Veggie Singles Mingles in Metro Detroit

Let's face it - looking for love can be difficult. It's even more difficult when you are trying to find a like-minded person in a small subset of the population! To help connect other single veggies with each other, Adventures in Veganland is starting a series of Veggie Singles Mingles in Metro Detroit.

The format is simple. Singles mingles will be planned at various veg-friendly restaurants around the tri-county area. They will typically run from 6 to 8 pm with the first hour being the mingle hour with happy hour-type restaurant specials and the second hour being a casual dinner.



The first singles mingle will be tomorrow night - Thursday, October 4 at Seva Detroit. The second singles mingle will be Tuesday, October 16 at Roger Monk’s in Ann Arbor. An RSVP is required. For more details and to RSVP, please join Adventures in Veganland on Facebook. If you are not on Facebook, you may email your RSVP.

I will see how the events go. If there is a good response, I will plan more events! Please help spread the word to any of your friends who might be interested!

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Intolerance will not be tolerated!

Today I met someone who was not only anti-vegan, but downright vegan intolerant! To make matters worse, he owns a health food store!

I don't normally call for boycotts, but I am asking all vegans in the area to boycott Nutrition Unlimited in Southgate. They are anti-vegan and quite evangelical about it!

Instead, please support other local establishments, such as Total Health Foods in Wyandotte. They are vegan-friendly and tolerant of all people, regardless of their eating habits.

Let me go back and explain how I came upon this information.

As you know, I published a vegan, gluten-free cookbook last January. I have been trying to get local stores to carry the book. (Currently, it's being sold at Total Health Foods and Nutri-Foods in Royal Oak.) I happened to be going by Nutrition Unlimited so I thought I would stop in and re-introduce myself and see if they would be interested in checking out my book. (I say re-introduce because years ago when they first opened I actually used to be a somewhat frequent customer. I introduced the owner to several new products that he continues to carry to this day. Needless to say, he wasn't anti-vegan, or at least didn't preach it, at that time.)

So I went in and introduced myself and as soon as I said the word vegan he said, "Vegan?! We don't promote veganism! That's what we teach people in our clinic - not to be vegan. You can only get Vitamin A from animal sources so where do you get your Vitamin A?" I was a bit startled and replied, "Well I'm not Vitamin A deficient and no vegans I know are Vitamin A deficient so we must be getting it from somewhere." To which he retorted, "Well that's surprising."

I think I mumbled something like "Ok, thanks for your time" (because I was still trying to be polite) and I started to walk away. He followed me. And then he said, "Don't you know the cause of all autism? Autism is caused by Vitamin A deficiency!" What I really wanted to say was, "Are you implying that autism only affects vegan children and all vegan children become autistic?" but I really didn't feel like arguing with someone so clueless. I replied, "Actually, there's a lot of research on autism linked to nutrition but it's not focused on Vitamin A. I could refer you to some doctors that are doing cutting edge research on the causes of autism. But I see it's not a good fit here for my book, thanks anyway."

Again, I preceded to leave. And again he chased me down! And this time, he says very loudly, in front of a lot of customers, "Do you know where mother's get protein from to feed their babies?" I said, "I'm not interested in discussing nutrition of mothers and children." And he replied, "But do you know where it comes from? The protein comes from milk!" And I replied, "Yes, but not from the milk of other species."

And with that, I walked out the door.

So, not only is the owner anti-vegan, he clearly wants to push his misguided beliefs on anyone who is. So for all of you vegans and vegan supporters out there, please do not patronize his store! There are plenty of other places where you will be treated like a human being!

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Juice Fast is Moving

It's becoming apparent that the juice fast is going to go on for quite some time, so I've decided to move the juice fast posts to their own blog. If you want to follow my juice fast, check it out at http://veggiepatti-juicefast.blogspot.com/

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Juice Fast Day 8

Finally - I think the weight loss plateau has been broken. The scale finally moved in the right direction! lol

I'm feeling pretty good today. The energy is not bad; less than usual, but that could also be do to the extreme heat we've been under for days.

I've been drinking the green juice from yesterday and just finished it off. My father just brought me over a huge supply of organic fruit on his b-day no less. We'll be meeting at his house for dinner and I'll be making juice and drinking it over there, so we'll see how it goes being on a juice fast while other people are eating! Haven't run into that scenario since day 1!

I'm not sure what I'll blend up. I want to blend something that others might want to try if they are so inclined, so it has to be something that is not only palatable to the non-juicer palate but also something that will make a lot. I'm thinking perhaps pineapple and blueberry with spinach and ginger. We shall see!

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Juice Fast Day 7

Today was a very busy day! I made my usually blend - 6 cucumbers, only 1 stalk of celery this time because it's been so juicy, ginger, and the remaining kale from the other day. That's what's I've been drinking all day - 3 glasses of that and then some coconut water. And of course plenty of regular water!

Not much else to report!

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Juice Fast Day 6

So it's day 6...another day, another set of challenges...but no one said this would be easy!

So the hunger hasn't really been an issue (knock on wood)...it's the logistics of the whole thing!

I saved a glass of the green juice from yesterday to have this morning while I was making the rest of the juice for today. Unfortunately, the power went out briefly last night, I missed my alarm, and needless to say this morning I was in a time crunch. Luckily I had the juice for this morning, but I still needed something for the rest of the day! Fresh juice isn't something you can just go out and buy where I was going to be so I had to make it. So instead of making all of the juice for the day, I decided I would just make a lunch juice and make the rest later.

I had seen a recipe for apple lemonade, so I did a take on that. I remembered from juicing previously that lemons and limes go along way, so I used 1 lemon, 1 1/2 apples, 3/4 a bunch of kale, and ginger. It was palatable, but too lemony. I didn't have time to fix it so off I went. I drank the juice, but I don't think high citrus items sit well with me. The lemon didn't feel too great in my stomach but it really burned my throat!

When I came home, I was going to make the big vat of juice, but I still had these tomatoes (I know, more acid) that had been haunting me. I like tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato soup, etc, but I've never liked tomato juice. But I figured I would try a tomato basil juice. The basil wasn't juicing very well so I ended up using a lot without realizing that a little basil goes a long way! I also threw in a little clove of garlic at the end, but I think my juicer was partially clogged so I didn't really taste it. I was scared making the juice and when I tasted it I knew why! I'm glad it only made one glass! I hope I can choke it down. If not, well maybe it will be fertilizer for my flower beds..lol

So tonight I will be making the big vat of juice that should take me through tomorrow and I have to hit the grocery store since I wasn't able to do that today.

And my weight is still stable, sigh... Only I could go on a juice fast and not lose weight..lol  Hopefully, everything will kick in and it will start to fly off.

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Juice Fast Day 5

So I made it through day 4 without any problems and was smart enough to make the big vat of green juice and have one in the evening and save the rest for today so I wasn't scrambling to make something to drink this morning!

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I have come across a few things that annoy me on this juice fast. But first, the reason I am doing this juice fast is two-fold: to be healthier and to shed excess weight. I have some genetic disorders and autoimmune issues that cause pain, digestive issues, fatigue, and a whole lot of other symptoms. It also has made losing weight an extremely difficult challenge, despite the fact that I'm a gluten-free, grain-free vegan who trys to eat at least 50% raw and goes on all-raw diets for 30 days at a time. And I do green smoothies. And I juice. So since both conventional and holistic medicine have not been able to help me, I'm on a journey to try to heal myself as many others have done before me with this type of juice cleanse.

That being said, I'm really tired of my family trying to sabotage me! Now, some family members support me and cheer me on; some don't understand, express their worry, and let me go about my business; but a select few family members deliberately try to sabotage me no matter how I eat! I suspect they don't believe I should be a vegetarian, let alone a vegan. And going on a juice fast and not eating food for days at a time goes beyond comprehension as something healthy to do. (Despite the fact that this person seriously considered going on an all-liquid, non-natural cleanse because the Western doctor recommended it.) It annoys me that when I say this is what I'm doing and here's why, this person goes and makes stuff for me that I choose not to eat at the moment and then asks me to come eat it! Supposedly it's done out of love, but where's the support? Sadly, this is common among vegetarians, vegans, and raw foodists and their family members.

The second thing that's annoying me is that I bought this "state-of-the-art" juicer and it definitely has downfalls! As I mentioned previously, the prep takes forever because you have to cut all the food in small portions. It does wonderful for greens and hard vegetables and fruits, but doesn't do so well with soft fruits. While I was juicing today I had to stop, disassemble, and clear out the machine on many occasions just to get through the juicing session. It's extremely annoying.

The third thing that's annoying is the expense of juicing! Today I decided to make a red, white, and blue juice in honor of 4th of July. I used blueberries, raspberries, jicama, and rosemary to make sure I got some greens in. The cost for this one-serving juice drink was $8. If you go out to a restaurant, that is what you'd pay, but that's a pretty big expense for one meal when you add it up! And if you screw it up and it doesn't taste good, you can either add more to it or just drink it down, because it's too expensive to throw out.

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So enough about the negative and onto the positive! My taste buds have definitely changed. I was getting hungry on just the green juice so I decided to do a quick watermelon juice (with the rind) to shake things up. It was too sweet! I used to be able to eat almost a quarter watermelon as a meal before with no issues! So I ended up adding spinach to tone it down, although it was still a little too sweet.

I am a little disappointed that the weight loss has plateaued for now - hopefully there will be a breakthrough soon!

So on the menu for today:

Green juice - cucumber, celery, ginger
Watermelon cooler - watermelon with rind, spinach, ginger
Red, white, & blue juice - blueberries, raspberries, jicama, rosemary

I went to the grocery story yesterday and have all the produce purchased and planned for tomorrow's drinks, but I will have to go back to the store tomorrow to buy the produce for the next day.

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If anyone wants to try juicing but is afraid to do it on their own, I will be joining a doctor-led juice cleanse starting July 15. The deadline to sign up is this Sat, July 7.

Here's the link to the Be Juicy 10-Day Juice Cleanse.

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti

Happy Fourth of July!