4 Months

Today is our 4 month anniversary - we started following a vegan diet on 7/7/7 (a most auspicious date).

Today was also the day of my annual check up. Jane and I have been eagerly awaiting today as a day of validation. We have been operating under the assumption that when I got back my bloodwork we would see a dramatic improvement (not that things needed all that much improving.) Unfortunately, the wind was taken out of our sails a bit. Although there was improvement, it was certainly not dramatic enough to shout from the rooftops that we all should be eating vegan.

So, how'd I do?

To date, I've lost 15 pounds. (Only 1 pound in this last month, but you can attribute that to Jane's muffins.) Remember, this is with NO EXERCISE, and no reduction in quantity of food I'm eating.

• My total cholesterol went from 154 to 147 which is a 4+% improvement. Ideally <150
• My HDL (that's the good stuff) went from 46 to 41 which is an 11% reduction. Ideally, it should be over 50 and this can be improved with exercise. Something I'm not doing much of these days. Good > 40
• My LDL (that's the bad stuff) went from 69 to 62 which is a 10% improvement. Ideally <130
• My Triglycerides went from 196 to 221 which is a 13% increase, and not so good. Ideally <150
• My fasting glucose went from 92 to 87. Both numbers are completely within the normal parameter, and show I have no concern about diabetes. Normal is <100
• My blood pressure remained the same.

The most distressing thing for me is that the changes don't seem to be significant enough. We were expecting dramatic improvements. The increase in triglycerides isn't so troubling. The test doesn't really reflect anything more than what's been going on the few days before you take it, but, are we eating too many carbs? It's just so frustrating that this stuff is so complicated. And living the vegan life can be really tough at times.

One more point: I took my blood test a few weeks ago due to scheduling concerns, so this really reflects 3 months of vegan eating.

So, is it worth it? Jane goes for her physical at the beginning of December. We'll evaluate then, but I've got to say, today I miss milk, and turkey, and...

Vegan Nutrition

Next week I go to the doctor for my annual physical. I had my blood drawn yesterday. Jane and I are very curious what my blood-work will reveal. I don't have any real health issues, but over the past years my cholesterol and blood pressure have crept up a bit; call it middle age. Reading all the wonderful things I have come across about vegan dieting have led me to hope that both of those numbers will be a bit lower this visit. I'll keep you posted on that.

We do have to figure out if we should ask the doctor to test for anything specific for our subsequent visit... Can they determine if you are getting enough protein, calcium, etc? Are these easy blood tests? I know that an iron deficiency will show up and that is another one of those things vegans need to be cognizant of, but I am concerned about the calcium thing. Jane is having us take a calcium supplement, so we're probably covered, but we need to do a bit more research. And omega-3s? Life was so much easier when we were consuming dairy products.

I've been spending some time at the Vegetarian Resource Group website where they have basic nutritional information. It's by no means comprehensive, but they provide you with broad strokes information on what you might be missing by eating vegan, and the nutrient content for sample foods.

Who knew eating could require so much attention to detail? Sheesh!

3 Months In

Today is our 3-month Vegan Anniversary. We started this journey on 07/07/07. It's been an interesting journey. To date, I've lost 15 pounds without any other attempts at losing weight. That's right - no exercise. Jane's lost 5 pounds. That's really exciting. We're not thinking about what we're putting in our mouths from a "diet" perspective, so we're not feeling deprived. Maybe we should bottle this stuff!

There have been the occasional bumps in the road for Jane. She's the cook and has had to learn how to change her thinking when it comes to "what's for dinner." And our staples have had to be re-learned. But we live in southern California, and have some really great year-round farmer's markets, so getting our hands on good fresh produce has never been a problem.

Our biggest issues have involved eating out. We've found that quite a few restaurants don't have anything on the menu for a vegan to eat. But we've found a few vegan friendly restaurants and when we're out with our non-vegan friends or associates we've gravitated towards Italian food. It makes for invisible vegan eating. We don't need to explain our dietary choices to anyone because there is always the option of pasta (whole wheat, of course) with marinara sauce and grilled vegetables. No one looks at you cross-eyed if you skip the cheese. Easy. We just hope Grassroots re-opens soon (they are closed due to fire damage).

Anyway, after three months we both feel fine. There's been no difference in our energy levels and we believe we're healthier. We'll actually be reporting on that in a future post. We've got our annual medical check-ups coming up in late November so we'll see if our new way of life has some hidden benefits as well as the obvious one of weight loss. We expect to be reporting good things.

8 Things to Eat Every Day

I was driving to work the other morning, listening to sports talk radio, and I heard the hosts talking about, of all things, nutrition. They were talking about 8 things that you should eat every day to be healthy. Sounds good. And, as I've mentioned before, I'm like a household pet.... I'm OK eating the same thing every day.

When I got home I googled "8 things to eat everyday" and found a number of interesting links. You can search yourself if you want to do further research. But this is the list below:

• Spinach
• Yogurt
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Blueberries
• Black Beans
• Walnuts
• Oats

As for the yogurt, soy yogurt is listed as an acceptable alternative. So, I'm looking at this list and thinking, hmmm, I could do this every day. Sort of. Maybe not every day, but most days.
But what I found most interesting is this little blurb I found on spinach:
"Protein makes up 30% of the calories from spinach and it's high in methionine, an essential amino acid that is somewhat lacking in many plant foods. Spinach is a good addition to your diet if you should not eat a lot of soy product."

One side note on the spinach... buy organic. The pesticide levels on spinach appear to be pretty high, at least from the reading that I've done online.

Happy eating.

Woo Hoo - I've Lost 14 Pounds

That's 14 pounds, gone without really trying.

Sometime in June Jane, my wife, decided we were going vegan. Since we're not billionaires, we decided that we'd finish off all the animal product in the house first. We also had a trip planned for the end of June, and didn't want to start our new lifestyle on the road. Nor did we want to have struggle with a new way of eating upon first coming home, so we settled on 7-7-7 -- an auspicious date.

I have to admit, I was a little reluctant, although I didn't say much since Jane is the primary food preparer in our household. And she said the literature promised all kinds of health benefits, which sounds great when you're middle aged. (I mean really, who cares when you're 20's, a bag of Doritos and a few beers makes a great dinner then.)

We've been doing OK, there are the occasional moments when one of us will look at the other and say "I could really go for a _____ right about now." But it not too often. Cheese and desserts are the toughest things. But we're doing OK being vegan.

So, this morning when I weighed myself and realized -- I've lost 14 pounds, without doing a thing!!!! -- I proudly proclaimed myself a vegan. I'm still the couch potato I've been for the last few years. I didn't take any magic pills or have any surgery. And half of the weight I wanted to lose just fell off all by itself. The vegan diet is magic!

Woo hoo!

Lane

How it all Vegan

As I mentioned in my last post. My wife is making us over as vegans. She's got every disease known to mankind in her gene pool and we're hitting our middle-aged stride. There's breast cancer, colon cancer, brain cancer, bone cancer and now liver cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc. So, even though we're both relatively healthy, if sedentary and a bit overweight, she wants to ensure she doesn't hit the genetic jackpot if she can avoid it.

We're both doing OK ourselves, but with this last bout of relative cancer, she freaked out, and so now we're vegan. To be quite frank, I'm kind of surprised. Her biggest joy in the epicurean world has been ice cream, followed closely by chocolate. And we both enjoy the out-of-home dining experience. But, in the division of labor in our household, she is the cook, which makes her the pack leader. Where she goes, I follow...

Lately Jane, my wife, has taken to borrowing books on various health topics from our local library. The latest book, "Dr. Neal Barnard's Program to Reverse Diabetes Now" was her main inspiration for veganism, diabetes being one of the more prevalent diseases in her family tree. Dr. Barnard proposes a low-fat vegan diet to help prevent diabetes, and his anecdotal evidence was quite compelling.



Couple that with her increasing distress at how meat products get to our table, it was a sure bet that we'd be vegetarians at the least. I mean, this woman practices the catch and release program with any insect that makes its way into our home! No matter what stage of sleep I might be in, if there's a spider in our house, I have to escort him out.

Hopefully all this healthy eating will pay off. As I mentioned yesterday, I've already dropped 8 pounds without an ounce of effort on my part. I sure can't complain about that!

Lane