Food: Part II

Okay, so back to mid-December. After reading the pro-vegan "Skinny Bitch" I thought to myself, I can commit to this for a minimum of four months right? My first hurdle was to give us coffee. I admit I had been thinking of doing that for a least a month prior anyway. I never drank a lot of coffee anyway, I mostly had half a cup which would be reheated over and over until late morning when I would finally dump it down the drain. But just giving up that small amount gave me a dull throbbing headache for nearly three days. Once I realized that even that small amount of coffee was affecting my body so strongly, I realized that a lot of the food I was eating was in fact toxic.

I optimistically gave up meat, all meat, even chicken. And then not so optimistically, dairy, which was pretty hard for me. Actually, for most people giving up dairy is hard. I tried some of the replacement products that the book recommended, but it was disgusting. Of course, I made Alec try it too, and he said, "This may be the most disgusting thing I've eaten in years." So, I wasn't able to completely rid myself of dairy, but I cut way way back. No more huge glasses of milk or snacking on slices of cheese. Rather than replace what I had been eating with soy products that had been processed to resemble that food, I wanted to really change what I ate and cooked. So the vegetables were in. Vegetables have never been popular with me. In fact, I think there were actual YEARS of my life when I barely ate any. I never bought them (they only rotted in the bottom of my fridge). When I was pregnant with Nora was the first time in my adult life I remember eating veggies regularly (thanks Alec!). Once I decided to eat more veggies, I was on the search for fresh local, organic produce. I also wanted to be forced to try new vegetables that were outside my usual (limited) range. This led me to Fairview Gardens and their fantastic CSA program.

As I started cooking vegetables instead of meat-centered meals I was completely impressed by how Good the food tasted. I am now convinced that cooking meat is difficult (that is why restaurants are so much better at it than home cooks, ie Me). Whenever I cooked meat it was so all-consuming that I rarely made a side dish and it was a miracle if it was ready at the same time as the meat. Consequently, we often had a meat-only dinner and that meat was never really cooked well. Once my focus shifted to veggies, I'd make three or four different kinds and they were amazingly good. Even Alec agreed, though he mourned the loss of his kielbasa and tri-tip. I started making more and more complex vegetarian meals, lasagnes and galletes. The cooking took longer and without Alec keeping the kids busy I could not have done it. But, we all started feeling healthier and I started to lose a lot of weight.