Video - Eco-Vegan Gal Diet: Learning How To Lose Weight & Love My Body In A Healthy Way

Yep, that was me almost 10 years ago, 1 year before I went vegan. While that was probably the heaviest I ever was, I have always struggled with my weight. Here is the story behind my journey to find a healthy diet that helped me learn how to understand and love my body. The following video includes more before and after pictures and videos.

Video: Vegetarians Like Oral Sex More Than Meat Eaters...and More on This Week's Good Gossip!

Yep, you read that title right - studies show that vegetarians enjoy giving oral sex more than meat eaters do. So if your partner starts pressuring you to go veg, now you know why! ; ) And this totally explains why PETA is starting a porn site...

Veg Speed Dating at San Francisco's Millenium Restaurant

I got a lot of great feedback from my coverage of Karine Brighton's Veg Speed Dating event in Berkeley last month - even though I didn't participate I had a blast being there and meeting all the interesting people. Well, it's about to get even better because the next event is happening at one of the best vegan restaurants in the country (so I've heard): Millenium! If you are single get your hot butt to this event, no matter how shy or skeptical you are. You will feel so comfortable and meet great people, if not love interests than new friends or business partners. Don't believe me? Check out my video from the Berkeley event:

Video Tips: How to Be Vegetarian or Vegan - Share Your Advice Too!

Though it may seem clear to those who are already eating a plant-based diet, people who are used to eating meat for most meals are often unsure how to be vegetarian or vegan. In this video I give my main piece advice to those who would like to transition to a animal-free diet, and I'm asking you to upload your own tips in video or comment form. If you would like to share your tip but don't want to/can't do it on camera, leave your a comment below or on YouTube - be sure to leave just ONE tip and keep it brief so it's easy to digest it all (I should have kept mine shorter!). Looking forward to your responses!

Video: Why Be Vegan/Vegetarian? You Tell Me!

My lastest video is a new experiment - I'm asking YOU as the viewer to make a video response to a question! Turn on your web cam, your flip cam, your iPhone, your camera phone, your camcorder, your 5D - whatever you have and record a 10-15 second video answering this question:

Video: Forget the Dating Sites - Go to Veg Speed Dating!

If you're a vegetarian or vegan, you likely want to date someone else with the same lifestyle, but that can be challenging - only about 3% of the population is vegetarian and approximately 1% are vegan. And even if you can find people with the same way of living, it then comes down to connection and attraction. Personally, I've only clicked with a few vegan men - my wonderful boyfriend falls into the "veg curious" category. So what's a single plant eater to do? How about try veg speed dating?

Social Tips: How to Become a Vegetarian/Vegan Despite Criticism

For some people going veg is easy - it can happen overnight (like it did for me) or it occurs slowly over time with the support of friends and family. But for many, this diet and lifestyle choice can be very difficult to adapt due to criticism from others - and many give it up as a result. This is especially challenging for youth, who are still discovering who they are and relying on input from others to help them figure it out.

Yesterday I received an email from a Jessica of Tree Kisser asking her vegan friends to send a letter of encouragement to an 8th grader who is trying to go veg despite receiving lots of anger and mocking from her parents. She's a potential budding activist, but definitely at risk of turning back due to all the pressure around her. This is so sad and frustrating, but certainly not uncommon. Even after 8 years of being an educated vegan I have to defend myself on a regular basis, but I've developed the confidence it takes to stay strong despite this.

I reached out to my social media community and asked them to share some brief inspiration and advice for this budding veggie and here's what they had to say.

EVG Q&A: French Doctor Says Vegan Diet is Unhealthy!

"I think therefore I am vegan"

Question:
My name is Marie and I'm French. I ordered "Skinny Bitch" and read it in 2 days! Awesome book! I read “The Kind Diet” and I also began to read "The China Study". Today I asked my doctor about a vegeterian or a vegan diet and she told me that it was an unhealthy diet. She told me not to do it. My stomach has been reduced in October (gastric sleeve) and she said that I had to eat fish and dairies to get proteins. I am pretty sad because I really do believe in that way of life. My doc said that vegan people have many deficiencies and die young!!! I don't know what to believe!!! Please help me!!!

Answer:

Q&A: Giving Up Meat for Lent

Question: I gave up meat for lent. Can you tell me some "Whitney approved" recipe websites?

Answer: My favorite foods to eat are steamed vegetables, pastas, beans & rice dishes, salads, and soups. I read through a ton of sites every week and pick my favorite recipes, then post them on my Greenwala Meatless Monday series. My current favorite recipe sites:

• Manifest Vegan
• Oh She Glows
• Healthy. Happy. Life

My Vegetarian to Vegan to Gluten-Free Journey for Health, Compassion and Environment

Here is the final video in the series with with Larry Cook, a health author and video producer. This one is my favorite because I got to talk about my entire journey from meat & dairy eater to gluten & soy free vegan. I explain why my lifestyle makes me feel and look great, and give tips on how you can do it too.



Check out my other videos with Larry:

• How To Feel Healthier and Look Better 
• Vegan Health Starts With Fresh Organic Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, Beans & Nuts

and visit his website to learn more about him and his health book.

Great Reasons Not to Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving (or anytime)

I just finished writing an article for Greenwala on Save a Turkey Day: Why You Should Pardon the Bird This Thanksgiving. Within it is an excellent link to an article called The Trouble With Turkey. I highly recommend you check both out to understand the negative effects the fowl has on our health and the planet.

Long before I became a vegetarian my family raised 2 turkeys, a male and a female.

"Vegetarianism is meaningless"

While scanning through recent blog posts in Google Reader (if you don't use it, I highly recommend it), my eyes landed on this phrase: "vegetarianism is meaningless". Of course my first reaction was, "now wait a minute...", so I read on to explore the argument. Turns out, I totally agree with it.

President Clinton Goes Vegetarian To Stay Healthy For His Family

First Obama, now Clinton? Last week Michelle Obama urged restaurants to provide healthier options on their menus. Shortly after, Bill Clinton made a big announcement - he’s experimenting with the vegetarian diet! This might not come as a huge surprise if you read about Chelsea Clinton’s vegan menu at her wedding. However, it is a far cry from the days that Bill visited to McDonald’s on a regular basis.

Read the rest of my article at Greenwala

The Elephant in the Room: Where Vegetarians Get Their Protein

Whether you’ve been a vegetarian for years or are giving it a thought for the first time, the most common question you’ll get about your diet is, “where do you get your protein?” Instead of drawing a blank, get prepared for this situation and impress your audience with a solid answer. Here are some facts you can share:

Most of us are aware that protein has an important roll in our bodies, but you may not know why. Made up of amino acids (oxygen, nitrogren, carbon, and hydrogen), protein is the nutrient responsible for growing new cell and building and repairing tissue. However, contrary to popular belief...

Read the rest of my article at Organic Authority

Change starts with watching TV

One of my favorite parts of being in the eco and vegan communities is that I meet amazing people who are passionate about making the world a better place. Because many are based in Los Angeles, a lot of these individuals have incredible talent on camera. Therefore, several of my friends and acquantainces have entered a contest to win their own TV show. They depend on votes to get the attention of producers, who could give them the opportunity to compete on a reality show called "Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star". Please check out their audition videos below - your vote will help bring healthy and green living into the mainstream:

Eco-Vegan Q&A (from Google Analytics)

One of my favorite parts of having this blog is receiving questions and doing the research to answer them. I get a chance to step out of my own mind for an hour or so and tackle a topic I haven't considered. I've always wanted Eco-Vegan Gal to be a resource on everything healthy and sustainable. With that said, please feel free to contact me via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. if you have any questions now or in the future.

I also check Google Analytics pretty regularly to see how people are finding my sites. Sometimes there are phrases that have led someone here that I don't think they found the answers to, so I figured I'd do that right here. Here are some keywords that were typed in since March and the answers to them.

Vegetarian in Sierra Leone

This may seem like an odd post, but it stems from a friend who wants to know how her friend can be vegetarian while living in Sierra Leone. She asked if I could recommend a simple cookbook, but before I could answer I had to look up what food is available in the country.

What does the term "plant-based diet" really mean?

A friend of mine asked me,

"Can I claim that I am on a plant-based diet if I'm not vegan? Is that against the rules? Because I'm a vegetarian for now, but that means that I am primarily getting my nutrients from plants."

This question threw me off a little. I consider my diet to be plant-based, because I only eat plants, but the word "based" means foundation or main ingredient, so wouldn't that include vegetarianism? I did a web search and the answer was unclear.

Wikipedia says the plant-based diet "may refer to herbivore...veganism...vegetariaism...macrobiotic diet" and defines vegetarianism as "the practice of following a plant-based diet"

Then I reached out to my Twitter community, asking, "Does plant-based diet mean vegetarian, vegan, or either?" I received a variety of answers, some were even heated:

@veganhope: I will say plant based vegan - because I only eat plants :) no junky stuff...I get people ALL the time who tell me they are plant based and eat meat and dairy. a lot of people think it just means a majority of their diet is based on plants. also in my recent plant based nutrition class there were people who took plant based to mean less than 10% animal products.

@CaraVegan: when fruitarians eat "chicken fruit" eggs, vegans eat honey &vegetarians eat fish chickn bacon, plant-based can mean evrything 

@GodsDreamsForMe: plant-based means no animal protein at all including dairy and eggs. I guess that's vegan and more.

@VeganInfoLine: I've always taken it as a gentle codeword for vegan, since milk and eggs aren't from plants. It's the phrase you use when you don't want to freak newbies out with the V word. 

@vegansalt: It depends who says it.  Dr Campbell says "plant based diet" and means vegan, but I saw a blogger use the term for pescatarian. Which is why I always clarify and specify veganism. People can hear "plant-based" and think "plants, plus whatever I want."

@MarylTweets: PBD to us (HLife) means mostly eating whole foods from the plant kingdom. High fructose corn syrup is vegan but doesn't qualify. PBD is about nutrition, which is what plants (whole) offer. Diets mostly consisting of processed vegan junk food don't count. PBD is a concerted focus on consuming what Nature (not bioengineers) provided via the plant kingdom. Plants, not franken-foods.

Silvie Celiz Wight (via Facebook): It means eating unprocessed, whole foods from the vegetable kingdom only.  

Carrie Lynn Morse (via Facebook): it's kind of a misnomer since mushrooms are a fungus. (and yeast and the beneficial bacteria etc etc etc.) i guess that is why it's qualified with "primarily" so you can have those exceptions. (but that means it can have other exceptions as well, such as bits from the animal kingdom.) so there isn't really a terminology using these words alone that specifically means vegans who also eat fungus/bacteria 

Julio Paez (via Facebook): No kill. No abuse. Eco-friendly. Fair trade...... 

@monodistortion: I don't think there's any rule. I just depends on who says it. 

Robert Cheeke (via Facebook): V.E.G.A.N.

@lyricgaia: Vegan! 

@extremevegan: are you an idiot? how much more specific could "plant based" be?

Most people don't consider vegetarianism to be a plant-based diet, but it's in a grey area.

What do you think?

Eating healthy isn't easy (at first)

Ever since I became a vegetarian 7 years ago I have been working on eating healthier.

• At first I was eating everything except meat (including dairy)
• Then I became a vegan 6 months later, so I gave up dairy, etc.
• When I moved to L.A. I learned about raw foods, and gave that a try, but I couldn't keep it up permanently
• It's pretty common knowledge that salt should be used sparingly
• Various people suggested I avoid processed foods, so I try to make my own meals or eat at restaurants with fresh food.
• I met a guy who was macrobiotic and didn't really get the concept until I started eating at Seed and became friends with macro chef Christy Morgan.
• After reading the book Sugar Blues I tried to eat less sugar, but haven't been very successful
• Several people have said that soy is bad in excess, so I try to avoid that as much as possible
• Movies like Food Inc. inspired me to avoid corn too
• Recently I discovered that eating too much garlic and onion isn't the greatest because they are meant to be used for medicinal purposes when we're sick, so over consumption weakens their effect when we need them
• The movie Forks Over Knives implied that oil was bad for you, and then T. Colin Campbell said it himself at his talk.
• There's a great new blog by a women who's avoiding products connected to Monsanto/GMOs

I could probably go on, but the point is that there are so many things to avoid, I often feel stumped when it comes to eating. So what do you eat when you shouldn't eat:

• animal products (including honey)
• salt
• processed foods
• sugar
• soy
• corn
• garlic
• onion
• oil
• GMOs
• perhaps even cooked foods?!?

Because of all this information I find myself doing circles around the grocery store, afraid to pick up anything! Then I stand in the produce section, motionless, with no clue what to make with any of the options. I often leave with only a few products (some of which have ingredients from the "bad list") and wonder why I never have anything to eat in my home! This can seriously drive you crazy. But, as you know if you read my site, I eat a lot of foods that are on the "bad list"...

The lessons I've learned:

• set aside time to plan recipes/read cookbooks before grocery shopping
• food can still taste good without the "bad ingredients"
• it's not the end of the world if I divulge in a bad of potato chips or a "bad" meal at a restaurant every once in a while

I think it is this very reason that so many people are intimidated by healthy eating - it is a major commitment. The good news is, once you get the hang of it it's much easier, and completely worth it. Eating healthy has major benefits, and the foods on the "bad list" are there for a reason - they've been linked to health problems. So take the time to educate yourself and take baby steps, but don't be afraid.

For example, tonight I looked in my fridge and all I had was bok choy. I decided to try it without oil, salt, or garlic. After rinsing it off I tossed it in the wok and fried it with a bit of water. I was quite surprised by the taste - not too bad! In fact, bok choy has a pretty great flavor alone, and I didn't miss the additives. The best part is, I had no guilt! : )

Ironically I saw this episode of The Simpsons after writing this - pretty spot on.

What are your thoughts on this? Is this extreme, or do you strive to do the same? What are your favorite recipes and cookbooks that don't have ingredients from "the bad list"?

Here are some responses from Twitter & Facebook:

• Maryl Celiz: Salt is great for the body - ONLY WHEN IT'S HIMALAYAN/CELTIC SEA SALT. The rest is poison. Soy and corn are only "bad" because they're our top GMO crops in the USA. Solution: Always buy them organic. Processed sugar is bad and too much of it at all is not great. But fruit, maple sugar and agave can sweeten ur day just fine. Garlic/onions are the main flavor-givers in many cuisines, no such thing as over-consumption. Use them, they keep u healthy!! Oil in its natural state (not heated) is not only great for u, its necessary for brain and other functions. Algaes are essential to good plant-based health. Grab some Nori and make some sushi!
• Gabrielle Smith: "Eating for maximum nutritional value and completeness, with no artificial ingredients, and little to no processing, i.e. fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts. Whole foods. Plant foods. My best resource is years of reading, and knowing what I really "ought" to eat."

Please read the comment below too - they are excellent!

"Humanely raised beef converting vegetarians"

Yesterday I posted a link on Facebook to an article I found about "humanely raised beef converting vegetarians." This seemed like a contradiction and I was shocked to read that some vegetarians started eating meat again because of this. I have met people that gave up vegetarianism because they had health problems - that I can understand. But I can't imagine eating meat again because it is supposedly raised in a kinder and gentler way - animals are still being killed, and that's not OK with me.

Granted, this method is at least better than conventional methods of raising cattle, so if one chooses to eat meat then I hope they choose that option. This article shows that the vegetarian voice has been heard, and though the world is not ready to give up meat entirely, they are willing to admit that cattle-raising in general is inhumane. No matter what you eat, make sure you know where you food comes from and how it was made, which means doing the research beyond the packaging. Find out what grass-fed, free-range, and organic really mean. Choose food that is makes the least negative impact on the source, planet, and your body.

My post raised a big discussion among vegetarians and non-vegetarians, which I didn't expect. It has certainly been interesting to read all of the different perspectives, and I encourage you to join in or at least read it. Some comments are a little harsh, but it's been a good debate. Commenters from both "sides" have raised some thought-provoking points.

It's important for me to note that I do not judge meat-eaters, just as I hope that I am not judged. What one eats is not a matter of right or wrong because we all have different reasons for our decisions. While I choose not to eat meat and do not support it or the industry, I do not look down on people who do. But I do like to express my opinion, mainly to educate those that are interested and open. I truly welcome comments from all sides - that's the only way I can start to understand and embrace the world.