Going vegan...ish

Idly flipping through Netflix one weekend I came across the documentary Forks Over Knives.

With John's heart problems, weird tumor things, and previous exposure to all kinds of cancer making things it seemed kind of no-brainer that a vegan diet is the way to go.

So I did a ton of research and discovered that all of what they say in that documentary is fact... and that it's kind of scary.

After depleting our store of non-happy food in the house, John and I did our first grocery shopping trip. Two days in, and so far so good.

Here are the strict guidelines as laid out in the film/research:
- Vegan diet (no animal protein of any kind).
- Low sodium diet (the caloric intake must be equal or more than the sodium mg)
- No oil
- No sugar
- No refined foods.

That's pretty extreme, but ... so is cancer and heart disease. However, I just don't think that diet's realistic to jump into - especially whilst almost 5 months pregnant. So I'm doing something a bit different...

- Lacto Vegetarian (cutting down but still trying to get enough servings as recommended for preggers. No fish, no chicken, no eggs, the only animal anything will be from dairy)
- Low sodium (1:1 calories:sodium mg)
- Minimal oils (No oil for instance, in the hummus I made, but a drizzle while sauteing veggies)
- No "fake" sugars. No HFCS, no corn syrup, no aspartame, etc. Cane sugar / organic sugar / honey is preferred, but plain old sugar in moderation allowed.
- No MSG, or anything on the label you don't know what it is.

John is a bit harder to win over to the dark side... so he's changing things up by doing the above with the below modifications:
- No red meat. Limited land animal protein, most protein from seafood.
- Reduced sodium intake (1.5:1 calories:sodium mg)

We'll see how it goes. It's been two days so far and it's not that big of a deal for me. I've found the texture/taste of meat pretty gross in the last several months. If baby wants to be a vegetarian, I'm okay with that. I have a pretty large need for cheese though, which I'm trying to cut back on...we'll see.

I'm just as content with grapenuts as fruit loops, with apples instead of pop-tarts, with hummus and veggie wraps instead of chicken and pasta, as mushrooms and rice with low sodium soy sauce instead teriyaki beef.

We've also decided that one day a week we'll allow ourselves the indulgence we've been craving. Whether that's chicken wings (Wing Tuesdays anyone?) or a steak or a bag of potato chips... who knows. So far I am content knowing I'm putting good food in, getting good nutrients, and making myself healthy (and by proxy the baby healthy). I want John to be old enough to see his kids get married and have kids on their own and there's no way that's going to happen if it's all steaks and cheeseburgers.

So..it's written down, now I can hold myself accountable. :) Wish me luck on my healthier trails!