May I first start by saying that I love Oprah. I love her. Oprah if you're reading this, I have mad love for ya sista! :) Anyways, Its sad that I was never really a huge fan of the Oprah show until this year. I KNOW! TECHNICALLY, I should not be considered a "true" Oprah fan. I don't know if it's this new time in my life, what being a newlywed and all and somewhat of a housewife, but I feel that now she fits into a space in my busy schedule. She has suddenly become a part of my life. All thanks to TIVO of course. She lured me in with all the "FINAL SEASON" promotions, making it sound all special and what not. Now I know what informative information I've been missing out on all these years...and that's saying a lot because that's one year for every year I've been alive! Thanks Oprah show for being the reason I took on this incredible challenge!
A few weeks ago, I was watching what else? Oprah! For one week, Oprah and her staff at Harpo (well the ones that chose to do so) decided to become Vegan for one week. Now for all you non-vegans and curious cats out there, let me explain what that means. Being Vegan is going one step further than being vegetarian. Actually, from my experience its about two and a half steps further. Vegans eat absolutely NOTHING with any sort of animal products in them. Most of them choose to live this life because of their love for animals. Vegans of course cannot eat meat. No eggs. No milk. No dairy. Some even go the extreme of honey! Yes, because bees make it. I thought that was pretty crazy since that what bees are programmed to do, and nobody really forces them. They like it! But, I guess if they're going to love all animals, they will love every one..right down to the tiniest insect. While doing the challenge, a lot of Oprah's staff talked about their experience. Some of them decided they wanted to do it longer than a week because they felt so much better! A lot of them decided to become vegetarian! One man talked about how after just a few days, his health issues began to go away. Well folks, that got me ta thinkin' gee..maybe I should try this! As most of you know, the last year and a half or so was basically me having health issue after issue and lots of problems, so I decided I would try something different. I decided to go Vegan for an entire week! No, I didn't do it for my love of animals. I do very much love animals..but have you ever seen me turn down a hot-dog?? I think not! I do like to eat meat so this wasn't going to be permanent. Just an experiment to see how I would feel! Another factor to consider, Oprah had professional Vegan chefs to come in and cook food for her staff, so that made it a lot easier for them to have choices for their diets. UNlike her staff, I had to do it on my own. And so the story goes..
IT turned out, being Vegan wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was tricky though. You really had to READ those ingredients. Some things you wouldn't believe contained milk or cheese or egg. One tip...if it has cholesterol..its a no go. Cholesterol comes from animal. So thats a big give away. If there's not cholesterol, you still have to read the ingredients just to make sure. If at the end of the ingredients it says anything about the food being made in the same plant or factory where they use milk or egg products..its a no go. Another thing to look for in the ingredients are things like gelatin. Anything with gelatin (which is more than you probably think) contain parts of crushed animal bones, ligaments and tendons. I really did my research, people! I wanted it to be authentic. I printed a 10 page list of CRAZY ingredients to look for!
I think the most fun part of the challenge was finding out what was vegan and what wasn't. You have to be very patient and make lots of food sacrifices. Over all, I felt pretty good that entire week. My energy level was through the roof and I even lost 5 pounds! Being that I'm not a huge meat eater, especially red meat, I definetly think I could be vegetarian. I like chicken and of course hot-dogs, but I really enjoyed all the meatless "meat" products that I ate that week...even the veggie hot dogs and burgers. Maybe sometime in the future I'll take that vegetarian route in my life, but right now isn't really the right time in my life.. :) I really enjoyed the challenge...and BONUS: I proved to myself that I could diet with cheating even once! I don't think I've ever done that before! So now I'm thinking....Viva la Chocolate!
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