People ask me, why did you do it?
The main reason is because my health was going down the tubes and I saw no way to fix my problems. I have had one heart attack, almost a second one, I have 6 stents in my heart, I was considered a borderline diabetic, and was not eligible for a colonoscopy.
Other people change to vegan because of the animals. That never crossed my mind.
Besides that, I had aches and pains which I considered were the result of getting old (I am 71).
How hard was it to make the transition?
For me, it was no hard because I had the backup of the wife who will eat anything I cook, and she readily took on the diet. The original plan was to easy into the diet slowly. Well, I could not do that, I went into it head on and it was not difficult.
When did I become a vegetarian? In March 1, 2010
What is involved? As opposed to most diets, the VEGAN diet has very few rules and are vey easy to follow. First of all, you eat no animal products. This includes ALL animal products isuch as milk, cheese, eggs, yougurt, etc. Next, no processed foods such as white wheat, white sugar (brown sugar is better or Stevia is best), white rice.
Next, no oils, remember oil (no matter what kind) is 100% fat.
So what is left?
All the vegetables and all the fruits and all the nuts. You can also have honey, maple syrup and molasses. If you want milk, you can buy a replacement made out of rice or soy beans. In fact you can make your own milk from soy for as little as 50 cents per gallon. and it is thick, unlike the see thru 2% cows milk I was drinking.
When did I start feeling the effects of the change? Within a week. You will notice the difference, you can walk faster, straighter, you feel alive again. It has been 2 months and as a side effect I lost 16 pounds, I was not counting on this at all, it just happened. What other changes did I experience?
I have had Rosacea for the last 40 years and have had to apply to my face whatever the specialists gave me, and I did that twice a day to keep the disease under control. If I let it go a few days, it took me 3 weeks to clar my face...well... 2 weeks after I started the diet I realized that my face was clearer than ever. I stopped using the cream (metroGel) and... the Rosacea went away completely.
What about my sugar level? I will know tomorrow, I have a cardiologist's appointment, I will let you know.
How do you get started? First of all you need some recipe books. I got my first one from Dr. McDougall's web site in California. His web site is at http://www.drmcdougall.com/index.html. I also got a couple of books and DVD's from the Rave Diet, I have a link on the front page of my web site.
Now, after 3 months of this, I feel better, I have been told I look better and have an eye on the future.