Moving Forward

This baby, almost-but-not-quite-total vegan needs to move forward to totally vegan. I realize that I have to learn how to say, "No, thank you." when I'm with friends who have tried, but not quite hit the vegan mark. For me, that's difficult. It's also difficult for me to say no when the deed has already been done. If there's a casserole that has dairy or eggs in it, I usually eat some of it. I'd like to think that it's out of being polite, but that's not the whole truth. It also tastes good.

Which brings me to something that really bugs me about people. Upon hearing that I am a vegan, a lot of people ... a lot ... say, "Oh, I love my meat. I couldn't give up turkey at Thanksgiving, or my cheeseburgers, or my bacon and eggs, or my milk, or how in the world could I live without my cheese?" I tell them that I started slowly, with red meat first, then poultry, then dairy and eggs, and then seafood. I also confess that I still think about how good a cheeseburger would taste, but that when I actually think about biting into it, all desire drops away, but that it wasn't that way in the beginning. They don't hear it. They just don't hear it. All they are thinking at that point is that they will never give up their burger or turkey or bacon or cheese. You can't make them. Nobody can make them. Don't come any closer!!! Wow! 

First of all, do they think I hated the taste of fried chicken? Steak? Cheeseburgers? Ice Cream? Well, I DIDN'T DAMN IT!!! I loved fried chicken. It was probably my favorite food on the planet. Why do they think it didn't take stamina and resolve?? (As I said above, I still fight some things a full year later.) I hate that they judge my compassionate, healthful decision as having been easy for me because I didn't have as much 'like' to give up. ARGHHH!!!

So, no matter whether they see the videos (I'm convinced they close their eyes at the gory parts) or they read the books or articles about factory farming, they still casually march to the grocery store and buy their torture in a package, take it home, cook it up, and gorge. How can anyone do that? Once you know, how do you divest yourself of responsibility? Just curious.

Back to how I move forward. Clearly I'm not moving in circles that have the same ideals. So, for my New Year's resolution I'm going to step out of my comfort zone and actually go to the Vegetarian and Vegan Meetups in my area. I need to add some vegan and vegetarian friends to my social circle. I need friends who understand my choices and who can share vegan experiences. I'm not giving up the friends I love, just adding to the cirlce!

So, that's it! I followed through on last year's resolution. Made a mid-year resolution to work out and get healthy and followed through on that, so I am confident that I can follow through on this one too.

Happy New Year!!

bacon

A friend updated their facebook status with a single word, "bacon," following it up with, "I almost worked myself into a frenzy this morning....lying in bed and thinking of bacon and eggs, with some hot sauce...big cold glass of orange juice, and a slice of potato bread toast. MAN."


I wanted to add the following comment: "I was lying in bed thinking of the videotape of pigs in gestation crates banging their heads against the bars so hard they bleed just before they go insane from the boredom that humans, whose appetites for bacon versus the humane treatment of innocent creatures, foist on them. Pigs are intelligent, social creatures that humans have no business torturing so that they can eat their flesh." I didn't. I just put a single word: sad.


It's also sad that I don't push harder. That I don't stick my neck out there willing to take whatever abuse people want to heap on me for making the humane choice. Instead, I will send her the link to my blog, rather than face public scrutiny. I need to grow a pair!

The Gift of Time (And Some Great Tea!)

It's been awhile. This year has been a year of change. My company took medical insurance off of the benefit list, and I have a long string of pre-existing conditions which exist in the medical world, but not very much in my physical world. In the past I have been diagnosed with, and suffered from fibromyalgia, asthma, back trouble, a cancerous polyp, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and I had a total hip replacement in 2008. All of this adds up to being uninsurable by today's standards. 

Unfortunately for me, insurance companies don't ask what lifestyle changes a person has made. I work out, eat a vegan diet, and lead a less stressful life. My blood pressure is fine now, and my cholesterol (apparently more genetic than diet related) is getting closer. I haven't had an asthma attack since I quit ingesting dairy products, and the fibromyalgia is gone or so mild that I don't even notice it. Both of my hips, new and old, are doing fantastic, and my back doesn't bother me if I don't do anything stupid like lift a 50-pound sack improperly. My colon ... well, really, do we want to go there? 

In an effort to even the score, so to speak, I decided to semi-retire by taking Social Security Survivor Benefits. (For those of you that don't know me personally, my husband passed away in 2003. I qualified for benefits when I turned 60.) I would make the same amount of money, and with medical insurance off the table, I couldn't come up with a good reason to continue to work full time. I cut back to what Social Security allows me to make per month without losing any benefits. In my case it works out to three, six-hour days a week. 

So, the biggest change has been the gift of time. I manage to get everything done around the house, joined a community center and workout several times a week, take my dogs for a daily one-mile walk and still have time to read, take classes, volunteer, play flute in the New Horizons Band and enjoy life.

I recently decided to schedule my daily tasks such as working out, walking the dogs, and actually writing my blog! So, I got out my Blackberry and put recurring appointments in for each day of the week. I'm hoping that by adding this level of organization I will be able to get more out of this gift. So far, so good, I'm writing an entry today!

The weather was awful a couple of weeks ago and so I decided to stay in the entire weekend, during which I got my recipes organized ... YAY! I had them in a binder, but with the switch to eating vegan came a love of recipe collection and they quickly outgrew the binder. I had some room in a file drawer, so I made a hanging file for each category and now I just drop them in. Sweet!

Speaking of recipes, Kansas City has a magazine, Enhance, that is a wellness-focused publication. In the Nov/Dec issue they had a recipe for Ginger-Lemon Tea. It is my new favorite winter beverage! Here's the recipe: 1tsp of freshly grated ginger, 2 lemon wedges, honey & cayenne pepper to taste. Grate the ginger over the cup, fill with hot water, squeeze in the lemon juice and add honey and pepper to taste. It's awesome and provides a powerful immune system boost!

That's it for today. I have Blogging scheduled for Monday and Wednesday morning ... Y'all will know how well my new schedule works! ;)