How I did it: Giving up animal products for me has been about listening to my body's reluctance to eat them!

When I was in college, I became wary of red meat and ate much less of it, until I was rarely eating it, then stopped eating it all together. Then I ate less and less chicken until I was eating it so rarely that it made me sick when I did. So that was it for meat!

At first I was a pasta and potato chips vegetarian, but I wised up and
started eating whole grains, veggies and fruits, and getting protein with each meal.

Which meant I was eating a lot of dairy and eggs. Not drinking milk straight, and not eating eggs where I could see the yolk, but lots of cheese and omelets. In my mind, since I wasn't eating meat, I was beating the odds on cancer and heart disease, and besides, I wasn't killing the cows or chickens to get the milk.

Then last summer, I became aware of how dairy was making me feel bloated and mucus-y. I decided to cut back. I started substituting soy milk for dairy in my protein shakes, and making sure that at least one meal a day was dairy free, then down to one meal with dairy a day. I ate less and less eggs - I became grossed out by them. I started juicing and eating more raw.

But I was still eating dairy. Then 3 months ago I read two books that finally gave me the "leverage" I needed: Skinny Bitch, which talks about the living conditions for milk cows and udder infections (eww!), and how all those hormones that are fed to cows to make them big and fat, make your body big and fat! And Eat to Live, which reports milk and those hormones make cancer cells big and fat!

So I picked a day and made that my last meal with dairy. And that was that! I went mostly sugar-free and wheat-free at the same time, so definitely had some detox as my body adjusted.

I don't eat much faux-meat or faux-cheese. I just enjoy meals from around the world that were made to be vegan: all kinds of lentils, beans, soy, grains, veggies and fruit - yum!

But I don't miss dairy or eggs at all, which is a pleasant surprise. I feel much lighter, cleaner and energetic on the surface level (clear skin, lower weight, all-day energy) and all the way down to my cells! And I feel good knowing that I am doing the right thing by animals and the planet.

Lessons & tips: Listen to your body.

Really think about where these foods came from, and what the animals had to go through to give it to you.
Think about how dead and processed meat, eggs and dairy are compared to living, glowing vegetables that you can eat right off the vine.

Get informed about the food chain, how eating vegan is much lighter on the earth, what happens to animals that are used for food, and what happens to your body when you eat them! Read up on vegan protein sources because that's what everyone's going to try to make you worry about!

Find delicious new recipes to crave. Google "vegan recipes" and enjoy zillions of new ideas! Eat out at non-North American restaurants - go try amazing dishes from India, China, Thailand, Ethiopia...

Be prepared for an adjustment period while your body detoxes - it means it's happy to be dumping crud from your cells!

Make sure you're getting lots of good food in you - veggies and fruits and beans and grains, not vegan junk food! Take a B12 vitamin daily - it's the only thing you can't get as a vegan.

Take your time, ease out of your old habits and into new ones, then at
some point draw the line and say "no more." You'll be glad you did!

Resources: Eat to Live - Joel Fuhrman
Skinny Bitch - Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman
Healthy at 100 - John Robbins
The China Study
Great fat-free Vegan Recipes
101 Reasons to Go Vegetarian
A different set of 101 Reasons!

Oct 22, 2008, 03:53AM PDT | 0 comments | 4 cheers