The Smoothie Vegetarians

I will be going to the city where I grew up in a month or two for a few days. When I left, I wasn't a vegan – I was a lapsing vegetarian. I'll be seeing a couple friends – they may not even know; one of them isn't on Facebook (gasp!). So I've been thinking a lot about where I'll eat, how I'll eat, what I'll tell people if I eat at their homes. Do I take food with me? Am I going to be a royal pain to everyone? Most likely! But I'll take the ribbing from my brothers and I'll explain things to my friends. One of my brothers is an avid hunter, and has been for a number of years. He only hunts what his family needs, he butchers and wraps it himself. Years ago, when I lived there, he used to give me venison from time to time and I'd cook it in a stew for my family. It was good and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't eat it now, but it was good meat and even then I felt better knowing that it hadn't been factory farmed, that up until t...

I have a seventeen year old daughter. At the age of eleven she was diagnosed with celiac disease, and a long, slow, uphill battle began. The learning curve was huge, overwhelming, and at times depressing as hell. Telling a child she can no longer have birthday cake at a party, she can't eat pizza, she has to take her own food everywhere she goes. Sleepovers become a major production. Schools trips become something that can never happen. There's a bit of a grieving process, and grieve we did – and the battle continues. Celiac disease is much more serious than most people think. People with celiac disease have a much higher rate of bowel cancer. They suffer from infertility, they have a higher rate of mental illness (gut chemistry and the brain are closely related). My daughter suffers from severe bone loss; she has osteoporosis equivalent to a woman in her seventies. Her gut doesn't absorb nutrients properly. She has chronic low iron, and has to take a handfu...

It's been a good vegan week. I was in Vegas for a few days and this year I found a huge variety of kombucha available on the Strip (not necessarily a vegan thing I know, but I love the stuff and couldn't find any last year). Progress! I went on a bus tour to the Grand Canyon, and a buffet lunch was included in the ticket. This lunch was in Williams, Arizona and I had already resigned myself to the fact that I'd spend the day starving. Instead, there was a good selection of food for me. I happily stuffed myself and wasn't hungry again till well into the evening. My hotel in Vegas had a Ben and Jerry's with multiple dairy free selections. I think I may have eaten my body weight in ice cream! A “regular” restaurant in my city introduced a full vegan menu alongside their regular one today. We went there for dinner tonight and the meal was amazing! So often I can only choose one thing off a menu – to have choices was a luxury I rarely find. ...

I just finished an audio book called Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It's an amazing book. He talks about the aging process and how nobody is really prepared for it, nor are they willing to have the important discussions about it, particularly in Western cultures. He also discusses how doctors (he is one) often give patients unreal expectations when they have a terminal illness, and how those patients often spend their last months fighting a battle that they can never win, when they should be spending their final days surrounded by the people they love, preferably at home. The book discusses hospice care, assisted living, complex care facilities and how much these things have veered away from their original course. We treat our elderly like children. We want them to be safe, so we do the equivalent of baby proofing; we take away their right to choose. It got me to thinking about a lot of things. I've worked in healthcare, both hospital and complex care for a number ...

Last Sunday was my one year anniversary of being sober. Not long after I chose veganism I also chose to quit alcohol completely. I'd always been a regular drinker, and at times would drink way too much. After being ill and having some other very stressful events in my life, I found I was drinking daily, and not always stopping at the two glasses of wine I would tell myself I'd have. It's a slippery slope, and I was sliding down it quickly. I felt mildly unwell most days; headache, dehydrated etc., and then by five or six o'clock in the evening I'd have a glass of wine and start the whole process all over again. It took me a few stops and starts, but I finally got the momentum going and here I am one year later. The differences were subtle, but I noticed them almost immediately – that little bit of fat around my waist melted away (well mostly anyway!), within a week I was sleeping like I hadn't for many years – all night long, good, solid ...

I've been vegan for over a year now and there has most definitely been a learning curve, but at this point I'm pretty darned good at it. I know which ingredients to look for on packaged foods (you'd be surprised at the sneaky names they give animal products), and I know which brands I like and don't like. So on the home front I have it pretty much mastered. I don't really think about it anymore, it's just the way it is, and it's been long enough now that it's just who I am. What I do find to be a challenge, however, is eating out. I've read a few distressing articles lately about cooks and servers who say something is vegan when they know that it isn't. This is disturbing on a number of levels. Firstly, as the mother of a teenager with celiac disease, I'm not thrilled with any restaurant who is serving me something without telling me exactly what's in it and how it was prepared when I ask. Eating out is an expense and I...