Soy to the World, the lard has come!

Here's what happened:

On October 1^st, we dutifully went to the lab, donated three (!) vials of blood and drove straight to Starbucks without passing GO. We scanned the menu, knowing we could get anything- gobs of whipped cream, steamed cow's milk, strong coffee with half and half, pastries made with butter- the works! Instead, the “new brain” kicked in and two seconds later, we were sipping a delicious foamy soy latte, which is slightly sweet from the soy vs. cow milk flavor. Turns out, “anything can be made with soy milk” (barista quote). But before you get too excited, the day didn't continue in the soy lane, and by dinner, we were ordering pizza from Mombo's, as cheesy and greasy as possible. For several days this week, while waiting for results from the lab, anything was fair game. Potluck at work with chicken and carnitas, after work party with tuna tartar and triple cream brie, salmon on the grill at home served with mashed potatoes and caesar salad. Oddly enough, there were no adverse effects on the body at all from 30 vegan days to 4 glory days.

And then the lab results came; a dramatic shift downwards in all important numbers- total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL- the bad guy. We are buoyed into getting back on the wagon,especially the second place winner who is basically competitive and wants her total cholesterol reading to be below 200 before the end of the year! So, with some less restrictive options, the games will go on!

But the blog will not, at least in it's current form.

The author is considering other topics to blog upon: tanorexia, Gen x observations, Waldorf toys, the reality show obsession, the art of thrifting, preparing 20 minute dinners, planning family vacations, and much, much more.

Please offer comments and critiques about our Vegan blog to help with decision-making about whether to continue bloggin' or not.

Thanks for reading!

The Results are back!!!!!!

The labs are in, it's all there in black and white, factual conclusions based on real numbers. The two adults in the family took the challenge primarily for cholesterol reasons, and therefore, did the lab work at the end of 30 days. The teenagers took the challenge for “fun”- huh? Really?

First, the emails from our doctor based on the results- for one of us :

“Your results are now available and you should be able to see them online. Your cholesterol is now normal, and EXCELLENT! Good work; it appears that the vegan diet really did the trick for you. You should continue on that, because it seems to be the answer, unless you decide you can't stand it, in which case we'd want to discuss medication.”

and for the other one of us:

“So your numbers did improve; your total is still elevated but that's ok given the great HDL. Your LDL is now normal (goal of less than 130 for people who don't have heart disease or diabetes).
Good work! Looks like the vegan diet is the way to go if you want to avoid medication.

Wow! It worked!

So here you go:

The Wisconsin cheese eater won the contest!! Her total cholesterol went from 227 down to 196 and LDL went from 122 down to 107!

The second place prize goes to the New York born pastrami lovin' gal whose total cholesterol went from a whopping 242 down to 215 and LDL went from 141 to 119!

We can bore you with more juicy details like Triglyceride and HDL numbers later.

So, where do we go from here? Part time vegans?  Statin consumers?

More tomorrow and also some thoughts on a new blog topic- feedback appreciated on this one!!