Plant Based vs Vegan

Vegan is defined as a person who does not eat or use animal products.

Plant Based is defined as a diet based on vegetables, grains, legumes and fruit, with little or no animal products (including dairy).

In my eyes Vegans do not use any animal products at all.  They are taking a stand against animal cruelty in every aspect of their life.  I completely commend them for that.

I am Plant Based.  I do not consume animal products.  But I do own some leather boots.  I am fully aware of what goes on behind the dairy, egg and meat industries and do not support them.  But my main goal in changing my diet is for the health of my family.

While I do not purchase anything that I know to be made from an animal, it is not my main goal.  I will post various articles and web links that will show the cruelty to animals but will try to stick to health reasons for being plant based.

Most recently I was able to steer clear of a couch filled with down (even though it was super cushy and amazing).  I knew what those poor animals go through in order to get the down off their bodies and would rather spend my dollars and my vote on something else.

Christmas 2013

Each year for Christmas my mother would bake a Swedish Tea Ring for us to enjoy while opening presents.  The problem was is that we, my father and I, had to wait for the dough to rise and the darn thing to bake before we could even touch our presents.  As I got older it was easier to wait but as a little kid this was pure torture.

I wanted to recreate the same tradition minus the torture.  There was something about a homemade breakfast on Christmas morning that I will always remember.  But I wanted to find a plant based version... in came the Happy Herbivore.  She is by far my favorite plant based chef.  Her dishes are delicious and I knew she would have something for me to make.

I found her cinnamon bun recipe online, which is also in her Happy Herbivore Cookbook.  I made a test batch about a week before just to make sure I made them right and they tasted good.  (Nothing like a ruined dish on Christmas).  My 6 year old decided to rename them "Leilani's Famous Cinnamon Rolls" because he loved them so much.

Christmas morning came and my mother in law stayed the night to watch the boys open their presents.  We opened them first then I started on the Cinnamon Buns.  They were delicious.  My husband loved the fact tha they were made with whole wheat dough.  They were delicious and sweet and a great addition to our new tradition!!

How I started...

January 2013 was the start of my journey.  Here is the list of items that I slowly gave up each month to prepare me for my new way of eating...

January - No red meat
February - No pork (sadly I didn't eat my last piece of bacon :( )
March - No turkey
April - No chicken
May - No fish (except for sushi date nights)
June - Began using my vegan cookbooks
July - Started making one vegan dish a week
August - Stopped buying turkey for the family
September - 2 vegan dishes a week
October - Stopped buying chicken for the family
November - Stop buying all meat
December - No Milk (for anyone)

As for cheese and eggs, I have some left in my fridge along with some lunch meat that was in the freezer.  So we are going to work through what we have and just not purchase anymore.

For us it is baby steps and working slowly instead of going all in.  It is hard for us since eggs and cheese are a big part of our diet.  Plus I love cheese more than I should!!

A Journey...

I have started countless blogs to try and find my voice.  I seem to have been searching for the same voice when it came to my diet.  When I was 16, I wanted to become a vegetarian.  My motivation was animals but I was not really informed and didn't fully understand what they went through.  But living at home with my parents proved a difficult task to incorporate my wishes.  My mother tried her best but ended up cooking my tofu in the same pan and juices as whatever meat she was preparing.

In college I was a pescatarian.  Which meant that I ate only fish and no other animal meat.  My thinking was that fish could not be harmed the same way as land animals.  I still also at dairy and eggs.  But I could never find the right balance of foods and became sick.  I wanted to become vegetarian again but could never find the support that I need in my friends and family.  So I went back to eating all meats for the next 10 years.  After I had my first son in 2007 I began to explore food again.  But this time I took a different approach.

My motivation was not the animals themselves but the health of my family.  My husband and I indulged ourselves while I was pregnant (brownies for breakfast anyone?) and were having a hard time losing our baby weight.  I watched Food Inc. to see where our food came from.  This was the start of my current journey.  I had our second son in 2010.  My weight never seemed to go back down no matter how healthy I ate.

In November 2012, I had blood test run just to see how my health was.  As it turned out I had high cholesterol, a problem I had never faced before.  I was bound and determined to overcome this and food seemed a better avenue then medicine.  I then watched  Food Matters and Forks Over Knives and was thoroughly convinced that becoming a vegetarian was within my grasp.  I started to eliminate one meat after another since giving them all up was going to be very difficult.

After 3 months I had my cholesterol checked again and it had dropped 30 points.  I was amazed and determined to make my family adopt a healthy diet.  Join me as I journal the foods that I eat and the paths that I take to reach my new goal of Becoming Plant-Based!!