IN THE BEGINNING
I have been a 99% vegan for over 3 years now, but before that I was a pescatarian and a vegetarian. I gave up all forms of meat over 25 years ago, but the thought of going vegan was extremely intimidating to me, to the point where I never even considered it for many years. I think I purposely didn’t research the effects on my health, the environment or animals related to dairy and the dairy industry. Eggs are good, right? Milk is good, right? The Wisconsin Cheese and Dairy Association says cheese is great for you, right? Right on! and it tastes sooooooo good too!
My daughter was the one who finally convinced us to give veganism a try. She decided to start the new year as a vegan as she had experimented with veganism a few times previously and really liked it. She talked my wife and I into doing it with her and off we went….with a big THUD!
My daughter had found a vegan meal plan and program to help get us started, give us direction and help us keep a nutritional balance in our diet. ALL very important aspects to consider, with one HUGE negative……THE FOOD SUCKED! You started each week building a base flavor profile and you incorporated it in different ways throughout the week. The flavor profile sucked, so each meal sucked and by the end of the week you couldn’t even look at the plate in front of you. The UPSIDE was we all dropped a bunch of weight because we stopped eating by the end of the week – ok, a little extreme, but we did drop a lot of weight thought.
WITHDRAWAL? – REALLY?
We stayed with this program for about 3 weeks. Not including the taste of the food, some unbelievable things started to happen to all of us. We had more energy, slept better, we seemed to be more focused, had improved digestive issues (I will leave that right there) and overall just felt unexplainably BETTER! For me, I actually went through some sort of withdrawal for the first week. I had headaches, felt sluggish and overall just BLAH. Could I really be suffering a dairy withdrawal? I think I did – what does that say about the effort of dairy on our bodies? Once I came out the other side, I felt GREAT! I really couldn’t believe it or really articulate the way I was feeling, but I knew at that point there was no turning back now!
FOODIES
Which brings me to why my focus is creating plant based recipes and meals with Big+Bold flavors. My wife and I love to eat and we love all types of foods, but we want to enjoy what we eat. Life is too short not love your food and honestly, if you don’t you will revert back to your old, bad habits. We love to eat healthy, natural and homemade foods (minimize processed and premade). But, to stay engaged with our new life style, I knew I needed to make GREAT TASTING food. Once we realized the effect dairy was having on our bodies we knew we had found a new direction. We then were motivated to learn more about the dairy industry, we did some research and we were hooked – no turning back. Do yourself a favor, and at least research the dairy industry. Don’t be fooled by Cage Free Eggs or Happy Cow Milk! The chickens and the cows are NOT HAPPY!
This blog is my attempt to share what I think are wonderful, flavorful and healthy, plant based recipes and meals. They deliver great tastes with Big+Bold flavors. I will show you how we learned to eat great food without meat, eggs or dairy – trust me it can be done. Give it a try – your body will thank you!
Thanks for being here – I hope you stay and look around. You might just find a recipe that inspires you! If you do, try it and share it with others!
I love this. I am working on doing Mexican vegetarian food for the one vegetarian I have at home and this inspires me to continue. I’m looking forward to reading more on your blog. Thank you for sharing.
I am so glad you read my blog. I hope you continue to read my blog and try some of my recipes! Mexican food is a great way to experiment with vegetarian and/or vegan food!
I love hearing about people’s journey to veganism! I myself ventured on this path a little over a year ago and it’s changed my life. Not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. I used to be obsessed with milk and cheese and I remember my mom telling me to minimize those things in my diet cause they aren’t good for you. And I would argue in reply: “why would the government include it in our food guide if it wasn’t good for us?” Of course, I was young and naive then and when I did learn the truth it opened my eyes! When I tell people I changed my diet and lifestyle to match a more plant-based wholesome one people often reply how they could never because they could never give up [insert favorite food] too much. Well, I used to think I could never give up dairy and here I am thriving, still loving food and living life dairy-free.
Thanks for reading my blog – and GOOD FOR YOU! It is amazing how much better you can feel, how you have more clarity of thought and you have a huge increase in energy eating a plant based diet. My hope is that I can convince more people to at least add some plant based meals into their menu.
I enjoyed your story about starting out with your vegan journey. I’ve been meat-free for about a year and a half, able to toss the egg habit easily, most of the dairy is gone except that melted cheese is a struggle for me. I’m from Wisconsin so it is very ingrained into our culture. I’ve been subbing in some home-made guacamole which helps but still working on my cheese challenge.
Thanks and good for you! Everything is a process and you are doing great. Giving up cheese is tough, we LOVED cheese too! Honestly, once you do make the decision to completely eliminate dairy, you won’t believe how much better you will feel – trust me. And, you won’t miss it (ok, sometime you will).
Love your account of your journey to being a vegan. I tried going dairy-free for a while and it is so hard for me since I am such a picky eater. You’ve motivated me to try again 🙂
Hey, thanks for reading my post! I am glad to hear I was able to provide a bit of motivation for you to give dairy free another try. Go for it! And don’t beat yourself up if you stumble, but don’t give up either. You will feel so much better once dairy is out of your diet – I promise! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help and keep me informed on your success!