Vegan Myths Friday, Oct 28 2011 

Veganism Mark 3:27 pm

I really appreciate all my friends who are concerned about my new diet. However, there are a few myths about the plant-based diet that need to be dispelled:

  1. Persons on a plant-based diet don’t get enough protein.  Here’s a chart showing how much protein is available in various non-meat foods.  I get plenty.
  2. Persons on a plant-based diet don’t get enough calcium. As a matter of fact, there’s more calcium in my soy milk than in the 2% milk the other family members drink.
  3. Other myths are discussed in Carol Adams’ article here.

Just ran across this article. It’s even better than Adams’ article.

 

 

Sammie and Me Thursday, Oct 27 2011 

Diabetes and Recipe and Veganism and vegetarian Mark 2:18 pm

I was worried my blood sugar would be high this morning because I cheated on the diet a bit yesterday. I took Sammie for a long walk to make up for it.

It wasn’t my fault really. I had a migraine and needed caffeine so I drank a cherry coke. I also ate a bowl of cereal right before bed. I’m glad to report that my sugar was once again 116 this morning. I made a pretty good vegan lasagna yesterday from a recipe on the Whole Foods site. Next time I will add some mushrooms. I also sliced some carrots with the mandoline Bart gave me. Thanks Bart!

 

Three Biggest Problems Sunday, Oct 23 2011 

Diabetes and Veganism and vegetarian Mark 4:01 pm

I started this dietary experiment at the beginning of the month and it’s been amazing. I’m down from 2 medications and 4 pills a day for diabetes to 1 medication and 2 pills a day. I’ve lost quite a bit of weight and weigh less now than I have since before the Federal Flood.

Three problems though…1. I really miss cheese!

2. I have really bad gas due to the amount of beans and fiber in my diet.

3. It’s really hard to plan for meals. It’s really easy to throw some pork chops on the grill, mash some potatoes, and throw a salad together. I have several vegan cookbooks, but they usually include stuff I’ve never heard of and are hard to find. Yesterday I couldn’t find wheat gluten flour. I did find the tempeh and tahini. Oh well. it’s been worth it.

 

I Learn a Lot from My Students Thursday, Oct 20 2011 

religion and Veganism Mark 8:18 pm

I had asked one of my favorite students to come by to see me and she stopped in for a visit today. She’s one of the sweetest, most positive persons I know. She’s a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Egypt. We talked about the recent deaths of Christians in Egypt and the protest in DC.

We also talked about how during Lent, Coptic Orthodox Christians abstain  from meat and all animal products. I told her about my current diet and she was pleased. It seems that the purpose behind their fast that avoids all animal products is so that they can return to the diet that Adam and Eve ate in the garden. Interesting stuff!

 

Progress Is Good Wednesday, Oct 19 2011 

Diabetes and Veganism and vegetarian Mark 2:32 pm

Great news! I’ve gone from taking four pills a day to only three. My sugar was 103 (or 109) this morning. I’m going to move to only two pills a day soon. This is huge for me because a couple of months ago I was considering talking to my doctor about having Gastric bypass surgery in order to help get my sugar under control and lose weight. I’m going to try to get back on the treadmill soon, but for now my knees can’t take it.

 

Weekend in Long Beach Tuesday, Oct 18 2011 

Diabetes and Veganism and vegetarian Mark 8:31 pm

This past weekend I was in Long Beach at a conference. While I was there I ate this veggie burger at the Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe. It was great! In fact I had one the next day too.

While I was eating it a guy walked up to me who had just finished eating a bowl full of something there and he asked if the burger tasted like real meat.

I told him no, but that it was very good. He then said, “You are a meat eater right? You look like a meat eater.” I wanted to say, “I know I’m fat, but that doesn’t mean I’m a meat eater.” I told him I had just recently given up meat.

I weighed myself and I’m still in the 70s even though I ate a lot of restaurant food in California. Blood sugar was 119 this am!

Pics of the trip can be found here.

 

Back in the 70s Again! Sunday, Oct 9 2011 

Diabetes and Veganism and vegetarian Mark 8:40 pm

I had two days in a row when my blood sugar was 116. Then I had two days when it was in the low 130s. That’s not too bad. Better than it was before I began my vegan-tarian experiment. Today I weighed under 280 for the first time since before the federal flood! At my highest point I was 306.

Carol’s been very good about trying to help me to eat better. I’m trying to cut way back on animal products but I’m not going totally Vegan because it would drive me crazy trying to avoid all the things I need to in order to be a “real” vegan. I’m also trying to avoid processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

But…I will occasionally eat seafood. Now everybody is going to look down on me! Vegans will think I’m wimping out and vegetarian haters will think I’m a hippie. Oh well, at least I’m eating better and kinder and I’m losing weight and managing my blood sugar. Thanks for the support!

BTW Carol made “The Best Vegetarian Chili in the World” for us today. It was really good!

 

 

This Can’t Be Right! Thursday, Oct 6 2011 

Diabetes Mark 2:46 pm

My blood sugar was 116 this AM! Hasn’t been that low in a long time. I was a bit scared because I pigged out on carrots and grapes for supper. I also had brown rice with mushrooms.

Dropped 2 more pounds too! Hope this isn’t too good to be true.

 

Blood Sugar Wednesday, Oct 5 2011 

Diabetes and Veganism Mark 1:56 pm

The last two days my readings have been 133 and 129. That’s the best I’ve seen in a long time. I didn’t get finished at work until 9pm last night. It would have been easy to stop by somewhere on my way home for fast food.Instead I ate some peanut butter on whole grain bread and some butter beans.

For my Freshman Seminar class, we are reading Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. This morning I read that a USDA study in 1996 showed that 78.6% of ground beef contained microbes that are spread primarily by fecal matter.

Yum!

 

October Experiment: Kind Diet Tuesday, Oct 4 2011 

Diabetes and Veganism and vegetarian Mark 4:08 pm

I’m trying out a couple of things in October. I’ll share one now and another at the end of the month. I started doing without meat and trying to be as vegan as I can without going nuts about it. I started contemplating this when a friend of mine mentioned the documentary Forks over Knives. I was struggling with my blood glucose levels and my low-carb diet just wasn’t cutting it. I watched the film and did a bit of research and thought what the heck. Carol has been very supportive.

We’ll see how it goes. I might be posting my thoughts on this more regularly.