I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last blog - I have just been going about life as usual, this new eating style has seemed to just become a part of who I am, of what I do. I don’t really think about it too much, it has become a “just is” thing in my life.
I donated blood yesterday, as part of the process they test your cholesterol, my over all cholesterol is below 200, it is the lowest it has been in years (they only give the overall number not the breakdown of the various cholesterol components). From my history with the blood bank the only time my cholesterol as even been close to what it is now was a couple of years ago when I was strictly following the Weight Watcher's plan and exercising a lot, working in a hospital that has five or six floors in each building I was taking the stairs everywhere - up and down several times a day and now my level are even lower. I know that if I add more exercise back into my daily activities my level will be even lower still.
After eating out in various places with friends I have found that it has not been a problem to find something that I can eat. I have found a couple of Chinese and Thai restaurants that we frequent that have such an assortment of vegetarian/vegan alternatives that I am just going to work my way through their options to find out what I like best. I usually start with the dishes that I can't (or at least wouldn't) make for myself. I like to cook and try new things so I am also hoping to find new dishes to add to my menus at home.
Most of my friends are very supportive and don't really question what I am eating or not, one in particular has given me cookbooks that she found helpful for when she was on a Daniel Fast with the church and what she continues to follow as much as she is able. It is amazing how many have other friends and family that eat and live a vegetarian/vegan life-style and are supportive, even if this is not part of their current eating habits.
Last night one of my friends asked me if this means that we can never go to a BBQ place again? I told her of course not, all the ones we have normally had gone to have salads, potatoes, vegetables, they all have alternatives that I would eat. Sometimes I think people feel threatened by my eating style, kind of weird reaction, at this point I haven’t even suggested that they too follow this type of eating life-style.
Working in a medical setting I would have thought more of my co-workers would be more conscious of healthy eating habits - even if they did eat some meat/animal products - but they don't, most don't think about what they are eating or not eating. One of the nurses that I work with saw Dr Gupta's report on CNN and it was a real wake-up call for her. She has a strong family history of heart disease as well has having recently had her own heart related ailments. She started this new eating path, it will be interesting to see how well she does, how much her own disease is stopped and/or reversed. She was frustrated that no one had ever told her about all this before - and this is from a nurse who is awesome at her job - one I would trust to care for my own family, or myself.
There are now three of us, in the office, that are following this, or at least similar, eating plans. When lunch was brought into the office last week for a noon time meeting we requested a vegetarian alternative. They did bring us vegetarian options of a large salad with lots of veggies, steamed vegetables (even if they did put them in the same serving dish as the baked chicken, we appreciated the jester). They also had a non-meat pasta dish, it did contain some ricotta cheese, but it was nice that our request was seriously considered.
I get the same question as everyone seems to get - "How do you get your protein?" I inform them that I eat some tofu, plenty of beans, legumes, whole wheat pastas, brown rice and quinoa. But last week when the head nurse that I work with asked, her reply was that would never do for her, that if she has a blood test that tells her, her protein level is low then that means she has to eat some meat, a nice steak, and her protein levels are normal again. I want to know how she knows that it would never work for her to eat beans or tofu if she never tried, how does she know that her levels would never drop too low?
I will keep going on with my vegan/vegetarian life-style and let the evidence speak for its self.
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