My second challenge is also based on a book: 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker. (Challenge #1 was also based on a book: The 30-Day Vegan Challenge.)
In this book, Ms. Walker shares her struggles of dealing with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that strikes with flare-ups and can be debilitating--symptoms include loss of balance, no muscle control, and severe pain, and recovery from addiction.
Although MS has not affected me or anyone I'm close to personally, this book still struck me (in fact, when I finished, I ordered two copies to send to friends). Ms. Walker's spiritual advisor prescribes her an interesting medication: 29 gifts in 29 days. The effort leads the author to rediscover the joy of helping others, the positive feeling that comes from focusing on more than one's own life, and reminds her of just how fortunate she is.
I think we all need those reminders.
I'll give a more thorough review of the book later, but that's my goal for Challenge #2: 30 gifts in 30 days.
I will follow the book's guidelines, join the 29-Day-Giving-Challenge website, and give a gift (we'll define that further) every day from 1 to 30 January.
While I considered making this my first challenge for December 2011, I thought it would be more beneficial to do it AFTER the Christmas season. In December, many are focused on giving and sharing, but by January, focus usually shifts to paying the bills, recovering from the holidays, and personal goals for the new year. I don't want my focus to shift--I want to become even more focused on giving...and I'm curious to see where that leads me.
Pick up the book, check out the website, follow my journey, and join me in a challenge that shouldn't really be a challenge--give to others.
As I mentioned in last night's post, one of Sarah Taylor's recommendations for becoming vegan was to take a 24-hour "fruit and veggie cleanse" where, for 24 hours, all you eat is fresh organic raw fruits and vegetables. Some flavoring and some cooking is okay, but she wants us to stay as raw as possible.
So, I'm almost done with my 24 hours...and I have to say I'm glad it's almost over. It was much harder than I expected--not so much that I was hungry, but I really had cravings. I said yesterday that I wasn't really sure what the point of the cleanse was; I know at least one benefit I got from it--I realize just how dependent I am on grains, sweets, and "other stuff."
What did I eat? Below is everything I put in my body today (aside from water)--everything (except for the teas, of course) was homemade...
Breakfast: Banana, Green Tea, Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup (with flax seed)
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Sesame Kale & Onions
Snack: Tomato, Celery, & Cucumber Salad (with some olive oil & balsamic vinegar), Peppermint Tea
Dinner: Mixed Greens & Mushroom Salad (with some homemade mustard maple dressing)
Snack: Fruit Salad, Peach Detox Tea
I hope to now be a bit more conscious of just how much "stuff" I eat aside from fruit and veggies. While I know that grains, fats, and other things all need to be present in a healthy diet, I didn't realize quite how much they were a part of my daily intake...
I'm thinking about taking this cleanse one day a week to continually remind myself, but I'm not going to make that commitment quite yet...
Back on Day Three of Vegan in 30 Days (which I am also reading every day of this journey), Sarah Taylor recommended that readers take a 24-hour fruit and vegetable cleanse--basically, for 24 hours, all you eat is fruit and vegetables--no grains, no oils, etc. "Ideally, you will eat only organic raw fruits and veggies in their whole, natural form. If you must, you can make a hot dish, as long as all the ingredients are fresh fruits and veggies."
Granted, as I was reading this suggestion I was already eating my bowl of cereal with almond milk, so I decided Day Three was not the day for me to start my 24 hour cleanse. :) Then, of course, I had to finish my yummy vegan nachos, so tomorrow, Day 7, I will be doing my 24 hour fruit and veg cleanse.
I have a fruit salad already prepared, carrots peeled, a tomato, celery, & cucumber salad prepared and a bowl of my sweet potato and carrot soup to warm me up half way through the day (probably overcooked for her taste, but I'm okay with that).
My only concern is that Ms. Taylor doesn't really say WHY this cleanse is helpful--my guess is that it has to do with giving your body a full 24 hours of only easy-to-digest food to give your body a chance to break down what's inside and, well, cleanse. I also wonder if it has to do with cleansing your palate and showing you that it really is possible to survive without "extra" stuff.
I'll let you know how it goes!
I can't believe I'm already on day five--it's been much easier than I expected (so far) and I'm proud of myself for sticking it out.
I did have a chocolate craving today, so I pulled out some Chocolove Dark Chocolate that I had purchased from my CSA. By most accounts, dark chocolate is okay on a vegan diet because milk hasn't been added...
And although the ingredents are "organic cocoa liquor, organic sugar, and organic cocoa butter" there is a little statement underneath the ingredient list that says "may contain traces of milk or nuts," and although I told you I wouldn't be too strict about some of the more obscure animal product ingredients, I'm afraid this was just a little too close for comfort for me...so no chocolate tonight. :(
Today was my usual day of preparing for the week (and when I used up the fruits and veggies that are close to going bad), so I made some tropical fruit smoothies (only fruit in there--no sugar or dairy and they're fantastic), some cilantro dip/dressing that can be used on top of any veggies or grains when in need of a quick meal, and my treat for the day/week--veggie nachos.
Taking some of the Food Should Taste Good blue corn chips (my newest delicious discovery), the mushrooms, tomatoes, and avocadoes I needed to use up, and the vegan cheese and "meat" crumbles I wanted to try, I made nachos...and they were perfect for sitting back and watching football today!
The "cheese" melted, the crumble and mushroom mix came out with great seasoning, and it really was just divine. I'm fairly certain I could've served it to non-vegans and they would've been very happy!
And I'm looking forward to the taco salad I'm going to have tomorrow...
I think I might be addicted to grocery shopping now. I love just walking around the store, hunting for vegan items, finding new things to try, and formulating recipes and meal ideas in my head. After spending another $50 in a store today (after already receiving two CSA orders and making another fairly large grocery trip in the past three days), I realize that I need to slow it down a little bit; in fact, I probably could go a couple of weeks without shopping...
I did find some fun things that I'm excited about:
- So Delicious Nog--It's a vegan version of egg nog made with coconut milk! Of course it was the first thing I tried when I got home and it tasted great. (I've read that one of the tricks to enjoying vegan versions of food is to just eat them on their own and not try to compare them to the "real" thing--since I haven't had egg nog in about a year, I don't really remember what it's supposed to taste like.)
- Seaweed Snacks--Seaweed is supposed to be extremely good for you--lots of good nutrients and minerals (including B12 which is normally difficult for vegans to get) and easy for the body to digest.
- Food Should Taste Good Chips--Another product that I tasted as soon as I got home and, wow, these things are good. (I tasted the Blue Corn variety, but also bought the Sweet Potato ones as the store I was at was having a two-for-one-sale...can't wait to try those, too.) Seriously, even if you're not a vegan (and the fact that they're certified vegan was a big plus), you should try these things.
- Vegan Cheese--Okay, I did it. I told you I don't like overly-processed products, but I love cheese and I wanted to give it a chance. So I bought two different brands (one mozzarella and one cheddar) and I'm very curious to see how they turn out.
And, of course, I picked up a few other yummy things (and had some yummy things delivered) that I'm also excited about: mangoes, turnips (never tried them before), sesame oil, brown rice pasta, tangerines ('tis the season), and more.
Tomorrow is going to be a cooking day where I prepare grains, soups, and a few dishes to make it easy for the rest of the week...I'll, of course, let you know how it goes and share recipes soon!
There are animal products in everything!--Okay, obviously there aren't animal products in everything, but there's a lot more to this vegan thing than meat, fish, dairy, and eggs. I knew I'd have to be on the look-out for milk, eggs, and butter in some products, but I didn't know that I also had to be on the lookout for wine (sometimes the fermentation process uses gelatin from animal bones, isinglass from fish bladders, and milk proteins), orange juice (anything that's fortified with Omega-3 stuff has fish oil added), and tortillas (could be made with lard). Seriously? I've decided that I have to forgive myself if I "fail" on some of these ingredients...at least for now. I am only on Day Two, after all...
I'm almost done with Day One of my vegan challenge and I have to say it was successful with a few interesting thoughts/moments along the way:
--My office had a "breakfast burrito" sale today to raise money...I obviously couldn't buy any of the egg, cheese, and sausage options, so I felt a bit guilty and I'm still self-conscious about telling others that I'm a vegan...I'll have to get over that in the next 30 days!
--Today I realized just how often I reach for the office candy bowl--I didn't look too closely because I knew I would be too tempted by all the milk chocolate and buttery goodness that was in there, but I'm definitely going to have to explore my vegan sweet options.
--It feels good to be filling myself with fruits, vegetables, and whole foods. I'm excited to be taking care of myself this way.
--I spent a lot of time today thinking about Sarah Taylor's tip for Day 1 in Vegan in 30 Days--"why do you want to be vegan?" Of course, I've thought about that and I have my goals and intentions, but she makes a case that in order to make a change this big, you have to have a big reason for why you want to make it... "Is your reason compelling enough so that you will stick with it for 30 days? What about your whole life?" I'm not sure if my reasons of losing weight and feeling healthy are strong enough at this point to outweigh my desire for greasy creamy comfort food that I'm used to...I will definitely have to revisit this at the end of my 30 days!
