Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Your Health and Kindness go Hand in Heart


Living this new life of kindness toward all living beigns is a real marvelous experience. When you change how you eat and take all aspects in to consideration you end up not only being kind to animals but kind to yourself as well. That is really something that is giving me a wonderful feeling.Just as our neurons continue to connect in our brains after birth, when making these lifestyle changes we connect to an invisible web that connects us to the whole universe in a magical way. We are rewarded with physical and spiritual health that leads to happiness.

When making lifestyle changes, one of the issues is of course "Food".

We all love food and we need food. We eat it if it tastes good. Taste & texture is what we respond to immediately. Nutrition we can't really see but we know it's important but many of us don't know much about it. I am lucky in the sense that nutrition has always been a subjects I was interested in and I try to learn as much about it as I could. After coming to the US I did however fall in to a more unhealthy way of eating. Eating what everyone else ate. I recall the first time I had a Donut and how I practically spit it out, because it was so sweet, like nothing I ever had before.

I never drank sodas until I came to the Unites States but even then I drank it rarely, again, too sweet.
I rarely ate more then one piece of cake or pastry, but I did start to over eat sweets after coming to the States.
I never had a steak in my life until coming to the US.
Beef is expensive in Germany and we rarely ate any.
Fast food restaurants did not come along until late and I moved to the US just about the same time.

I did however eat meats, lots of cheese my whole life. My combination of French and German heritage meant I ate both cultural diets. I loved Camembert cheese, pork roast, pork chops, liverwurst, frankfurters and so on.

The bread I was used to is the dark crusty German what is sometimes called here Farmers Bread.

The white box shaped bread that is common here, I tried and found it to be awful.

After two decades in the United States, I had gained 50 pounds, was overweight for the first time in my life and at the final end a few years back, was diagnosed with high blood pressure, at times 190/115 = very dangerous. Then I started to have heart palpitations which finally prompted me to see a doctor. I had High Cholesterol and started to have joint pains, swollen feet and other pesky problems. I always had stomach problems as long as I can remember, constipation and pains.

Long story short... I have now normal blood pressure which I measure every day. I do still take some blood pressure medication but at times I simply don't for days and my pressure is just fine. If I take it about three times a week I am fine. My goal is to totally eliminate blood pressure medication. My cholesterol is better then average now. As a matter of fact my good cholesterol which I was told would be great if it where 50 its actually 62 (which I was told was marvelous) my bad cholesterol is 104. I accomplished this with going Vegan and no medication.

OK I can hear it now... where do you get your protein, what are you eating?

I eat plants. Anything plants related. The choices out there are endless and are growing and YES plants have plenty of protein and other great nutrition. I am going to share over time, all the things I eat or goods I find that I like.

I eat plenty of food, don't have to "diet" to lose weight. I have lost 20 pounds so far and it keeps going, slowly but surely. No starvation, no constipation, no more swollen feet, no more joint pain, no more high cholesterol, and my blood pressure is going in the right direction which is down. I have to watch stress and try not to upset myself about things.
Other improvements I have noticed is softer skin, the white in my eyes are whiter (they started to yellow before), my occasional itchy skin problem is history, I am more alert, and have more energy.

If someone asked me what can I do to lose weight and be healthy I would categorically say
"Go Vegan". It is easier then you have been made to believe.

This is from a mere health standpoint and does not even include the fact that not consuming animal products of any kind is good for your soul as well. That is of course if you are a spiritual person. Those that say they love animals should really try to go Vegan it's the only way to realize that statement of "I Love Animals". After all you can't eat and wear what you love because it has to be killed first. Should we really kill what we love? It's inherently illogical.

I want to share this good news. That is all I want. I am sad that the main stream media, the food industry to a large extend, our government is saying so little about the truth about food. Instead they all perpetuate the problem with the status quo. It is really a complex problem, involving politics, money and old ingrained myths and believes.

If you want to learn more about it I highly recommended reading the "China Study"!

Here is also a product I want tp praise. I do not get paid to recommend anything.
I try it out and if I like it I say so if I don't I say so. I am beholden to nobody but my own Conscience. Sometimes I may have links to a product. I am an Amazon affiliate so if you buy through those links I get a small commission. OK so you buy a jar of mayo and I get, what 20 cents. I don't recommend nothing that I don't like.

I really love Vegenaise Vegan mayo. When I first bought the jar I was leery. I was wondering, will it be creamy? Will it taste like mayo? Can this no egg, no dairy, no preservatives, no fillers, healthy claim, be to to good to be true. I was a skeptic.

But it was a great buy. I use it with sandwiches and making tartar sauce or creamy relishes. Yesterday I had Ruben sandwiches for dinner and used Vegenaise instead of thousand Island (did not have a vegan one handy). I also omitted the Sauerkraut not a big fan of it. Those sandwiches were fantastic and loaded with fiber,antioxidants,vitamins and flavor but lo win fat and ZERO cholesterol. Remember if you don't eat any animal products you will not add cholesterol. Cholesterol is only found in the bodies of animals, which includes humans. We make it ourselves just as animals make it. Plants do NOT have cholesterol.

I used to be a big fan of Butter, actually I could not imagine going without the TASTE of butter, that buttery taste. Now it's vegan margarine or oils, it is possible to reeducate your taste buds if you give it some time and find other flavorful things like I found these nutty oils. I just received my gourmet oils and I love all the great flavor and nutritional value. Using it sparingly is no problem since the flavors are strong. Less is more!
So I will end this for today by saying, try some Vegan. Even if you don't do all Vegan all the time. Give it a start.

Maybe just breakfast and lunch. Maybe just dinner. Whatever reason you may have had to say no to Vegan, give it some new thoughts.

Two years ago I was a full fledged card carrying Carnivore. Now I am Vegan and my only regret is that this has not happened to be sooner, but hey better late then never! :-)

My best wishes!




Learn how to make Wheat Meat especially the "Corned Vegan Beef" HERE