amyfitch.com

There is something wrong with this pyramid. Where are the meat, eggs and milk?

If you follow me on Twitter or have access to me on Facebook, you know that I have been planning to experiment with vegan eating for several weeks. No, I’m not moving to Vegas, I’m completely eliminating animal products from my diet for one week (to start) , and then I’ll re-evaluate and see how feasible it is for me to continue living this way for the rest of my life. Maybe I’m crazy, or maybe I’m onto something. You can ask me which next Sunday.

Why am I doing this?

I have had many people ask why I am making this choice at this stage in my life. I’m not doing it to call attention to world hunger , or to lose weight, or because I am suddenly regretting all the cows, pigs, chickens and fish that I’ve eaten in my lifetime. I am trying it because, frankly, I am too young to feel as crappy as I do lately.

So I kept a food diary for a week to evaluate what I was putting into my body. Lots of caffeine, too much artificial sweetener, and incredible amounts of dairy (if you read food labels, you might be surprised at how many things contain milk products). Top that off with red meat (I like mine rare), pork, chicken, turkey, fish and shellfish. Now, maybe it’s nothing, but I noticed that when I ate certain animal products (like red meat and dairy), my energy levels plummeted and I had more trouble thinking. Then I realized that on morning when I had, say, a banana and some dry, whole grain cereal (no milk), I felt illuminated. I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself anything by eating fruit instead of bacon and eggs, so I figured–why not at least try life on a vegan diet?

Why this is tricky for me:

Apart from the fact that I was raised believing that a meal is not a meal unless it contains a meat, a starch, and a vegetable, I also have a medical concern that impacts my decision to become a vegan. In 2006, when I was 28 weeks pregnant with my daughter, I was diagnosed with Factor V  (five) Leiden Thrombophilia. You can visit Wikipedia and read the information, but in the event that you don’t have a thing for reading about the genetics of proteins and how they affect blood clotting, I’ll lay it on the line for you: My blood clots at about 8 times the “normal” rate when I have no other mitigating health factors. When I’m pregnant, which is a hyper-coaguable state for any woman, my blood clots about 100 times faster. I should have known about this condition much earlier in my life. Our family has a long history of women, including my own Mother, who have experienced the hallmarks of this mutation: blood clots, TIAs (mini-strokes), pulmonary embolisms, miscarriage. Women who have this condition should not take birth control pills, and should be monitored  and treated with injectable blood thinners during pregnancy.I am very lucky that I made it nearly 3 decades into life before having a single complication.

Why would my Factor V be a consideration when I decided to change to a vegan diet? Vitamin K is a “no no” for people with Factor V, and this particular vitamin comes from…where else? Leafy green vegetables and legumes. This is where I give my Doctor’s disclaimer: I am being monitored closely to be sure that my clotting factors remain optimum while I change my diet. I would never suggest that anyone with Factor V make a dietary change without the involvement of their physician.

There you have it, I went to bed an omnivore and woke up a vegan. I am planning to blog about my experience every day as I discover what this change will mean to me.

Are you a Vegan? Do you really love a juicy steak? Want to know more about Factor V? Find me on here: @AmySwipeRite

On Monday, I received my latest edition of Chris Brogan’s Newsletter. I enjoy his newsletters every week, but this week’s newsletter was so good, I shared it with at least two dozen people. It was so good, in fact, that I am sharing my copy of the newsletter with you by hyper-linking the word “newsletter” until you go and read it for yourself (another link for good measure). So go ahead, open it in a new window, then come back so you can finish reading this post.

Read it? Okay great. Let’s continue…

As a busy working Mom, I thrive on patterns. Patterns/routines and all things synonymous keep my house from being completely chaotic. I wake up, get the kids ready for school, put on the coffee, and prepare my breakfast. For pretty close to a year, my breakfast has been the same thing every day: Blueberry yogurt with fiber rich granola. It’s not a bad breakfast, I have actually grown quite fond of my quick morning meal. I do switch it up a little from time to time. Sometimes, I eat it out of a green bowl, sometimes, out of a coffee cup, and sometimes, I stir the granola into the yogurt cup and take it “to go.”

After reading Chris’s challenge to “find three patterns and break them,” I was inspired to make this week into “The Week of Green Chile Smothered Eggs for Breakfast.” You see, I’m from Arizona. My Dad is a native New Mexican (as in, from New Mexico-home of Hatch Green Chile). My dearly departed maternal Grandfather was Spanish-American raised in the Mexican-American cultures of Southern Arizona. Needless to say, I know my chile (notice, I even spell it right). And when you know chile, you know that eggs are naked without being smothered in it. Add some spicy home fried potatoes and a flour tortilla, and you have Heaven on Earth.

So this week, instead of grabbing my yogurt, I grabbed my egg carton. Every. Single. Morning. I tried not to think about the calories or the carbs or the cholesterol. I just savored each bite. And by Thursday, I noticed a funny thing had happened. My jeans were just a hair looser than they were on Monday morning. I headed for the bathroom scale and wouldn’t you know it? I had lost 2 pounds.

I started to think about the patterns in my life that I perceive as being “healthy,” (like my yogurt and granola breakfast) and I came to a stunning revelation: Sometimes even “healthy” patterns weigh us down. We become so accustomed to doing things one way that we fail to innovate, experiment, or excite ourselves. Just because a habit isn’t necessarily “bad” doesn’t mean it’s always good.

I realized that the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” eventually leads to perpetual boredom. I considered how boredom is currently impacting my life as it applies to my work in the merchant processing industry. There is only so much to say about accepting credit card payments (and getting a good rate). Now, however, I’m inspired to find a new way to approach the topic, help people, and restore trust to the industry. The ideas are popping up so quickly that I can hardly sit still.

Maybe it’s just the capsaicin in the chile, but I’d like to think that breaking my breakfast pattern jump-started more than just my metabolism–it threw my zest for evolution into high gear.

Did you take the Chris Brogan Challenge? Do you want my green chile recipe? I’m easy to talk to, find me on Twitter!

A little variation this week, in honor of Iowa’s signature crop.