Be Green

We live to protect and serve the natural world

The Goal is to take a closer look at what you consume and how we, as a society, treat our planet. Use this project to commit to making a sustainable difference in your environment.

So I’ve decided to go vegan for the month of January. I wanted to reduce my consumption of meat and animal products for a few reasons. First, since my pregnancy with buddha baby N1 I have had a huge aversion to handling meat. I hate it’s smell, handling it, cooking it. Even eating it at times grosses me out. It’s like when I got pregnant all of a sudden my brain made the connection that I was eating muscle and flesh from another animal and since then I haven’t been a huge fan. Now don’t get me wrong, I do still like some things, especially salmon. I just am not so in love with meat that I can’t fathom living without it. Second, I have never been great with dairy. And by not great I mean I was hospitalized after my first birthday because I was choking on my own phlegm. So there’s that. Third, I really don’t like the thought of the entire animal product industry. It makes my stomach churn knowing what they do to those poor animals. I plan on watching the feature “Forks over Knives” to learn a little bit more.

That being said, I was slightly terrified by the thought of drastically changing my cooking habits. The whole meal planning thing has been a little bit overwhelming at times but so far I’ve actually been really enjoying this journey. Once I figured out what I was going to make for the first week and compiled my shopping list things got a lot easier. I’m actually excited to cook my dinners and see how it’s going to turn out. So far I have loved everything I’ve made. I will make the note that I have kept honey in my diet to put in my teas so I guess I’m like 99.5% vegan for the month of January.

Over my first week and a half of switching to vegan living, I have lost six pounds. Now this was not my intention of switching over, and I have a feeling it has a lot more to do with cooking all my food from scratch versus removing animal products. But I do think it’s important to document how the experience has been going so there it is. I’ve noticed I don’t ever get that super heavy awkward feeling in my stomach after eating and I feel satisfied without ever feeling stuffed. It’s like my stomach feels lighter so that’s kind of cool. I’ve also noticed my mood has improved. I’m happy and wanting to do things more and more often.

Here’s a highlight reel of the main meals I’ve made so far and a super brief review. Apologies for my lack of photography skills.

Those recipes have taken me from January 1st until today, the 10th. That’s pretty great. As I mentioned, I’ve loved everything I’ve tried so far.

If you have any suggestions for other amazing Vegan recipes I’m all ears!!! And if you try out any of these recipes let me know, I’d love to hear your experience.

With love,
Yoga Mama