If it wasn't for cheese, I'd be vegan...

I've started this blog as a time saver. I have gobs of friends that are always asking me about vegetarian &/or vegan recipes, easy snack ideas, books to read, health benefits of a humane diet, etc. So, to avoid typing & texting these folks a zillion times a week, I've decided to try my hand at blogging. Yep, it looks as if I won't be making fun of my blog-savvy friends anymore!

First of all, I love cheese. In fact, I'm addicted to cheese. True story. There is an ingredient called casein that breaks apart during the digestive process, which then releases casomorphins which have an opioid effect. In other words, nachos are my crack, brie is the skeleton in my closet, & grilled cheese is the one food I would take on a desert island w/me. 

After reading Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman & Kim Barnouin, I was completely motivated to become vegan. The day I started the book is the day I stopped eating meat, cold turkey (pun intended). I have not had red meat, fowl, etc. in 2yrs. I must admit, I did have fish once or twice in the 1st yr. W/in the first few months of becoming a vegetarian, I switched to a vegan diet. I lost weight, my skin glowed, I had tons of energy, & I didn't get sick once. Unfortunately, as many pathetic addicts are prone to do, I caved. I went back to eating cheese. I call it the "Dark Years". Ok, I just made that up, but seriously, once I read that calves are taken away from their mothers when they are just 1 day old & raised as either veal or future dairy cows, I was horrified! Not to mention that the poor dears would naturally live to be about 20yrs, but their lives are shortened to 4-5yrs before they are slaughtered (& those years are filled w/living in their own feces, genetic manipulation, stuck full of hormones & antibiotics which we ingest - hello cancer!! - & they are fed dead animals & other unnatural foods because their natural grass diet would not provide what they need to unnaturally produce such massive amounts of milk required of them. I'm not saying this is every dairy! If you shop organic, chances are, they have a slightly better life. Slightly.

But enough preaching! For now, I eat vegan Mon-Thu, with the option to eat vegetarian Fri-Sun. I still try to eat vegan over the weekend, but if I want to have a slice of cheese pizza, I'll have that dang slice of cheese pizza. However, the guilt usually has me working out for an additional 15-30min, depending upon what I've had to eat... 

To give you guys meal//snack ideas, I'll be keeping a daily food log (unless I just don't feel like it that day), along with the brand names and stores I use.

Questions? Just ask. I may actually answer...

Websites to check out this week:

1. http://skinnybitch.net/

2. http://www.peta.org/issues/pages/animals-used-for-food/Cow-s-Milk-A-Cruel-and-Unhealthy-Product/Cow-s-Milk--A-Cruel-and-Unhealthy-Product.aspx