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Here’s a helpful link on how to get proper nutrition on a meatless diet. Hint: you don’t want to try surviving on ‘tater tots.

Did you know that there is a vegetarian food pyramid? Check it out:

In case you’re wondering, here is the Awful Truth Behind 5 Items Probably On Your Grocery List. Banana companies up to 3rd world hijinks? Coca Cola cracking unionized skulls? Pet food makers torturing animals? Yikes.

I’ve just posted the results of my most recent weigh-in on my weight loss page. Drumroll please: I lost another pound last week. 6 1/2 pounds gone so far. Slow and steady wins the race…

If you start to explain your vegan diet to people, the big question which always seems to come up first is WHY? There are a few different reasons why people might choose to try going vegan. On a case-by-case basis, maybe one, several or all may apply.

1. You want to lose weight. Cutting out animal proteins is a great way to cut weight without having to starve yourself. (Combine this with elimination or minimization of simple sugar consumption for maximum effect). As stated previously, this is the primary driver for my vegan experiment. 
2. You believe factory farming is hazardous to your health. Animals are filled with drugs in order to keep them happy and maximize their yield on factory farms. You might come to the conclusion you don’t want to ingest all of that crap every time you eat. This is a secondary driver for me. I figure that, worst case scenario, it can’t do any harm to eliminate all of the extra chemicals and second-hand drugs from my diet.
3. Animals are people too. This is basically the Peta-type argument, which goes that even if it weren’t bad for you to eat meat, it would still be the wrong thing to do. Personally, I don’t buy this one (although I think that animals should be treated humanely and with respect).
4. You’re kind of crazy and you need a cause to be militant about. We all know people like that. You kind of suspect the whole reason they get into something is so that they can act superior and preach to you about it.

Any other reasons I missed?

Eating out typically presents challenges for the vegan eater. Last night my wife and I went out, but chose a local Indian restaurant (Nawab in Bethlehem). Since Indians lean heavily vegetarian, this is a choice which makes it much easier to stay on diet while still eating well.

We had a vegetable somosa appetizer, which was excellent. For dinner, I ordered Nav Ratten Korma (veggies in a rich almond sauce) while my wife ordered Paneer Tikka Masala (cubes of cottage cheese in a tomato sauce– my wife is a little less kinda vegan than I am). We also ordered a side of Onion Kulcha, an onion bread which is excellent for sopping up the sauces.

Dinner was great, very tasty, with lots of diverse flavors, as would be expected from Indian cuisine. So memo to self– if you have to eat out, an Indian restaurant is a good bet for a place to stay vegan but still eat well.

This past week has been somewhat challenging on the diet. I had a several day business trip to Orlando for a convention. Going away from my home environment where I have stocks of acceptable foods (and a wife to take care of me) makes it a lot harder to stay vegan. Especially in a tourist town like Orlando which is full of chains.

How’d I do? Pretty well, really. I didn’t keep totally vegan, but I did keep to mainly choosing shrimp and salmon dishes. Actually, I had a really good salad with salmon at one place. I have to admit, I did splurge and blow the diet one night– BBQ ribs at Tony Roma’s. But that was a planned excess. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve had red meat since starting the diet in late January. That’s pretty impressive for someone who never went a day in his life without red meat.

One surprise– I flew home out of Orlando Sanford airport, which is pretty small. I needed to eat dinner at the airport, and all they had was one dinky little place for food. I thought all was lost and I’d either be eating nothing, or having to go for a hamburger. Surprise– they had a veggie burger on the menu, which turned out to be pretty decent. So I was able to stay on course.

When I got back, I was sure that I would’ve gained a bit of weight, especially since I had to slack off my exercise program while on the trip. But another surprise– I actually lost a bit of weight. My next official weigh-in on Monday is going to be a good one. This vegan thing is definitely a great path to weight loss (and it doesn’t even require a whole lot of portion control).

Is there any such thing as a miracle food? Probably not, but some foods are definitely more healthy than others, and one of the better things you can consume is green tea (especially if you’re drinking it instead of soda or corn syrup-laced sugar water). Check out 7 Reasons to Drink Green Tea to learn more.