Sometimes my family and I have meatless Mondays; I offer some oatmeal for breakfast, follow it with lunches packed with color but sans meat, and get creative with dinner recipes borrowed from cultures all over the globe.  It gives me a chance to help my family explore their palates.  Indian recipes in particular are a treat.

Every year on November 1 many celebrate World Vegan Day, and even though I’m not vegan year round, why not? High cholesterol runs in my family, and with all the meat my family eats from January until now, I could probably use a few vegan days to go without the saturated fats found in many of the foods I eat and enjoy.  And the holidays are upon us, so eating some veggies now might help with the after-holiday struggle of burning those calories.

Anybody else interested? I’m hoping we have some vegans or even vegetarians in the group who are well-versed in recipes that I can try this evening with my family.  Leave some in the comments if you have any!

The final straw came the end of February when I indulged in a very tiny amount of pasta.  About a half  hour after eating the symptoms returned in full force.  It took everything I had to walk up the stairs to lay in bed until the dizziness passed.  I ended up falling asleep and the big scare came when Lori tried to wake me up 3 hours later and I was unresponsive.  Eventually I did wake up, but the frightened look on her face let me know that enough was enough.  I had to eliminate these foods from my diet and there were to be no exceptions.  It was a hard pill to swallow, but it was time.

The following day we cleared the house of forbidden foods (there was quite a bit), bagged it up and gave it away.  Grocery shopping was done and we filled the kitchen with fresh veggies, nuts, a wide selection of meat that we could grill, cheese, bagged lettuce (we eat a ton of salads), frozen veggies, sugar free pudding and Jello, etc…  I started taking the time each day to make healthy dinners and the days of “I don’t have time to cook so lets order out” are over.  On the rare occasions that we do go out to eat, we avoid our usual favorite places and opt for restaurants that offer a wide selection of salads and grilled meat.

The first couple of weeks were complete torture as my body detoxed.  Sitting down to a meal of grilled shrimp, steamed veggies and a salad seemed incomplete without a chunk of crusty french bread to go with it.  Sugar free pudding did not compare to a slice of chocolate cake and crunching on a pickle was no satisfying substitute for the crunch of a blue corn tortilla chip topped with guacamole.  I remember one night watching a movie with Lori and in one scene a woman buttered a french baquette and bit into it.  I wanted nothing more than to reach into the TV and take that bread out of her hands.

As time went on I stopped missing the old foods I used to eat.  I started getting creative with food preparation and have made many incredible discoveries.  Lettuce or cabbage leaves are a great substitute for hamburger rolls, taco shells or a sub roll.  Many nights we’ve dined on cheeseburgers with all the fixings wrapped in lettuce leaves, tacos wrapped in sweet cabbage leaves instead of soft taco shells and turkey sausage with sauteed peppers and onions wrapped in either cabbage or lettuce leaves.  Sliced radishes, celery sticks or bok choy dipped in homemade guacamole is just as satisfying as using the old standby of blue corn tortilla chips.  I’ve even come up with some amazing variations of sugar free mousse.

Two months later I am happy to say that I haven’t had one episode of previous symptoms.  I feel better than I have in my entire life.  My energy level is amazingly high and consistent throughout the day and the extreme fatigue is gone.  One of the other amazing outcomes of this is I’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight.  My clothes are at least 2 sizes too big and I’ve had to break into my small stash of clothes that had once been too small for me.  I have a large amount of clothes that I am no longer able to wear because they are just too big and next week they will be donated to the Easter Seals.

I realize that clearing out these clothes means that I am left with very little, but I’m not buying a new wardrobe yet.  I’ve had to pick up some items for an upcoming trip, but I’m going to wait a while before I stock up again.  I look in the mirror everyday and I notice the changes.  Lori is constantly telling me that I’m “disappearing” and making fun of my lounge pants that now look like MC Hammar pants.  This makes me happy, but what I’m the happiest about is how good I feel.  I don’t miss the old foods I used to eat and I know that I will never go back to them.  I realize there might be some obstacles in the future…family gatherings, Holidays, parties or visiting a restaurant that has minimal selection of the foods I can eat, but I’ll cross those bridges when I get there.

A couple of months ago we decided it was time that we not only eat together, but all start eating what my wife put effort in to cooking, so we would put very small portions of food on the kids’ plates and make them sit there until they finished it. I have to say the first couple of times we did that it was tough for all of us, and they would sit at the table for long periods of time, and my wife and I felt bad, but it has gotten better. Last night the kids actually did not take that long to eat their portions and they did not even complain! It was really nice.

So, we started with my wife feeling bad because the kids would not eat her cooking; now she feels bad because the kids don’t like her cooking, but I do think we are moving in the right direction. I know my mom made me sit at the table a couple times when I was a kid until I cleared my plate, and I like all kinds of food now, so I just hope the same will happen with my kids.