Vegetarian @ MindSay

So at this very moment i am attempting to eat a "turkey" sandwhich.  It's really made out of veggies and such.  Not awful....smells gross.  Looks gross.  Feels gross lol.  Tastes...hmmm....not sure what to say it tastes like.  I have it on whole grain bread though.  I've pretty much always eaten white.  So thats different too.  and I have vegan butter on there that tastes amazing.  Really I like it better than real butter.  I have hummus that I bought too...debating on how to eat that.  And I took a drink of my Bolthouse Farms - Vedge drink.  OMG its like tomato drink to the max it was like drinking soup almost.  It has tomatoes, beets, celery, lettice, parsley, spinach, watercress, bell peppers, carrots, and mushrooms (ick for mushrooms).  We'll see....

Reading a book that states that a vegan diet may be more beneficial to diabetics than the low carb diet or the ADA recomendations. 

 

Some results:

43 percent of those on the vegan diet reduced their need to take drugs to manage their diabetes compared with 26 percent of the ADA diet group.

Weight loss averaged more than 14 pounds in the vegan diet group vs. less than 7 pounds in the other group.

LDL "bad" cholesterol dropped by an average of 21 percent in the vegan group compared with 11 percent in the ADA diet group who did not change their cholesterol drug use.

Measures of blood sugar control also improved more significantly among those who followed the low-fat vegan diet than among those who followed the ADA diet and who did not change their diabetes drug use.

Researchers say the vegan diet represents a major change from current diabetes diets because there are no limits on calories, carbohydrates, and portions, which may make it easier for some people to follow. Talk to your doctor about what diet changes you might consider to help with diabetes or other medical conditions.

SOURCES:Barnard, N. Diabetes Care, August 2006; vol 29: pp 1777-1783. News release, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

 

 

So... I am reading more about this and wondering where/how to start! Big changes. But if big results, would be worth it, huh?  If you are a vegetarian or vegan, how do I start, where to begin, how to make the transition, etc... ??

I was looking up some recepies and info about vegans yesterday and after reading a few personal stories, I was drawn to the idea of going raw. That means not eating any cooked foods (at least above a certain temperature which kills the enzymes and essentially kills the food), just raw fruits, vegitables nuts, etc. At first I thought, "holy crap, that's extreme." But then I slept on it and the whole idea is actually very appealing. The thing I reminded myself of is that when I decided to go vegan, my mom said, "that's going to be hard, what will you eat?" and I told her, "that's what meat eaters think about us vegetarians, but we know they're wrong, we eat plenty of stuff." Now I see that being vegan is not hard at all and there is still more than plenty good things to eat!

So if meat eaters thing that vegetarians have nothing to eat, and some vegetarians think vegans have nothing to eat, then what don't I, as a vegan, know about raw fooders? I looked up some recepies today and there is a whole crap load of things for raw foodists to eat! It's amazing!

So from right now, I'm pretty sure I'll end up going raw. I decided to let the whole vegan thing settle in with my mom and when I get home from seeing my grandparents this summer, I'll present the raw idea to her. I'm sure after a little hessitation and my showing her I'll still remain a healthy, happy gal (even more so, keeping a strict raw food diet is proven to help, even eliminate depression and stress) I'm about 95% sure she'll let me go on with it.

It's so exciting! I felt good when I grew up and realized the real meaning of being a vegetarian, then I went vegan and felt even better about life, and now just the thought of going raw is . . . ah! It's great. Life is great.

Peace, Love, and Respect

~anna~

Everytime I read this it's like cold water being dumped on my head, haha
Here is a rambling of mine. It's a few years old, and I'll admit a little immature.

But, it has some great ideas. This was back when I first started realizing that there is so much more and that something is wrong.

"It is nearly impossible for myself to imagine reasoning to my existence here this day, in this moment in time and space. Whether the universe exploded and I happened to just be an organism that can breathe and think, or a supreme being has placed me here for a supreme purpose, I have yet to discover the empathetic meaning to my power to overcome what has been given to me. I am a human being, or so called by the rest of this species. I am a living organism. I am made, self evident, an equal man. I am a life form, created by two of my own, my mother and father. They have given me a gift, a gift that I’d be damned for eternity if I didn’t fulfill its needs. I am a human, and I am humane. I have feelings, or created images in my head that make me feel sad and happy, lonely and afraid… or connected. I feel attached to the outside world as if I, myself, were the outside world. Or am I just a soul, imprisoned in this forsaken body, demanded to spend my life wondering why?
I am man and man has no idea what he is.
I am alive. And alive does not know what it is to be dead.
I am imprisoned. And imprisoned does not know what it is to be free.

Utopia is unimaginable. Existence is unimaginable. Any action taken by me will have no existence when memory of my existence has faded. So in some time in this universe, Christopher Tory Johnson will be forgotten. That being said, anything that I do while I do exist will have no consequences because they will only exist as long as the memory of myself exists.

We have created a surplus of hatred. There is no evidence of what existed before, yet we are determined to discover the purpose as to what we are today. The violence we enforce on ourselves. The deceit, the lies, the discrimination, the prejudice, the irrational discrepancies of religion, politicians, and the supernatural has pushed us to a brink of destruction to ourselves.

We understand that at some point in time our lives here on planet Earth will come to an end and the relationships, the misunderstandings, the actions in which we partake will have no matter whatsoever when we are buried in a cold, dark coffin. Whether you believe in the forgiveness of sins, or in reincarnation, or in the total darkness of death itself, you will undoubtedly convince yourself that your time spent on Earth was wasted. Your time spent enjoying the luxuries that made you feel joy have not given it to you eternally. You won’t miss video games, music, cars, books, or televisions. You will miss the experiences of accomplishment through other life forms, whether it be mammals, reptiles, fish or any other organism in the world. If you made a difference, you will have eternal joy.

I am confused, and will most likely always be confused, by the judgment of this United States government. Why, as a child brought up in America, do they force me to believe that this is all there is, and that this is the best there is? There are 5 billion other human beings in this world, and they are drowned out by our national anthem. There are billions of living, breathing, bleeding, crying entities on this planet… and we have driven them out of our minds. And sometimes we have put them into our mouths. We have put them on our backs. We have put them on our feet. We have put them in our homes. We have put them on our televisions. We have condemned this entire nation into believing that it is natural.

Is it natural to let living, breathing, bleeding, crying cows to be hung upside down and cut from the throats so they are drained with the blood that gives them life? Only to be preserved and distributed into every household in this country as food?

Is it natural to give a young man a gun and send him across the world to shoot another man that he does not even know or understand, and have him murder him on command?

Is it natural for people to have to live in the streets, while others sleeping in a warm cozy bed, and for no one to do anything about it?

Is it natural for our lives to be controlled by television sets, news propaganda and forced to fear something because it is for our protection?

Protection from what? Protection from something that our government created!? NEVER!

George W. Bush, George Bush Sr. along with every single politician in this country are the real terrorists! The trained killers: The FBI, the CIA, the police. Our nuclear weapons forced upon on other countries. "

-10/23/2005