Becoming Vegan...."The Joy of Meal Prepping"

At my last medical check up it became apparent that my lifestyle was catching up with me. My life is not as bad as a lot of people, yet my cholesterol was up- way up, as were my weight and my blood pressure. The icing on the cake was that my blood sugar was elevated as well.  Everything was bad enough that the PA gave me 6 months to try to straighten it out without medication.With the divorce, almost everything healthy fell by the wayside. There was moving, mediation and the a concentration on settling everything to be able to move on.

Thirty days ago I realized  my allotted six months of time was running out. I was home sick, bored, and grumpy and while scrolling through movies I saw "Forks Over Knives." Having always wanted to watch it I paid for the rental and sat back. It was eye opening to say the least! Full disclosure, I have read, "The China Study" and was a vegetarian for six years. My time being a vegetarian stopped when I moved in with Rob and I was trying to make two meals every night- sometimes three if the boys were over. It got old fast. if that were to happen now there wouldn't be different meals, I would just say, "Too Bad!" and let everyone else fend for themselves.

Forks over Knives reinforced my reasons for originally becoming vegetarian and provided a road map on how to improve my health going forward. Shortly, and I do mean shortly, after the end of the movie, the pantry and fridge were cleaned out of all dairy and high fat items. All of the butter and meat remain frozen and will be given away this week. My pantry and fridge are now full of grains, beans, vegetables and fruits. 

Over the course of the last three and a half weeks my blood pressure has been better every morning and I have lost six lbs.  Unfortunately, there are still about 15 to 20 lbs. left that can still come off and I have no idea where my cholesterol is at yet. A little at a time I guess.

To help me stick to eating healthy and tasty vegan meals, meal prepping has become part of my weekly routine. On either Saturday or Sunday I pull out my Cosari electric pressure cooker and cook off a couple types of beans and a grain or two I can use throughout the week. Normally, I make one kind of soup, freeze half and put the rest into containers for lunches or dinners a couple days a week. By the time I am done there are 4 lunches, 5 dinners and 2 or 3 frozen meals prepped and in the fridge or freezer. For me it works.

This week dry black beans went into the pressure cooker, were cooked and then turned them into black bean burgers. Quinoa became 2 side dishes of quinoa and 3 servings of quinoa "tabbouleh" that will be eaten with mixed greens as part of a salad meal. Since there was enough soup frozen none needed to be made and instead no bake sunflower and oat  bars for breakfast or for snacks were put together.

It has taken a bit of practice to figure out what to eat, how to make it vegan and how to make it easy. All in all, as part of my lifestyle changes lately, this was an easy one. There wasn't really a New Years Resolution other than trying to continue learning to live in line with my values and beliefs. There are both good days and bad days yet either way it is still a healthier way of life than the one before the separation. I guess I am a vegan, social justice junkie who loves the outdoors and spending time with people I love and who love me.