An Introduction

My roommate and I have decided to embark on a fantastic new journey starting tomorrow, June 27th, 2011. After much deliberation, we have decided to try out being Vegan!

To some, this may come as a shock. To others, it makes sense. Regardless, I want to take a little time to explain how we came to this decision and what we are hoping to convey through this change in our lifestyles.

When I was a teenager, my grandfather had prostate cancer. Watching and caring for his brother not too long before dying from a combination of the disease and the treatments, he decided to try a more holistic approach. My grandfather researched long and hard, reading many books on diet and its effects on the body. With his findings, he learned that a vegetarian diet containing a vast majority of raw fruits and vegetables and supplemented with natural nutrients in various forms was what would help him become cancer free. My mother took note of my grandfather's findings and switched our family over to a mostly vegetarian diet. I went something like 4 years without eating a hamburger. Since then, my immediate family has switched back to an omnivore's diet and my grandfather has remained cancer free for about 15 years.

Throughout my adulthood, I have still exercised some of the dietary practices that I learned in earlier years, many times being what I call "accidentally vegetarian". When eating out, I'll occasionally order a steak or burger, but will usually go for the lighter choices. Many times these choices did not come from my desire to be healthier, but out of sheer preference. I had developed a taste for things that were leaner and better for me than some, but I unfortunately have also always had a sweet tooth and an affinity for things that are much less good for me.

Being overweight since early childhood, I have been on almost every diet in the book. Most of them worked, but I very quickly grew tired of these methods and longed for a more "normal" existence. Unfortunately this "normal" existence consisted of me still having a big butt and fitting only in plus sizes.

It's easy to place the blame on genetics or being a product of our environments for being overweight or unhealthy, but at some point personal responsibility kicks in as mine did years ago. It has been a constant struggle for me to try to fit in to what is considered "normal" or "healthy". I have tried numerous methods and know that what it boils down to is that if you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. I also know that if these calories are not from nutrient dense sources, these food sources are not going to provide to me the nutrients necessary for me to lead a healthy life. Basically in computer speak, garbage in, garbage out. If I eat garbage, I'm going to feel like garbage.

I've decided to try out following a Vegan lifestyle for a year. My roommate, although we are not going to be living together for a year, is going to try to stick to it as best as he can while we are still living together and perhaps after.

The purpose of this blog is to follow my new decision and document successes, failures, struggles and victories associated with being Vegan.

Later I will go into more depth and reasoning behind my decision, but tonight I must go to work.

Happy Sunday night!