Is Vegan Worth It?

I suppose you could say I'm vegan now.

I didn't grow up vegan.  Believe me, there was lots of steak and bacon and hamburger and delicious things like that growing up in my parents' house.  Honestly, I ate meat and a lot of it up until mid-December and then cut it out completely in January.

In November of 2010, I began having health issues and a lot of them.  My weight was ever increasing due to the lack of exercises because of body wide pain caused by fibromyalgia and lupus (SLE), diagnosed in September of 2011.  My migraines got worse to the point where I was going to the ER OFTEN in order to get rid of them since my at home meds were not working.  I was physically incapacitated by the migraines.  And pain struck high notes throughout my body constantly.  I lived in pain.

I heard through a lot of research that going gluten-free helped pain.  SO, Nichole and I went gluten free.  I'm sure you all remember my days of being gluten free and there were quite a few nay-sayers when we went gluten free.  It was a major ordeal to go to the grocery store to find food that was gluten free.  We had six pages with three columns on each page of ingredients chemicals to avoid with gluten.  Like I said, it was a major ordeal.  Not only was it a LONG adventure, it also was EXPENSIVE!!!  Many gluten free foods are 2-3 dollars more than normal food.  A half-loaf of break was around $5 where a normal WHOLE loaf is less than $2.  It was a major break to our budget.  We stopped because of the expense, though it did help us feel better.  (Nichole has lupus, fibro, and migraines too.)  We probably stuck with it for 6 months or so...

Well, January was approaching fast and a few friends decided to all put $10 in the pot towards losing 15% of our total initial body weight.  That meant losing 25lbs or so for me.  (Do not do the math!!!)  ;)  Well, Nichole and I decided we would begin to eat healthier when we began at the beginning of December.  By January, we ate no meat, no dairy, no sweets (including natural sweeteners).  It was a long month, but we made it well and we felt better than EVER!  God showed us both a lot of things about how unhealthy we were eating and more.  But most of all, we were both happy with how we were looking and feeling!  We took the cooking time for dinner as "us" time...because most of our meals took FOREVER to make since we couldn't use a lot of the easy 15-minute box meals.  We made a lasagna that took three hours to make!  That was some definite bonding time since it tasted AWFUL!!!  But everything else that we've made has been pretty good!  Here's some of our deliciousness!!!

Quinoa Burger and corn

Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Kale and Artichoke Hot Pockets

Enchilada and Mexican Rice

Mushroom Strogonoff and Kale Saute

Pizza

Potpie 

Parmesean Crusted Tofu, Stir fry,
and brussel spouts (which were nasty)

Spaghetti with homemade sauce

First stab at tofu, and it turned out pretty good

Potato Skins

Chili or Taco Soup

If you want any of the recipes, email me at msuflute@gmail.com and I'll email it to you!  OR FB me.  But, we did stray beginning in February and that has turned out badly....I feel awful.  I'm back to eating sugar, milk, and eggs.  I'm beginning to think being vegan is worth the trouble.  I could care less about the trouble from my family and close friends when it comes to feeling good or miserable.  But, now I believe that I'm getting sick and that was after a splurge day full of ice cream, chocolate, and pizza (with meat...gasp!).  Clearly, while I still love the taste of all these things, it's not worth it.

I will stick to my dairy-free ice cream, chocolate almond milk, and dairy/meat free pizza!

Is vegan worth it?

I think so.