The Vegan Challenge

We watched The Vegan Challenge on Oprah this past week and decided that as much as possible we would try to apply what we learned to our diet. Now, I said as much as possible. You have to understand the man I am married to is a strict, born to eat meat and potatoes man. There has to be a meat,of some sort on his dinner table. (When I cook, that is, or we go out to eat.) Just for interest I decided to do as one staff member did and empty our fridge of anything with animal products in it. Note we don't keep a very full fridge. But look what we had to take out! The staples of our empty nesting life! Eggs, bacon, mayo!!

Milk for my cereal, and other items that seem important enough to keep. Next to the staff member's counter, ours looks meager but I know had our daughters still been living at home it would've looked just as bad with the animal products that we rely on a day to day basis.

The freezer? Yep, chicken nuggets and fries for the g'babies when we don't order pizza. All of my diet meals have animal products in them. I found it hard to find something without eggs in them.

Here's what I pulled from the fridge. I've made a note in my iPhone shopping list to look for products that are more natural and organic. Not sure I'll like almond or soy milk. May cure my love of cereal with milk.

The pantry didn't look quite as bad.

 I felt a redeeming feeling here. bahaha

Here is the link to the Oprah show.

Here is a link I found with pros and cons of the vegan diet.

Oprah said she is veganish, liking chicken and fish. I'm thinking that's more our style as well. Of course, she also said she has someone to buy her food. Must be nice to afford to be that healthy. Did you know Publix carries bison meat? It's to be a much healthier meat than beef. And I'm not so sure where ground beef comes from. Is that like hot dogs?! The leftovers!?!! It does not appear to be a difficult diet. I like salads. I like vegetables. I'm not a big sweet eater. Our youngest daughter and her husband are already moving toward more natural foods and snacks. Just last night her oldest turned down a cookie for a prefixed bag of carrots.

What are your thoughts on this challenge? How well do you think you and your family could live on it? There were some questions about protein, but those are found in green veggies and beans. The second link I gave you I found very interesting and more of 'our style'.  We could all do with less animal meat and be much healthier. Even range fed and farm fed animals. And the slaughter houses? Ugh, don't even get me started there. Horrid, nasty, filthy places that our meat products begin on their way to our homes.

Find out more here and tell me what you think.