Vegan doesn't always mean Healthy

So since we've decided to do the whole foods, live foods lifestyle, 'Vegan', I've had concerned people telling me about vegans that they've known who were fat and sick.  This isn't surprising at all.  What we don't think about when we hear Vegan is that you can be a healthy Vegan or an unhealthy Vegan.   Think about this,  A Vegan can still eat refined sugar, margarine, white bleached flour!  They can bake using an egg substitute and eat junk just as much as someone who is not a Vegan.  Think about Christmas Candy, regular candy, cookies, cakes, pies, White bread, PB&J sandwiches...and more....all that is Vegan.   So whats the difference in what we're doing?  

The Vegan Live/Whole food diet is:  Whole grains, no bleached flours or refined sugars, no processed foods, all live fruits and veggies.  We will do some cooked beans and rice and the boys will be more vegitarian than Vegan.   We will also incorporate fresh fruit and veggie juices, not the processed kind from the grocery store, we will use our electric juice extractor to make our juices. 

Vegitarian: can eat eggs, dairy, chicken and fish
Vegan: no animal products.

So think about it, could a Vegan who still bakes and eats all kinds of rich desserts, be fat and unhealthy?  Of course.   So we have to be careful when we throw all Vegan/Vegitarians in one pot, saying that they're not healthy and they're fat, and remember that anyone, Vegan or not can choose to be healthy or unhealthy.  It's all about our choices and habits that we form.

  

Vegan Pie                                                          Regular Pie

Both made exactly the same way!  LOL

Starting Slow

I haven't been able to get groceries yet...ie. Fresh Fruits and Veggies, so we're getting a slow start, but I did have a juice for Breakfast!  

1 sweet potato
1 apple
2 oranges

It was delicious, even my picky 8 year old liked it! 

Lunch was Chicken chili and cooked carrots.  And I finished off DS1's Cheese ball and DS2's hot cocoa. 

Thinking about beans for supper, not sure yet how I'm gonna make them, need to do a recipe search.

Vegan Baby Teething Biscuits

Oats & 'Naner Drops

1 c quick oats
1 c ground oats (grind oats and make a coarse oat flour)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon or ginger or cardamom (we'd try it with all 4 spices.)
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t baking powder
1 c (~2) overripe bananas, mashed
1 t vanilla extract
3 T oil of choice

Directions:

Mix dry, mix wet, add wet to dry. Drop by the spoonful onto parchment paper or greased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 min at 350. (adapted from a vegan cookbook)

I made these today.  I noticed our 6 month old has a tooth coming through, which explains his fussyness the last few days.   These of course will be put in his Fresh Food Feeder to prevent choking!

The Journey Begins

 
Growing up we ate pretty good, we grew most of our food, veggies, fruits, chickens.  But we still ate a lot of refined sugar and flour products.  And MILK!  I LOVE MILK!  

As a teen ager I started eating more and more junk food, pizza, chips, candy, cake, cookies, rich desserts were my favorites.  I got married at 24 and got pregnant 10 months later, only to gain 80# from my uncontrolable sweet tooth!   That weight wasn't all gone yet, but DH and I did a live food diet for a month and I lost 20# more than the 30 I'd already lost after the baby.  And then I was pregnant again, this time not eating as many sweets and didn't gain as much weight, but still too much, after our second son was born, we tried to eat healthy, but finally gave into the temptation of GOOD FOOD, or what we thought was good and decided to just enjoy life and eat what we wanted.   DH and I both continued being overweight.  We tried several different diets off and on, some worked temporarily, some didn't work at all.

At 35 and another baby later, I finally hit bottom and got sick of being sick.   For some time I have had no energy, been significantly overweight, had regular headaches and just felt sick a lot.  Also dealing with a hormone imbalance that caused a whole raft of problems, including cronic acne on my arms and thighs.  I was finally ready to so whatever it took to feel GOOD and be ALIVE again.

A friend told me about the documentary "Forks over Knives", I watched and was wowed at what I'd been doing to my body for all these years.  It's time to make a change.   I started watching other documentaries and researching the live food Vegan diet.   One documentary that really wowed both DH and I was "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead".   Joe and Phil's journey to health, healing and getting off of so many meds was amazing! 

And here we are, ready to get started with the New Year on a Live Food Vegan lifestyle, along with Juicing.  

Today I am Fat and Sick:

On my 35th birthday with my middle son, Jadrian.