to Vegan or not to Vegan..that is the question

My journey over the last few months have led me to some interesting information and lifestyle changes. Early on, I learned that a vegan diet and  an absence of alcohol can promote a cancer fighting environment with in one’s body. I started looking into making some change to our meals and briefly considered the idea of becoming a teetotaler. Mind you, I type this while I sip on a nice Cabernet. Yeah, the idea of me not drinking my beloved single malt Scotch and not eating meat is a horrible idea. The idea became less horrible when I was no longer able to go through any treatments to improve my disease free time. Thats when I started to seriously look into changes and weigh my options. But making these changes and adding herbal supplements had their own complications. The goal of trying to improve my immunity but reduce the inflammatory response is a challenge.

So in late December, I made the last push towards this change. I knew that I could not become a full Vegan nor could I give up all alcohol, (apparently red wine has a health benefit that out weighs its side effects….at least in moderation). We are eating less processed foods and are mostly vegetarian . I figure that 80% of my meals are vegetarian based and the majority of the meals that I include meat in are chicken or turkey. (I eat fish when Lynese isn’t around). Since the beginning of the year I have only consumed 4 beers and 2 scotches. Its hard..I miss my beloved single malts.

I have also added various supplement to help improve my own immune system,  to better combat cancer, and added other supplements to curb the inflammatory response. The reason for this is simple. My sarcoidosis is why I can’t go through standard treatment. Standard treatment cause a significant inflammatory response which makes sarcoidosis become problematic and very dangerous to me. I am even going to see a naturalist to getting my diet and supplement more inline. The nice/challenging thing is making a variety of foods and making them yummy. I realize that I can’t make my kids go full vegetarian, but we have found great ways to add a lot more veggies in good ways. One of our favorites to reduce the processed food is to use spaghetti squash as our “noodles” when we eat spaghetti. We have always had veggies on our plate, we just have more now with less starches and way less meats.

Bottoms up!!!