The New Vegan

My name is Jodi and I am a new vegan.  I began my journey just over a month ago.  Many of you probably know several people who follow a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle and you accept it for what it is:  you know that your friend or family member doesn’t eat meat, tries to avoid dairy or is gluten free, likely from a food allergy, or they have a love for animals and just can’t stand the thought of consuming animal products.  I didn’t realize when I started this how challenging it could be, with big rewards in many ways.  Sifting through the research there are thousands of stories related to curing serious illnesses, prevention of many types of cancers, keeping the mind & body youthful, skin clear & beautiful and the maintenance of an abundance of energy, all by people who changed their eating habits.  Sounds good to me!  This diet takes getting used to as it requires time to educate yourself, relearn food, and practice.  Honestly, I am still transforming into this new nutrition plan as I rotate my pantry and fridge at home.  While I donated some of my pantry foods to the local food bank, I decided it would be best to incorporate the diet slowly and not shock my previous meat-eating, egg and cheese loving body.

You’re probably wondering about my motivation to do this.  I have friends and family that chose this lifestyle over the past few years for various reasons, mostly to improve health or the aforementioned love for animals.  For me, it became a medical necessity.  I have MS and reached a point earlier this year where I felt the illness was beginning to take over and despite the drug therapy and medical treatment I was receiving, I had to take control myself.  After doing research I found a large community of MS sufferers were following a wellness and recovery plan that includes a plant-based diet supplemented with seafood (for protein), regular exercise and meditation, and the continuance of a prescribed drug therapy.  I will share much more about this program through this blog, and for the first time since my diagnosis in early 2008 I gained hope.  Hope to stabilize and improve my symptoms and hope of recovery.  Recovery!  That feeling was powerful and everything I needed to change my attitude.

For those of you that don’t know me, I am 35, married, and have a 19 month old daughter.  My husband agreed to take this journey along with me in support of reaching my goal and sharing the desire of me one day running around the yard playing kick ball or hide and seek with our daughter.  Not too long ago I was a long distance runner and enjoyed running in local races from 5K’s to 10-milers.  MS is a mysterious illness and has progressively weakened the left side of my body such that I can no longer even think about running.  This really, really bothers me.  How many of you actually love to run?  I love it; it was my passion, my moment, my solace.  Through this new journey I hope to regain my strength and eventually run a 5K.  That would be…awesome.  I am not a great vegan yet, by any stretch of my imagination as my blog url implies, however I am taking the path of transformation one step at a time with the hopes that "great" means "strong" at the end of my road. 

I started this blog to keep my family and friends updated who are cheering me on and supporting me, and also to post recipes, cool tips, new & exciting discoveries and my bumps along this road to share with others who are making the same adjustment in their lives as well.  It’s not easy, and it is by sharing with each other that we can improve ourselves.