Don't want to put on those holiday pounds? Eat like a vegan!

You can't miss it - fattening food is everywhere!  Candy, pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, candy apples.  It's clear that the season of eating has begun!  Yes it's difficult to resist all the holiday food in the office, at your child's school or at the grocery store.  Most people are tempted, and so many of us give in.  And the pounds start packing on and continue through the holidays until we all feel guilty in January.


You always say it's going to be different this year, right?  Well how about nipping it in the bud before it begins?  What if, this year, you decide to go through the holidays by eating like a vegan?


You can still enjoy many of the foods that you've always loved but you'll learn to make them healthier.  And you can still eat Halloween candy (you'll be surprised that many of your favorites are vegan), but you won't gorge yourself on it.  And you can have that pumpkin latte - just have it with soy/coconut/almond milk and skip the whipped cream.  And if you check out vegweb.com or Veg News' website, you can try new holiday recipes that you can feel good about eating, that taste delicious, and your friends will love.  And then, of course, there's the halo effect of reducing animal suffering and causing less harm to the environment.  Festive reasons to celebrate indeed!

Those cupcakes aren't really vegan, are they?

This wasn't one of my best weeks.  I had been going along just fine and then strep throat cut me down in my tracks and I could barely move from the bedroom to the kitchen table.  And eating was completely out of the question.  But my son's birthday was on Wednesday and I was determined that he have cupcakes in his classroom to celebrate.  And not just any cupcakes.  VEGAN cupcakes.


I thought that, in addition to giving my son a wonderful experience on his special day, it was a fantastic opportunity to dispel a myth about vegan food.  The myth that it doesn't taste good.  All vegans will tell you that vegan food can be just as delicious as food with animal products, but we are often met with doubting looks.  I've had some success cutting down this myth with some friends, but hadn't ventured into the sugary world of cupcakes.


Luckily, I had seen that there was a vegan bakery at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market.  Even though there was no way I was leaving the house, much less traveling to the market, I decided to put my trust in untasted cupcakes.  So I ordered 2 dozen - half vanilla and half red velvet.  And I even asked for soy milk instead of their usual almond milk just in case there were any nut allergies in the class.  


Two nights later, with me still sick as can be, there was a knock on my door.  We live in darkest north Phoenix but Treehouse Bakery delivered those cupcakes with a smile.  They looked so cute but I was in no shape to eat any, so I had my husband taste test them.  A look of pure bliss appeared on his face and he said it was one of the best cupcakes he'd ever had (he's not vegan).  


The cupcakes were equally well-received at school.  The e-mail from my son's teacher said, "The vegan cupcakes were amazing!  Thanks for sending them in!  You've opened a whole new world for me...".  Making my son's birthday happy and expanding vegan frontiers - all in a day's work!

Choose life with a plant-based diet

This weekend, I've confronted life and death.  A memorial service for a wonderful lady on Friday evening, and then a baby shower for a good friend on Saturday had me reflecting on the circle of life.  Then  I realized that we make choices every day to either support life or death with the foods that we eat and products we use.  


Eating foods with animal products is choosing death.  Maybe not for the person doing the eating, but at least for the animal that gave up its life for that meal.  While the food may taste delicious, it wasn't possible without death.  A plant-based diet, on the other hand, is about choosing life.  It's about choosing to live a healthier, more vibrant life based on the bounty of living things grown from the ground.  It's about celebrating the energy that flows through your body via these foods that don't clog your arteries or put free radicals into your cells (and that often do the opposite).  It's about saving the environment, one meal at a time, because you aren't participating in consumption of animals that produce methane and are responsible for half the greenhouse gasses.  And it's about saying no to the slaughter of innocent animals (198 fewer animals per year will die on average, when you switch to a vegan diet).  


The difference is stark, when you think about it.  And don't you want to side with healthy, life-affirming foods and personal products instead of those that come from death?  I know I do.

Where have all the heroes gone?

I've been thinking a lot about heroes lately.  In a time when behaving badly seems to be the norm, who do we have to look up to?  Who inspires us to be better?  Not celebrities or politicians, and certainly not captains of industry.


In past eras, we've looked to these sectors to find our heroes - people we admired and wanted to emulate.  Sadly, heroes seem to be sorely lacking in these times of greed, self-centeredness and shock value.  But they aren't really.  Our heroes aren't people who are in the news and tabloids every day.  If you dig a little deeper, you'll see quiet heroes on the front lines making a difference.


Kathy Freston was my first hero in the vegan world - in her positive, non-judgemental way, she showed me why my conscience would no longer allow me to eat fish or dairy (I was already a "pescatarian").  Drs. T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn are taking a scientific and medical approach to educating the public about the health benefits of a plant-based diet.  People like Kris Carr, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, the "Skinny Bitch" ladies and a host of others are writing and blogging about veganism.  


Then there are the heroes in the animal welfare world.  Gene Bauer of Farm Sanctuary is king among my heroes for all he does for exploited animals in the factory farming world, and the founders and volunteers at The Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita, CA renew my belief in the goodness of people.  Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society and Jane Goodall, who is still fighting for the rights of chimps are also people to be emulated and admired.


It's true that the mainstream media carries almost nothing but stories of people behaving badly.  But if you look a little deeper and refocus your vision, you'll see the frontlines of everyday heroes making a difference for the animals and all of us.  

Become an urban farmer...everyone's doing it

Sometimes it just feels so good to exhaust yourself through sheer physical work.  That's how I've been feeling this week as we've been renovating our backyard.  We've laid pavers, spread dirt and rock, planted vines and shrubs (in 111 degrees, no less!).  But the best part of the backyard by far is the 8'x4' raised bed that we built to house our new organic backyard garden.


As a vegan, I care so much about the origins of my food that I eat and feed to my family.  And I know that concern isn't exclusive to vegans.  There's a growing movement of people who are disgusted by the chemicals and nasty elements in much of the food supply, and many of these people have decided to grow their own produce.  Backyard gardens or "urban farms" are popping up all over the country as a response to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticides, and other nasty chemicals that are, unfortunately, now the norm in the foods that we buy at the grocery store.  I've attended two lectures in the last two weeks here in Phoenix about urban farming and GMOs, and each event attracted 200+ people - all clamoring for advice on their farms.


There are a lot of resources to help you get started.  It's particularly challenging here in Phoenix's arid climate to grow produce, so we have resources like Urban Farm and the Valley Permaculture Alliance.  No matter where you live, you can find books and other resources to help you get started.  We made our raised bed out of sustainable redwood, and mixed our soil using fill dirt and organic compost.  I ordered seeds from nativeseeds.org, which guards against GMOs and preserves native seeds from the southwest.  Note: if you care about GMOs (and believe me, if you research them you will!), you don't want to buy ANY seeds from Monsanto, since they are the ones creating the GMO products.  That also includes the brand Miracle Gro.


Even if you only have an apartment balcony, if it gets sun, you can grow things. Consider growing some of your own veggies - you'll be amazed at how delicious they taste and how connected you will feel to the earth!

Connected through compassion

One of the many perks of going vegan is a community of people who are eager to make your acquaintance and support you.  Most of us have friends from work, school, and other places in our lives, but there is something special about a community of people connected through compassion.


When I went vegan, I didn't know anyone who had made the commitment I made.  Sure, I had read books, but those were one-way communications.  I felt alone and very alienated - especially among my own friends and family, many who thought I was becoming an extremist, an eccentric, or other equally perjorative word.  It was a hard transition socially, and I had no one with whom to share my experience who could understand.  I started this blog to document my experience - mostly to those who were still omnivores - and started to use Twitter to distribute my posts.  


Lo and behold I started getting large numbers of followers quickly.  And these people were extremely supportive!  I received messages from people all over the world who were so glad that I had gone vegan and was sharing my experience.  Encouraged, I started to join other vegan groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and also in-person through the Veg Phoenix meetup group.  Suddenly I had a network of people who understood me since they felt the same way.  I was shocked and amazed at how deeply vegans support other vegans.  I have given and received everything from restaurant and recipe advice to business consulting.  Vegan businesses are popping up all over the country (and the world!), and they are being supported by other vegans.


I encourage you to consider a vegan lifestyle.  Initially you may feel that you're giving up something, but you will receive so much more than you ever thought possible.  And I promise to be your biggest supporter of all!

If we can make a difference, why don't we?

Upton Sinclair had it right when he wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."


Have you ever had to do something in your job that you felt was morally wrong?  What did you do?  Did you do it anyway, believing (often rightly so) that your career or paycheck could suffer if you didn't?  Unfortunately, that's the plight of so many workers in today's society.  At the end of the day, our mighty corporations and organizations are made up simply of people.  The people in the top leadership positions create the strategy and the "rules", and everyone else below them on the food chain needs to execute.  Even those brave souls who protest are often silenced by the system.


This is how the animal agriculture industry thrives.  They hire workers who, for many reasons, are often not empowered to speak up.  And, in concert with government agencies like the USDA (whose mission is to protect the business of agriculture, NOT protect the American consumer - don't be fooled) and self-interested, powerful politicians, they make money hand-over-fist.  This money is on the backs of the exploited animals and workers.  And they spend billions of dollars communicating with you - the consumer - to assure you that their food is healthy, safe, and as American as apple pie.


But guess what?  Every time we choose not to consume meat or dairy, WE are making the rules.  And the more people vote with their food choices, the more pressure comes to bear on factory farms.  I believe people are ultimately compassionate, but they have been brainwashed into believing animal products are healthy and that eating animals is a normal part of a normal American life.


I believe in a future where animals once again graze in pastures, eating the foods nature intended.  Where they can feel the rain, sun and snow on their bodies and play with their animal friends.  But this won't happen unless we all stand up to what we know is wrong.  You don't need to become an animal activist.  Changing your diet is the most powerful thing you can do.  Please join me in voting for the animals!