Posts tagged as:

diets

What’s the deal with the “food continuum”?

December 14, 2010

I think this came from a comment Erin made, but I’m already 12 hours late on this one so sorry for not checking :)

There’s a concept I hear a lot, and I’ve fallen into it from time to time, that there’s a “vegan food continuum”: a logical progression from omnivore to vegetarian to vegan… and then to raw, to fruit or juice, then to cosmic rays or whatever.  I’ve met people who believe the first half of that, the second half, or the whole thing, but you know what?  I think it’s crap, and we need to be happy with our own destinations:

What about you? Do you adhere to a vegan food continuum?  Is veganism just a step on a journey for you?  Did you know it was your destination before just now?  Do you think there’s a logical connection between vegetarianism and veganism? (if you comment on this part without watching the video, please say so!)  Let me know in the comments – this is new thinking for me, so I’d love to get some feedback!

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When veganism feels like dieting

December 8, 2010

Lisa asked what to do when veganism “feels like dieting” and I can certainly understand where she’s coming from. It’s absolutely essential for deeper reasons to exist for your veganism that go beyond health and nutrition, otherwise it feels like dieting because that’s what it is, even if it’s not for weight loss:

The video was getting long so I had to stop rambling, but I want to paraphrase/expand this bit from last week’s newsletter: sometimes it’s OK if things feel like dieting – you could just be taking a break from pushing yourself, and breaks are one of the most important parts of progress (recovery is where the growth actually happens.) For that to work, you need to be pushing yourself the rest of the time, otherwise you’ve got nowhere to go but down, and if “following the rules of veganism” is all you’ve got, then there’s not much room between that and quitting altogether.

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Are you tired of defending your veganism?

October 26, 2010

So it’s outreach week, and like I said yesterday, just being vegan around other people can be a form of outreach. Unfortunately, that includes when you’re sick, run down, or just tired, and you can end up spending more time defending yourself and your diet than actually getting better! I don’t think there’s anyone watching [...]

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Dealing with difficult naturopaths

October 15, 2010

I hear people say they were vegan until their naturopath told them they had to eat something, and it’s like it’s a done deal. It’s not. Here’s me telling you that: And like I said in the video but you may not have heard, I don’t have anything against naturopaths! I just think it’s interesting [...]

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How we do meal planning

September 24, 2010

Meal planning has never really worked for me – plans change, the food in the fridge/pantry never matches what I need by the end of the cycle, or I have too much stuff left over, but after a few months with the baby and eating whatever was in front of us, something had to change. [...]

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Did you throw out all your meats and cheeses when you went vegan?

September 15, 2010

Inspired by a comment by James on our “good for you/bad for you binary diet” post, I want to take a quick survey – it’s quicker if you skip the 4:30 video below, but then I’ll be sad: When you went vegan, did you throw out the animal-based foods in your kitchen, or did you [...]

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Nutrition quick-tweak: try the “Binary Diet”

September 14, 2010

Is there a difference, when describing what you eat, between “not very good for you” and “bad for you”? Does “bad for you” even get used in your vocabulary for anything other than cigarettes? In this 3 minute video, I talk a bit about this and come up with a “binary diet” challenge that I [...]

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“Consider the Oyster” an eye opener

April 12, 2010

Darky from VP sent me a link that’s been going around the internets about, in one person’s opinion, why vegans should consider it acceptable to eat oysters.  And let’s get two quick things out of the way first: oysters aren’t vegan, simply by virtue of their position in the “animal, vegetable, mineral” taxonomy, and yes, [...]

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