Maine Street is going veg.


For several years I was vegetarian, dietary vegan during part of that time. I lived in Los Angeles, and it was as easy as Magic Johnson going down court with the ball. Follow Your Heart
http://www.followyourheart.com/ was my grocery store. I cohosted a vegetarian email group for vegsource http://www.vegsource.com/, attended lectures by John Robbins, Howard Lyman, http://www.madcowboy.com/ - very easy to stay focused.

Then I fell off the turnip truck.

Heck, the turnip truck didn't even go to where I moved!

I moved to Phoenix, Arizona. This was 2000 - there was a food co-op in Tempe, near ASU. The saddest produce you ever wanted to see. Nothing at all like I'd been used to. Chain restaurants that offered boca or garden burgers didn't offer them here. Plus, I was cooking for my new husband - an omnivore (of the 'if my mom didn't make it, then it's not a food' persuasion'). Finally, in late 2001 I quit waiting for the turnip truck, and joined my fellow omnivores.

Now there are options in the Valley of the Sun - granted, there's no Follow Your Heart, and the produce is still lacking, but there are vegan and vegetarian restaurants here now. And, my good friend Karyn has decided to return to vegetarianism, which has given me the impetus to climb back up the back of the truck.

What's happened to me during the omnivore years? I gained 40 pounds; became a type 2 diabetic; my cholesterol (that used to hover around 100) went up to 275, so I went on statins; my triglicerides are over 500 - this is obviously not a healthy way for me to eat! And, the entire time I've felt guilty that I wasn't living an eating 'low to the ground'.

This blog is my trek back to the turnip truck. I've told my family I won't be as militant about it as in the past, but they know Mom - and they'll go with it. I'm not sure about giving up crab - but then again, I don't have that very often anyway. I will play those cards when dealt.