the cheese/veganism thing...

i just may order this video ...

http://www.processedpeople.com/

i watched several of the trailers (they are also to be found on YouTube) and they are very good. it's funny, i've spent the last three to four days eating much more cheese than i'm used to (i've been halfheartedly trying to cut it from my diet completely, making me a very-near vegan with the exception of honey and eggs and when i dump a little half in half into my coffee at coffeeshops, some places are really ridiculous about meting out the soy) and even though most of the cheese i've eaten is organic and/or local (i.e. SAFE cheese), i still feel "sludgy" (to borrow a word from a macrobiotic cookbook i have) after enough of a glut of it backs up in my system. why? is part of it psychological, i know that the saturated fat is going straight to my arteries? probably? but the week after my best friend was here, when i indulged in mainly a raw vegan diet (due to her inspiration, she eats so amazingly well nearly 100 percent of the time), i had more get-up-and-go energy than i had in a very long time. i actually felt ... younger. my skin positively GLOWED. i'm convinced that cheese/dairy products are an energy drainer ... the argument could be made for moderation, but the more i think about eating the milk of another species (once a great yoga teacher brought it to my attention that we are the only species on the planet that drinks another animal's milk)the more even that argument slips out of my hands. it's the only "bad" food i still crave sometimes (okay, that and plain ruffles potato chips). i NEVER crave fast food, soda, processed products. but cheese? cheese, i crave. i stopped buying it many months ago, unless i was going to feed others, viewing it as a staple party food. now, i'm not so willing to buy cream for my guests' coffee just because they drink it, or cut up cheese into cubes just because i know they'll disappear. because what happens is i eat it, too. and after enough of it, i hate the way it's made me feel.

another thing that makes me feel sludgy is too much baked stuff, even the organic variety i buy/the homemade stuff i create. we're talking corn chips, tortillas, pasta, the vegan berry cobbler i made for my dinner party last night. i almost think i should try to cut all of this stuff out to once or twice a week, and stick to *true* grains like quinoa and oats (are oats a grain? i know they're amazing for you...especially in the morning) and brown rice.

i can't eat an entirely raw diet .. i like hot, hot food too much. but mainly veggie/fruit/whole grain based ... yeah, that's the way i think i'm going to end up eating for the long haul. and that is how i eat, mostly. i'm just not entirely cured of the "standard american diet" just yet. it's amazing how ingrained in us it is to eat both too unhealthily and too much.

thanks for listening, if you've made it this far. i'm not sure this post had a point, except maybe i'm wondering how you all handle your own issues with food, being as well read and educated and intelligent as you are, and how you make it work for yourself and for your family. or how your progress is going as far as food changes that you made when you began to live a simpler, downshifted life. because i'm convinced that with a simpler outlook on life as a whole, the diet is simplified, as well. often, that's for the healthier .... this at least i hope for you.