vegan...again

I've been eating a (primarily) vegan diet for 4 weeks and have to tell you - I love it!! I have people roll their eyes at me (Nicole, my mom, my mother-in-law), and much to my sister-in-law's dismay I love eating vegan food! If you've ever thought about it - just try it - you will LOVE it! Here's my top ten list of why:
1) It's soooo much easier to cook! I like cooking, love it even, but I'm not good at it. I can't follow a recipe to save my life, and my poor husband lost a ton of weight just by eating my cooking. Sorry, honey! A vegan diet is mostly grains, vegetables, fruits, and soy products. Grains are about the simplest thing in the world to cook. I cook all my grains prior to cooking the "main course" (like on Sunday or the night before) and I can't even mess those up (too badly).
2) It's way cheaper. The first week was maybe about the same as my old grocery bill, but buying grain in bulk is cheap. Polenta was 2.99 and I made 2 giant casseroles with it and have a TON left to make more. Fresh veggies are fantastic (better for you and relatively less expensive than say, cheese or frozen meals).
3) It wasn't that much of a stretch (for me anyway). If you ever have been out to eat with me in the past 10 years, you'll know I don't usually order meat. I've had to have my poor friends check and double-check my chicken before I ate it, so I stopped ordering it altogether. Next, I started cooking less flesh at home - I hate cooking meat. I also hate milk. Yuck! (however I do drink soy milk with my nose plugged for B12 and calcium)
4) In 1 month I lost weight. So far, 4 lbs. down! Plus, I'm honestly not hungry. Grains, fruits and veggies fill you up really well.
5) I think about food differently. And that's a good thing! I used to envy people who looked at food as fuel. I'm there now! Don't get me wrong, I plan on socializing over meals, it's just changed my thinking.
6) I FEEL better. A biggie. I don't have aches and pains (especially my back). My allergies are not nearly what they used to be - in fact I haven't had a claritin all season yet!
7) My kids are eating better. They still eat meat and drink "real" milk. But they also eat my vegan food too and LOVE it. They are trying all kinds of vegetables and grains and tonight Luke asked for a third helping of polenta casserole. YUM!
8) Cheese substitutes aren't that bad. Really! I've made cheesecake and a red velvet cake that were both vegan. Not bad! (I do however love cream cheese and cheese in general and that has been the hardest thing to give up, but I've had some dairy here and there throughout the month - so I'm not a great vegan... - and then felt sick immediately following the dairy eating)
9) I can taste my food. I take my time to eat food - mostly because grains are chewier than swallowing a hunk of cheese. And my food tastes very different because it's all new to me!
10) I FEEL better!! I had to repeat my reason because it's my favorite one!! This whole month was a trial to see if I would feel differently. Would I feel weak? Sickly? Hungry? Could I really do this? I can honestly tell you that I feel good. I made a good choice!
Will I stick with it? Yep, sure will!! Forever? I don't know, we'll see. I'm not a vegan because I don't believe in killing animals for food. I feed my family meat sometimes. I have a whole bunch of deer meat in my freezer and 1/4 of a quarter of a cow (is that 1/16th of a cow?). I just wanted to see if I feel good - I do.