Several months ago I made the decision to give up all meat as soon as I moved into my first apartment. I felt finally free to make my own decisions about daily meals and felt a few steps closers to having control over my health.
Being a college student, I have to admit the stress sometimes is overwhelming and I do snack on processed foods from time to time, but I always try my best to choose foods that have no animal by product in them. I usually get cravings for Kashi bars, wheat pretzels, roasted nuts, baked lays, etc. It's sure a step down from poison like dorritos, McDonalds, etc.
About a week and a half ago, I did a little experiment with my food intake to see to observe the changes in my body. In my 3-d design class, we were assigned the task of constructing a fully functional portable chair out of cardboard. I don't really want to get into the specifics of how this was to be down, but let me tell you, I was stressed to the umpteenth about it.
So naturally, well, more like UNnaturally, I was having fun at places like McDonalds and Hungry Howie's. I didn't purchase anything with meat in it, but I took advantage of delightful little things like apple pie, french fries, howie bread, and garden salads. I have always been prone to acne, but the weather conditions aggravated my face like the plague! Well, not really, but I'm a girl, so I can exaggerate.
Anyway, add the stress of art projects, 2 tests in the last week, and zits are throwing a party on my face! I wear my hair natural, being in the teenage stage of dreds, and boy was my scalp dry. Weeew. Something HAD to be done. I had enough of my trip back to days of being a human trash bin!
These last couple of days I've been drinking green tea, chamomile, and Peach Ceylon. I've cut almost all of the gluten out of my diet, save for oatmeal. I went to the grocery store to pick up decent things like fresh veggies and fruits. And to my pleasant surprise, I found little vegan Indian cuisine boxes for 2 bucks at BIG LOTS.
Big Lots, if you have no idea JUST WHAT IN ALL OF TARNATION of which I am speaking, is a one of those low-price bargain bin chains probably local to Northeast Ohio. I picked up some Saage Chole (spicy spinach and chick peas) and a lentil dish courtesy of The Tamarind Tree company. All the entrees come with a serving of brown rice, and are completely free of preservatives. I am so amazed I found this in that crazy store of all places. Score for vegan bargains!! Big Lots also had nori seaweed rice crackers, which I gladly picked up ( I know someone's gagging at the thought right now, but I love them) among other crazy ethnic foodstuffs. It was a shame the wasabi crackers were out of stock.
On another positive note, I was looking for online articles and information about Vegan Transitions and I found this absolutely wonderful and engaging story of Shannon Oliver, a former food addict and adamant carnivore who took a trip to Africa that changed his life FOREVER. It truly resonated with me because as a young black woman myself I definitely can related to the those days of Southern-style soul food cooking. I'm only 2 generations removed from the south on my mother's side of the family, and one generation on my father's. To be honest with you, my paternal grandfather spoke Haitian Creole by way of Louisiana and kept hunting dogs in his back yard while he was "up Norf". He used to feed them grits, corn, beans, scrambled eggs, pork, beef, bones. Those dogs were, what you could call, "porked up good."
Hmm, I still suck at slang.
Anyway, Shannon's journey is so awesome, and reading it has given me alot of inspiration and I know that I'm doing the right thing and I will only get better. We as human beings weren't meant to be eating this stuff. Is it any wonder that the Black community has so many health problems? On top of things such as racial, social, and financial discrimination, a poor diet is literally a death sentence. I don't buy that genetically predisposed "scientific" jargon and I don't want any part of it!
Here are the links if you are interested:
Shannon's Raw Vegan Transition Story
The Tamarind Tree
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2 comments:
Interesting write-up! I enjoyed reading more about your Veganism. I honestly think I would be willing to try it after a long stint of...NO...never mind...That means I wouldn't be able to eat burritos!!!!
Sorry, no can do!
hahaha, yeah, you can keep those mutant antibiotic steroid buckets of flesh to your self.
anyway, don't you know they have veggie burritos? they taste good, seriously.
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