Vegan Mom Does Detox, Gets Healthy

So I'm a vegan. It's no secret. I didn't grow up being a vegan. I ate meat, mostly chicken. I hated it, and I jumped for joy whenever it was pasta night because, mmm, cheese. When I first heard about vegans, I definitely laughed and thought "NEVER" and "those peeps are weeeird." Yet here I stand before you -- a vegan. And probably a wee bit weird, come to think of it, but not because I'm vegan.

I'm vegan for a whole host of reasons, but mainly for the animals, the environment, the health. Now, two out of three of those I have down pat: I'm saving animals and I'm helping the environment. Health? Another story. I've been eating crap. Starbucks soy chai lattes, bagels, bread and peanut butter, vegan pastries (mmm, cake), and did someone say vegetables -- what is this thing you call "vegetable"? I was eating crap.

Then finally it hit me. I FEEL like crap. I must BE crap. Because, after all, you are what you eat.... I want to be a long, lean BANANA, a blossoming broccoli, a sweet pea..., not a sorry piece of crap.

To make matters worse, I have kids who are ASKING QUESTIONS....

"Mama? Do you not eat cheese?"

"No, I used to eat cheese, but not anymore."

"Why?"

"Because I don't need cheese, and I eat vegetables instead."

"Mama, are you a veeeegan?"

"Yes, honey, mama is a vegan."

I don't LOVE that veganism has become so much of my identity, but you wouldn't believe how much people CARE when you don't eat meat. Like it's totally their business and I have offended them somehow. My ego doesn't take well to the jokes and downright shoving of misinformation about why we must all eat meat down my throat. DO I NOT BLEED?

Whatever toll it takes on my ego I can handle, though. I get stronger by the dinner-table debate with relatives. It's the toll not doing it RIGHT takes on my body that I've been focusing on this past while. So, I started reading and researching, and reading and researching. And I've discovered a community of passionate doctors and nutritionists touting veganism as the wave of the future. I am AVANT GARDE. There's tons of advice out there on what to eat -- believe it or not, SOY isn't everything at all!

And so it's started. I've thrown my beloved Starbucks Soy No-Water Tazo Chai (see how it rolls off the tongue?) to the wind and replaced it with a bowl of fruit with cinnamon, maybe a few nuts to boot. Salad, salad and salad for lunch, with legumes and hemp seeds (fancy), and more fruit, and smoothies made of KALE, banana, dates, berries, and, yes, water. How good is it that my kids share the smoothie with me? They are eating KALE, one of the healthiest foods on the planet -- packed with calcium and, you guessed it, protein. For dinner, legumes and grains, more salad, and mushrooms, meaty mushrooms! And, to make everything tasty, not oils or salt but onions are superb flavour enhancers.

We'll see how long this clean, healthy eating lasts. I do have a lo-ho-hot of detoxing to do. Optimist that I am, I'm hoping it lasts forever. In the meantime, I'm enjoying myself (though a tad hungry at night). Most of all, I'm enjoying experimenting with new foods -- sea vegetables, hemp seed, amaranth, nutritional yeast.... I'm becoming a regular vegan, my gosh, with the weird food! And, though getting the old stuff out of my system hasn't been easy (can you say, "moody byatch?"), I feel pretty great now. I feel in control of my health and, consequently, of my weird self. Now, if only I could get control of my children. But, I suppose that's another post....

This is an original post for Canada Moms Blog. You can find Haley-O at her personal blog Cheaty Monkey, her vegan food blog Cheaty Kitchen, and her online art shop Kids Deserve Art: Art and Decor for Kids of All Ages.