Being Vegan: Questions answered in pictures

I adopted the vegan lifestyle for about 6 months back in 2009. I lost 12 pounds within those few months and the improvement in my health was able to be measured medically through blood testing. You can see the before and after comparisons HERE.

(Me, a few months ago, just because there were too many words without pictures) 

That being said, once I became pregnant with Baby Hippo, I started to seriously crave McDonald's hamburgers in my first trimester. Some said that that was proof that my body wasn't getting what it needed. I say that it was my body going back to what it had known through the previous eight pregnancies to combat nausea.... hamburgers, french fries, and sickly sweet vanilla shakes. Those are some of the foods I used to ease my morning sickness when I was 18 and pregnant for the first time, and since then, when I get morning sickness, those are my go-to foods. But do you really think that was what my body needed? I think not.

After I delivered Baby Hippo, I immediately went back to a vegetarian diet, which is different from a vegan diet in that I added eggs and diary. The change was that I again removed meat from my diet.

Currently I'm mostly vegetarian. If I go out to eat, and nothing looks good on the vegetarian menu, I'll order some seafood, or if someone brings our family a meal which includes meat, or, if I attend a party, I'll eat some meat, but in my home, I still don't purchase or prepare meat. If the older kids want it, they can ask John to buy it and cook it themselves.

During my vegan months, I was inundated with questions and concerns about the vegan diet. Some wondered where I would get my protein, calcium, and iron, even though they themselves never pulled open a produce drawer, drank 6 sodas a day, and never stepped foot outside to exercise. I wasn't sure why my health had become such a concern to them all of a sudden. Even so, I armed myself with enough information to answer people's questions, that is if they weren't interrupting me, and hopefully I eased their minds as to the status of my health. Although I'm not vegan anymore, I still think it's a great way to live a long healthy life, and since my daughter, who introduced me to the vegan lifestyle, recently shared this very simple and informative graphic with me, one of the best I've seen, I'd like to share it with you.

Thanks for listening and enjoy.