spicy peanut sauce noodles (brown rice pasta; usually Tinkyada brand). YUM. My next dinner goal is to learn how to make vegetarian sushi (with seaweed wraps) and do it once a week, to increase sea vegetable intake (awesome source of vegan calcium, and satisfying ocean flavor for the former fish eater).

I also love being creative with salads and try to eat a big one before dinner—I love kale salads with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, sometimes with bell pepper and onion chopped in, with a lemon juice, olive oil and Bragg Aminos dressing (equal parts). A new favorite I just discovered—avocado, raw red onion, and half a sweet grapefruit (including all the juice) on top of greens. OMG. Sounds weird, but just believe me and try it. If the grapefruit isn’t quite sweet enough, I’ll drizzle just a teensy, TINY bit of agave on top. A little bit goes a long way. Like, runs a freaking marathon of sweetness long way.

Supplements: 5000 of Methyl B-12 daily. I use Jarrow Formulas and dissolve it under my tongue ($13 for 60 lozenges on Amazon). This, I’ve found through quite a bit of research, is the most important thing any vegan or vegetarian should do for their long-term health. B-12 is an essential nutrient and it’s only found in animal products—in significantly lower amounts in eggs and dairy than in flesh. It’s tough to absorb enough orally as it is, and drugs such as hormonal birth control will deplete your body of its stores, so even animal eaters should be cautious and ask to get your level checked with your annual blood work. I noticed from day 1 of taking my supplements that my anxiety, which had been increasing in intensity at an alarming rate in recent months, was immediately under control.

I need to add D3 from a vegan source (hard to find) and maybe omega-3s from flax as well.

I'll do fancier recipes with pictures and such in the future... but this was a long one on its own. So for now, a quick favorite weeknight dinner for my fellow mushroom worshippers:

Cook up some organic wild rice (I buy the bulk mixture at my local co-op) in vegetable broth instead of water (low or regular sodium, depending on your personal salt preferences).

Sauté ½—1 lb of mushrooms (whatever kind/s you like; slice larger varieties) in 1 tbsp coconut oil. Add 1 tsp or so of dried or fresh thyme and salt to taste when mushrooms are mostly done.

Mix up mushrooms and rice. Serve with side salad of your choice. Done!