The Typical Introduction

The first post on a new blog is always sort of awkward ya know. No new blog author wants to start off their blog with a typical first post of an introduction and a life story, they want something unique, something with pizzazz. Unfortunately introductions must be made and information much be dispensed to the new audience and so the new excited blog author has no choice but to write a semi boring first post about themselves and why they are writing the blog.....and that is exactly how this post is going to pan out I am afraid. So please bear with me as this first post falls into the pits of cliche-dom. (Yes I make up my own words)

First, my stats. I am a stay at home mom of two and best friend to my hubby of 14 years. Our children are in the tween and teen stage of life and my husband and I are in our early 30's. We live in north west region of the United States but we were both born and raised in the south. Being from the south we are pretty critical of our food and have a strong bias toward southern cooking. We spent Christmas with family in our home state this year and one of the big things we looked forward to was the food.

My husband and I have both always been on the chunkier side throughout our lives even though we both have had periods were we were more fit and trim. I can't say much for my husband's side of the the family but I know part of my family history includes several members with diabetes, heart disease, thyroid issues and everything that goes with those types of health problems. I suppose that is why I was not surprised to learn about five or six years ago that I also had some major thyroid issues as well as insulin resistance. I was just following in family tradition it would seem.

My diagnosis was very bittersweet. Ever since I graduated high school I had been gaining weight, having brain fog episodes and hormonal imbalances. Doctor after doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong with me until one day years later one of them decided to run a few extra blood test. Why the first set of doctors didn't do this I will never know. The test revealed that my thyroid was basically non functioning and that I also had insulin resistance. To go along with the news was that my doctor found a large tumor on my thyroid which he feared was cancerous. Thankfully after having part of my thyroid removed it was discovered to be benign and I was able to move on with my life and learn how to manage my health issues and my new arsenal of prescriptions.

I will never forget my first doctors visit after my surgery. My doctor was explaining all the new meds he was putting me on, two of which he explained I would have to take the rest of my life if I wanted to live. Yikes! When it came time for me to ask him questions I immediately asked how long it would be before I could start feeling and seeing a physical difference. I was tired of the brain fog, the never ending fatigue, the constant weight gain despite what I ate, the fibromyalgia pains....heck I was just tired of being tire. With extreme sincerity, my doctor looked me in the eye and said the chance of those things going away or getting any better were pretty slim. He explained that the meds I was now on were simply to keep me alive and kicking and any increase in their dosage could result in severe organ damage. I was devastated. Was he actually telling me this was as good as it could get!? Naturally I went to another doctor.

My new doctor gave me a little more hope. He changed up my medication some and said that I should some marked difference but to remember that thyroid disease and even insulin resistance was not something many people can improve on. Basically these were the cards in life I was dealt and I just had to play the game as best as I could but not to place to many bets on winning. Nice.

Another year passed and my husband got a job promotion which had us moving 1600 miles. A new town naturally meant a new doctor which I gladly welcomed. My new doctor changed up my meds which did seem to help in some areas but not in the areas that meant the most to me. I told him I wanted to feel better not just survive and I wanted to lose weight even though all my other doctors told me with my diagnoses was almost impossible. The new doctor decided to put me on a diet to which he believed would help me lose some weight and feel better overall. It was a low carb diet and I had never felt worse in my life.

This new diet my new doctor put me on was essentially the Atkins diet. I could have all the fat I wanted just little to no carbs. One meal suggestion was to take a chicken breast and put melted cheese and bacon on top and then on top of this some mayo and a little chopped tomatoes and serve it on a piece of lettuce. A no bun blt. Basically a fat salad. I was told for breakfast to eat sausage or bacon and eggs, for lunch another hunk of meat with a little vegetables and dinner could be anything so long as it was carb free. Snacks were to be cheese, nuts, yogurt or any sort no sugar diet type foods. I was not allowed to have fruit, breads, grains, beans, any starchy vegetables, rice, pasta or anything with sugar in it. I could have a big steak and all the buttered covered vegetables I wanted but no tater on the side and definitely no side of rice. I will admit I did lose weight although I know most was water but still I was happy to see the scales drop twenty pounds in such a short period of time. That was where the happiness of it all stopped. I had thought that the brain fog ones gets when they have thyroid issue was bad but it was nothing compared to the brain fog and headaches I developed while on the low carb diet. I was use to being tired and constantly fighting fatigue as part of thyroid disease and insulin resistance but I had less energy than ever on the low carb diet. My skin went to heck, my whole body hurt and smelled and guess what my blood test got worse! For the first time in my life my blood test were showing high cholesterol, high triclycerides and high everything else that was bad for you. I began having high blood pressure for the first time in my life and my sinus issues tripled as well. I felt horrible my health was getting worse not better.

I took my concerns to my doctor who said this was all normal and to give it time, so I did. Time proved however that this way of eating was doing more harm than good. Thankfully my doctor is fairly open minded and decided to look a bit further into the diet he had put me on and at my next visit he suggested I do two things, add a bowl of oatmeal to my breakfast and a cup of rice to my dinner. I started feeling a little better but still not enough to make an improvement on the majority of my health issues. I asked my doctor if any of his patients had had success on this diet he was putting me on and he said very few but most are simply not able to stay with it because the side effects are so unpleasant. Duh!

Honestly I think my doctor is just as perplexed about nutrition as the rest of us. You don't have to take a course in nutrition to get a medical license in our country so essentially our doctors know almost as much about nutrition and it's role in diseases as the rest of us. Reassuring isn't it. Sadly it wasn't until I started ignoring my doctor's advice on nutrition that I began to feel better.  So now I basically just go to my doctor to get my medications refilled which he is happy to do every time.

Ok reader, thanks for hanging in there with me for this long, I have given you my background and now it is time for the purpose of this blog.

This past year or so I have done lots of research on nutrition and it's role in disease and health in general. Included in my research was further investigation into how we get our food, where it comes from and the effects these practices have on our world. I will give more information on my research  in details on this blog later but for now I am just going to state that I believe that a vegan way of eating is the best possible diet both for ourselves and the environment.

I have "gone vegan" many different times while doing my research and each time I always felt sooooo much better. My longest run was three weeks and in that short time my sinuses completely cleared up, I lost fifteen pounds, I had more energy and my fibromyalgia pains pretty much stopped. Why did I stop you ask? Because I am human and I have a hard time saying "NO" to things I enjoy....like cheese...yummmmm.
There was also lots of outside pressure from folks saying my vegan way of eating was strange and even wrong and it became increasingly hard to feel like I actually fit in with society. Typing that sounds insane but it truly made me feel like I was the creature from the lost lagoon. It took a series of stressful months, the failing health of some of my loved ones and the fact that I simply feel worse now than I ever have, to make me not care what others think anymore. I still have the battle with my cravings to contend with but my brain fog, sinus issues and pains have been so intense lately that I only need to remind myself of what my favorite foods do to me health wise and I can usually control the cravings.

So even though I have many good reasons to partake and stay with a vegan diet I know I still need one extra kick in the pants to keep me on course......accountability. That is the primary reason for this blog, accountability. I know that if I have people reading about my journey and goal of eating only vegan for one full year that I will be  less likely to slip up. Also setting a goal makes a huge difference in how I find success or failure in anything I do. Before when I went vegan I just left it open ended and said it was for life which made it seem daunting. By saying I am going to do this for a year, it gives me an ending point to look forward to and strive for. Naturally my hopes are that when my year is up I will feel so good and have seen such great results that I will continue eating vegan long past my initial year. It is going to be a hard year but should be very interesting and I invite you all to follow along with me as I try out lots of vegan recipes, meal plans and learn more about nutrition and where our food comes from.