This Is the First Lunch...
...of the rest of your life. I remember when I first heard the saying "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." (Chances are, that was before you were born, kiddo.) It's a hoary cliche now, but at the time it gave me pause. Well, it's still the first day, as is every day, and your next lunch is also the first lunch of the rest of your life. Meaning that every meal could be (should be) an embarcation upon a mindful and healthy course.
Lunch today: herbed potatoes; chard with garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes; soy-cotash (edamame, not lima beans); spinach salad with green apple chunks and honey mustard dressing; carrot and green pepper sticks; half a whole-wheat mini-bagel. Credit Trader Joe's for most of this medley of leftovers. I wish I could say I eat this well every day, but I'm trying to cut down on the lying thing.
Note: I always regard a food-related blog post as a de facto running-related post, in the same way as I feel a post about an injury or about a weather phenomenon is running related. When I run, it always has to do with my environment, my body, and the interaction between the two. And what is more germane to the subject of my body than the food that builds it?
All of this analyzing--of my diet, my health, my body--comes up for me now because it was on April 1, 2010, that I decided to pursue a vegan diet for one year. I say "pursue" because "follow" is too passive a verb to describe what eating animal-free has entailed. (For one thing, it's entailed avoiding entrails and also animal tails--but I digest. I mean digress. Note to self: No more coffee before blogging.)
My plan was to pause and re-assess my diet after the one year. What I realized five days ago is that for me there is no pausing. There is no saying, well, I think I'll eat a few animal products now. I had thought I would mull over the misgivings that would have arisen over the year, re-examining and probably modifying my commitment. But, as they say (there they are again), once you've taken that shirt out of the box, there's no way to re-fold it and put it back in. I can't go back to being the person who knowingly participated in the animal-killing food biz.
I don't call myself a vegan, because I'm not pure enough to adopt that sobriquet. I wear leather shoes. I eat honey. When I find that I've inadvertently started eating something made with butter, generally I go ahead and finish it. I'll confess the worst: I buy range-free chicken for Z and cook it so he can make sandwiches for lunch (seems better than letting him eat processed deli meats). And, as I've said here before, I eat eggs from Flyaway Farm, a chicken collective run by my honorable co-worker. I know she runs a cruelty-free operation--I've met those chickens. But eggs are eggs.
The main questions for me the runner should be, how has my body felt on an almost-animal-product-free diet? How does it feel right now, a week and a half after running a difficult marathon? In answering, I find I have very little that's negative to say. Eating animal-free feels clean and healthy for me, even when I am less than righteous (vegan donuts--yum! Soy ice cream--yay!). I have had only one cold in the past year, have had a ton of energy, have run two marathons and two half-marathons, and feel on this day like I'm mostly recovered from my latest self-induced physical ordeal. I believe I feel more spiritually at peace than I did before my experimental year, now that I can look any cow or chicken in the eye without guilt. (And any pig. Was there ever a more horrifying food name than "pulled pork"? Maybe the Denny's promotion that features "Baconalia"--sounds like, and may be, a terminal disease.)
So the news regarding a year's worth of trying to eat in a cruelty-free way is--ta da!-- that there's no news. My life goes on, and with any luck will continue into the coming year much as it's been for the last 12 months. I'm planning on going for a run tomorrow morning. When I get back I'll whip up my favorite shake--soy protein, brewer's yeast, fresh strawberries, orange juice, plus a jigger-full of soy milk. Cheers!
Lunch today: herbed potatoes; chard with garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes; soy-cotash (edamame, not lima beans); spinach salad with green apple chunks and honey mustard dressing; carrot and green pepper sticks; half a whole-wheat mini-bagel. Credit Trader Joe's for most of this medley of leftovers. I wish I could say I eat this well every day, but I'm trying to cut down on the lying thing.
Note: I always regard a food-related blog post as a de facto running-related post, in the same way as I feel a post about an injury or about a weather phenomenon is running related. When I run, it always has to do with my environment, my body, and the interaction between the two. And what is more germane to the subject of my body than the food that builds it?
All of this analyzing--of my diet, my health, my body--comes up for me now because it was on April 1, 2010, that I decided to pursue a vegan diet for one year. I say "pursue" because "follow" is too passive a verb to describe what eating animal-free has entailed. (For one thing, it's entailed avoiding entrails and also animal tails--but I digest. I mean digress. Note to self: No more coffee before blogging.)
My plan was to pause and re-assess my diet after the one year. What I realized five days ago is that for me there is no pausing. There is no saying, well, I think I'll eat a few animal products now. I had thought I would mull over the misgivings that would have arisen over the year, re-examining and probably modifying my commitment. But, as they say (there they are again), once you've taken that shirt out of the box, there's no way to re-fold it and put it back in. I can't go back to being the person who knowingly participated in the animal-killing food biz.
I don't call myself a vegan, because I'm not pure enough to adopt that sobriquet. I wear leather shoes. I eat honey. When I find that I've inadvertently started eating something made with butter, generally I go ahead and finish it. I'll confess the worst: I buy range-free chicken for Z and cook it so he can make sandwiches for lunch (seems better than letting him eat processed deli meats). And, as I've said here before, I eat eggs from Flyaway Farm, a chicken collective run by my honorable co-worker. I know she runs a cruelty-free operation--I've met those chickens. But eggs are eggs.
The main questions for me the runner should be, how has my body felt on an almost-animal-product-free diet? How does it feel right now, a week and a half after running a difficult marathon? In answering, I find I have very little that's negative to say. Eating animal-free feels clean and healthy for me, even when I am less than righteous (vegan donuts--yum! Soy ice cream--yay!). I have had only one cold in the past year, have had a ton of energy, have run two marathons and two half-marathons, and feel on this day like I'm mostly recovered from my latest self-induced physical ordeal. I believe I feel more spiritually at peace than I did before my experimental year, now that I can look any cow or chicken in the eye without guilt. (And any pig. Was there ever a more horrifying food name than "pulled pork"? Maybe the Denny's promotion that features "Baconalia"--sounds like, and may be, a terminal disease.)
So the news regarding a year's worth of trying to eat in a cruelty-free way is--ta da!-- that there's no news. My life goes on, and with any luck will continue into the coming year much as it's been for the last 12 months. I'm planning on going for a run tomorrow morning. When I get back I'll whip up my favorite shake--soy protein, brewer's yeast, fresh strawberries, orange juice, plus a jigger-full of soy milk. Cheers!
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