Prior to being back at school full time, I met a lifelong friend for lunch at one of my very favorite places to eat. Flourish is a new restaurant in Evansville, Ind., that focuses its energy into creating delicious flavorful foods. The catch, it’s plant based. Once we sat down at an outside table with our food, my friend lovingly said “I never thought you’d be a…anything like this.”
I’d like to say I’m plant based. Saying I’m vegan is more honest. Saying I’m a vegetarian is the most honest thing to say. Some old habits die hard.
Josh and I have committed to being 100% vegan Monday-Friday and allow ourselves to indulge in a dairy product or two over the weekend. Part of this is because cheese, but the other part is because I’m lazy and cooking on the weekends makes me feel sad.
So what in the world would make two, cheeseburger-eating, barbecue-loving meat eaters decide to quit eating meat? Well, like many other decisions we’ve made of late, cancer was absolutely a driving force for us. It started by listening to the podcast, Chris Beat Cancer. This is an incredible story of a man who switched to a clean diet (a.k.a. plant based) and used a holistic approach to fight his cancer. He was able to beat his colon cancer without chemo or radiation.
Throughout his podcast, he introduces you to a variety of people, doctors, athletes and other cancer survivors who have switched to plant-based eating for a variety of reasons and why they believe it is the best way to live. Animal proteins do a lot in helping cancer grow, so we decided almost immediately to cut animal products from our diets.
From my personal experience, being a vegetarian is easy. I don’t miss eating meat at all. There are some really awesome substitutions that I honestly prefer. Who knew a veggie burger was better than a beef one? Being vegan is harder, which is why we give ourselves some grace on the weekends.
Primarily, it’s difficult if you’re trying to eat out or on the go. It is also hard to not snack on things that I typically would have said yes to before. This becomes more difficult the farther I get into the school year, because elementary schools are full of chocolate, and guys, I LOVE chocolate. Vegan chocolate is really good but not easy to get your hands on. I’m going to need the makers of Reese’s to change their recipe to fit my current needs.
Being plant based takes things to a whole new level. To be truly plant based, it means cutting out all oils as well. It takes a lot of the “vegan” made products off the table, so no vegan cheese or vegan chocolate. You can have whole grains and very minimal sugar. The long-term goal for me is to be disciplined enough to be plant based at some point, but if I’m being honest, I’m super impressed with the progress Josh and I have made so far.
Outside of obvious health benefits, science tells us there are a lot of advantages to eating less meat and animal products. One being the impact that cutting out meat has on the environment. Cows take up a lot of space guys, like so much space that portions of the Amazon Rain Forest are currently being cleared to make room for cattle. Cattle create an amazing amount of CO2. So add CO2 and remove the trees that help counteract the pollution, and we’ve got quite a disaster on our hands.
Science tells us there are a lot of advantages to eating less meat and animal products. One being the impact that cutting out meat has on the environment. Cows take up a lot of space guys, like so much space that portions of the Amazon Rain Forest are currently being cleared to make room for cattle.
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If going plant based or just eating less meat is something that you’ve thought about but then quickly fall back into your carnivorous ways, I get it. We’ve all watched the movies about the ill treatment of animals and sworn to quit eating them at some point in our lives, but for whatever reason it doesn’t stick. For me, the sticking point was learning the connections between cancer growth and animal products. I also have a long history of various types of cancer in my family, as does Josh, so this is hopefully setting us up for healthier futures.
If this is something you’re interested in learning more about, I would strongly encourage you watch a few documentaries. The first, and my favorite, is “Game Changers” followed by “What the Health” and wrap it all up with “Forks over Knives”.
Good luck with all the things you’re doing to make the world a better place. I know we’re all struggling right now to know what is right and what is wrong and why isn’t it all laid out simply for us. What I’m finding helpful is focusing on the things I can control. Our diets are part of that, and eating cleaner makes the earth a little happier.
So go out, and do good things.
Jo is a Mess 