Starting Out

Lynette here, aka CasualCostumer.  I've been toying with the idea of being a vegan for about a month now, after finding out about the Thrive Diet.  I am an endurance athlete, and I've been reading about how some endurance athletes believe that a vegan diet is essential for quick recovery time and overall performance.  I'm not interested in the vegan lifestyle (not using any animal products at all), but I would like to get my body in really good shape for athletics.

I am going to be easing into the Thrive Diet, which was conceived by Brendan Brazier.  That's not simply eating a vegan diet, it's also about consuming "power foods" and even avoiding certain "vegan" foods that are not beneficial.  Brazier believes that by eating raw, you make it easier for your body to extract necessary ingredients as quickly as possible, without wasting energy on digesting complex foods.

I'm not into all that crazy stuff, like ridding your body of toxins, but I thought it was an interesting concept.  As I said, I'll be easing into it, because it's a totally different lifestyle.  However, I will be eating a strictly vegan diet for the next 21 days.

Another reason I've been interested in a vegan diet is because I'm an environmentalist, and eating meat is actually pretty bad for the environment.  Different sources cite different statistics, but one thing is clear:  it takes thousands of gallons of water just to raise one pound of meat.  Not only does it take a lot of resources to raise meat, but pesticides, herbicides, and antibiotics are all involved in raising meat.

I've done a lot over the past four or five years to cut back on my carbon footprint as much as possible.  I can't really do much more in other areas (electricity, water consumption, etc), so cutting out meat (or reducing it drastically) is the next logical step.

I think that after these 21 days of being a vegan, I will go back to eating meat and dairy products, but I will consume much less.  I also hope that I'll incorporate a lot of the Thrive Diet into my existing diet, but will never follow it completely.  I plan on purchasing shares in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in order to reduce my carbon footprint by buying local, supporting local farmers, and eating more organically (small farms usually do not use chemicals, or significantly fewer chemicals).  We shall see!

Namarie!

Newbie Vegans

As of January 1, 2011, we will be embarking on a vegan adventure courtesy of the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart Program. It's a 21 day program that introduces you to the benefits of the vegan diet.

The program claims that:

"Low-fat vegan—plant-based—diets are the easiest way to trim excess weight, prevent diabetes, cut cholesterol, lower blood pressure, prevent and reverse heart disease, and reduce cancer risk. They even trim our carbon footprint."

Essentially, the program says you'll feel better if you eat a plant-based diet.

Being healthy is just one of many reasons people adopt a vegan diet, but this site isn't about why we're doing this. The decision to become vegan or to try a vegan diet is a personal decision based on your own beliefs. Just like we're not going to tell our spouses animal products aren't allowed in the house, we're not going to tell you why you should become a vegan. If you're interested in the various reasons why people become vegan you can check out sites like vegan.org for more information, but the decision and the reasoning behind it is up to you.

If we're not spouting rhetoric about why you should become a vegan, what are we going to write about? The answer is simple. We're newbies to the world of vegan goodness and we want to chart our journey for you. We'll share recipes, sites, and information on what we're eating and how we're feeling. We'll give you our honest opinions about what it's like for us to become vegan...from the beginning.