only adds a year or two!?!

I'm overweight. About 12 years ago I went on Jenny Craig diet, lost a lot of weight and kept it off for two years. Then I hit an emotional sandbar and started gaining weight again. I'd like to take it off, but it's such hard work, and I don't want to do the work. I'd rather try to eat more healthy food, go vegan, and let my weight take care of itself.

It's nearing Halloween, so there's a lot of "strange" stories available. I saw this one on Reuters: Web Life: Want to diary your death? Ask online. (LINK is below.) The article is about different websites that asks you questions, then predicts your date of death.

The funniest one was from evil.berzerker.net: "Nancy: At age 73 while showing your work at a major art gallery, you will be accosted and later slain by PETA activists." Nice to know I'm going to show my work at a major art gallery!

Estimates ranged from death at age 73 to 94. But, I was also doing an experiment. On several of the sites, I did it honestly first, and then put in that I was at my optimum weight. That was the only change I made. Seems that working to lose weight only added one year to my life at one site, 2 years at another one, and 3 years at a third site. Not a big difference for all that work -- especially if you're in your 90s and the quality of your life isn't what it used to be.

Guess longevity isn't a good reason to lose weight. Quality of life with whatever years I have left is more important -- less pain, less medicine, less hospitalization.

a nearly vegan day!

Nearly vegan and mostly healthy. Pretty good for today. I even had soy latte, which I don't like as much as whole milk.

I didn't really feel like cooking, so took it easy but cooked anyway. I did one of my standbys-- baked potato with some sauted stuff on it. Usually I put onion, frozen peas, bacon if I have it, and some cheese or sourcream on the potatoes. Tonight I used mushrooms that were past their prime and needed to be used or thrown out, onions, frozen peas, kalamata olives, capers and ended the saute with sherry and some high heat to evaporate it.

It was delish! Betty loved it. I did find myself thinking that it would taste good with some feta cheese, or goat cheese on it, but to be honest, my tastebuds really didn't miss the dairy. Only my head did.

So what wasn't vegan? Store-bought cookies. At least it was in the baked goods, and not a meal dripping with cheese!

Definitely not VEGAN!

Well, trying to be dairy-free only lasted 2 days. Then I added some feta cheese to my salad.

Interestingly, in trying to be dairy-free I went so far from vegan-- I ate meat, vegs, fruit, etc.... but it seems that the more I focused on trying not to eat cheese, the more meat I wanted. Guess this will be a long road for me!

Not very vegan, but trying for non-dairy today

I haven't been focusing on food-- mostly because I've been busy and don't have the time.

Today, though, I'm trying to be non-dairy at least. I've been coughing a lot recently, and I know that dairy products increase mucus production. I'm addicted to cheese, though, and struggling to get through a day without it.

The last time I tried being non-dairy, I succeeded for about one week and it didn't make any difference. So I went back. Later, someone told me I didn't give it enough time.

So, like the AA Program says, "one day at a time," I'm trying to be non-dairy today.

Pronunciations

Like a lot of orally trained deaf people, I want to know how to say things properly. I've always said vegan as "veg-an" with a hard g? As in vegetarion, not veg out. Carolyn Brick told me her son says "vee-gan". I finally looked it up.

At http://dictionary.reference.com/ I found:

veg‧an  [vej-uhn; especially Brit. vee-guhn]

So I guess both are right.

Trying to accept the work

One of the things that I have a hard time with is the work involved in becoming vegan. I can go across the street and get a pizza or cheesesteake or a hamburger, but I can't as easily go out and get a vegan dinner. And while I've always liked cooking, it is the results I really like, more than the actual standing and cooking in itself.

I've been in the habit of planning two, or maybe three, meals a week and just winging everything else. That's harder when you can't grab some deli turkey to make a sandwich, or whip up a cheese omlette. It's hard, too, when you need to satisfy two people's needs for satisfying food.

It's slow going to change my mental habits and accept the work involved in planning and cooking more meals each week. Making that committment is the only way this will work, though.

Partial success with Ginger Lemon Stir Fry

Last night's dinner had a mixed outcome. I've been cooking a lot of beans lately, so to get away from that I chose to make "Ginger Lemon Stir Fry" from my favorite vegan cookbook, "The Vegan Gourmet." Larry and Carolyn loved it, but Betty didn't like it. The main veggie is supposed to be broccoli, but I prefer cauliflour so I bought a pre-cut mix of the two. Turns out Betty isn't crazy about either of them. The ginger-lemon sauce was great, though. I should try it again with completely different vegetables.

Dinner was rounded out with brown rice, a salad that Larry and Carolyn brought, and vegan cookies.

I made the cookies we had last night (more on those later) but today I was watching TV and found out about Allison's Gourmet (http://www.allisonsgourmet.com/), an online store that ships vegan cookies and browies from their bakery in South Carolina. They have a monthly club too.

Looks like there's a new version of my fav vegan cookbook:

Taking it easy

I've been a vegetarian cook for about 30 years or more. I got started because my roommate in college, Marian, was vegetarian, and we all cooked for each other, so I had to learn if I wanted to feed her. That was back in 1973, and oh the experiments Marian and Mary had to put up with! I had a hard time finding recipies and I remember one tragic loaf -- lentil and oatmeal loaf -- from a meat cookbook that was trying to include some vegetarian info, of course.

I was vegetarian for about three years, but started eating meat again because it was too hard to go out to eat with friends, or go to their house and eat -- especially in Texas! Plus, I have to admit, I like the taste of meat. I just don't think about where it comes from or how it got to my mouth.

I never went back to cooking meat, my partner Betty has to do that. But I'll eat it, or put it in some dishes. But slowly over the years more and more meat made its way into my diet.

What's changed? My friend Larry Brick read a book, "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell and it scared him into a plant-based, low-fat, vegan diet. He and his wife, Carolyn, have eaten well for years, focusing on healthy food, but not vegetarian. This book impressed Larry so much that he's embraced vegan eating with enthusiasm, and they bought the book for me and Betty. Campbell wrote a very compelling book proving through study after study that a plant-based diet can reverse the causes of cancer, heart disease, dementia and probably alzheimers. So, I am easing my way back to how I was eating and cooking 30-some years ago.

Carolyn and Larry seem to have an easier time of it because they both like salads and raw fruits a lot more than Betty and I do. Betty isn't willing to cut out meat. But she read a few pages of "The China Study", the ones focusing on dementia and alz, and agreed to stop eating lunch meat every day. So I'll have to make her beloved turkey sandwiches an occasional part of our dinners when we're in the mood for simple soup and salad suppers. I don't want to give up cheese and eggs yet! But I'll work on reducing my dependence on them for quick meals.

While often through the years I've had vegetarian days or weeks -- no meat, poultry or seafood, but I haven't had a vegan day yet. Every day I've had some cheese, or yoghurt, or something! Today Larry and Carolyn are coming for dinner. When I woke up from an afternoon nap, I decided to have a vegan day. So I had a banana, and some tortilla chips with hummus instead of of sour cream, and some more granola with soy milk when I was still hungry.

Gotta get cooking for dinner!