Seana Anderson on giving up her love of diary and trying a plant-based diet for 30 days
I have to admit, I like to eat meat. It’s not that I want to torture and kill animals. I just love the way animal flesh and byproducts taste: BBQ with sides, soul food, collards with neck bones, fried chicken, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with milk, butter and eggs, French bread with butter, onion soup with cheese, Brie with crackers, café au lait with rich cream, and cream in all flavors.
My grandmother had a dairy farm in northern Minnesota. She was the first person I ever felt loved me. We ate potatoes which she grew and meat (typically beef but sometimes pork and chicken) with milk, buttermilk, butter and cheese. Up until this past year I ate dairy with every single meal. For breakfast, I’d have half and half in my coffee, whipped cream on my hot chocolate, cheese in my omelets, butter on my toast and yogurt with berries. For lunch there was cheese in my sandwiches, on my chili, and even in my salads. Afternoon snacks were cheese and crackers, pudding or fruit yogurts. Dinner was often Italian with lots of different kinds of cheese, cheeseburgers, chicken or eggplant parmesan. Dessert was flan, cheesecake, ice cream.
Now I’ve always been a congested person—ever since I was young. I’ve often developed bronchitis or pneumonia and my nose was constantly stuffed up. I would cough and sneeze a lot, but that didn’t necessarily mean I was sick. It’s just what I did. Friends and medical personnel said that the condition would ease if I stopped eating dairy. I wouldn’t. It was too important to me.
I didn’t realize how much so until my wife and I had a fight about keeping cheese in the refrigerator. She was not eating cheese even though she grew up working in her family’s French restaurant in Fort Lauderdale and loved a good Brie. I promised her I would keep the cheese upstairs in my daughter’s refrigerator, but I found that it was too inconvenient going upstairs three times a day for meals. I brought the cheese back down. Kit found a chunk of Brie and threw it over the fence into the neighbor’s yard.
I was furious! She was furious. So, we went to a therapist to find out how to communicate again. I realized how deprived she felt without the cheese and how betrayed she felt that I had gone against our agreement. I realized how emotionally dependent I was on the connection between dairy and my grandmother’s love.
I thought about it and decided to try to substitute vegan options for dairy. I swore I hated coffee without half and half, but I tried soy, rice and almond milk and settled on a delicious hazelnut chocolate almond milk. Then I tried nut cheeses and they weren’t bad. Then I tried coconut yogurt in a Mediterranean dish and I really liked it.
I had been diagnosed with borderline high blood pressure. My doctor said that if I lost weight, I might be able to go off the three medications I’ve been taking to cope. I have tried to lose weight for the past 30 years and have not been successful so I was not optimistic that I could lose weight.
I also started experiencing some back, hip, knee, leg, ankle and foot pain. My solution to the pain was to stop exercising. I also had bladder surgery last August and was not allowed to exercise for two to three months. Then came the holidays. I probably put in more time on my couch than anywhere else in the last six months.
Then one day, I picked a book off my shelf I didn’t know was there called Pain Free. It said that if we do not use our muscles, they atrophy and cause us pain. I had basically let my back stay in the slumped “C” position for the past six months instead of the healthy “S” position and the consequences were increased weight, pain, and depression.
My depression for two weeks around Christmas and New Year’s was debilitating. New Year’s Day I forced myself to attend an open house at a friend’s. I met someone who loved to go dancing and was willing to share the information and take me, if I wanted. I started to become interested in life again.
I started to do some of the very gentle exercises in Pain Free and the pain in my joints lessened. At the same time, my spiritual center started a 30-day plant-based eating adventure, giving support, resources, and outings for us to try eating vegan for 30 days.
I’ve committed to it. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I negate my belief that now I’ve turned 70 that I’m old and can expect aches, pains, less energy, high blood pressure and obesity. If I do what I’ve always done, I’ll get what I’ve always got.
I can see things differently today. I cleaned out my pantry, ate up the animal foods or gave them to my family upstairs. I went shopping for fruits and veggies, vegan snacks and meat substitutes. My son-in-law gave me a huge box of organic veggies and I’ve started trying new recipes: kohlrabi and kale salad with pistachios, roasted celeriac and apples with a maple syrup glaze, green smoothies with spinach, kale, cucumber, almond milk, banana and berries. Even my meat-eating family loves the food. Last night they had baked BBQ chicken legs, but instead choose my spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce and soy bits.
It has been twenty days now as a vegan and I’m very full and satisfied with this food. I even noticed a difference bending over to tie my shoes this morning. I’ve re-joined the Y and went to a water aerobics and a senior sit fit class, as well as a Tai Chi class for seniors with arthritis. I’ve also lost 14 pounds.
Although I don’t want to think about how animals are treated who become our food, I know that it would be healthier for me and for the planet to eat plant-based. This is an experiment, one day at a time, for 30 days. I’ll see how my body feels, what challenges there are, and whether I use the support offered. I’ll monitor my blood pressure, my joint pain, my energy level, and my willingness to exercise and enjoy it.
I am excited and hopeful.
Seana is a licensed and ordained interfaith minister who graduated from One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in 2005. She owns her own fundraising consulting firm that raises money for non-profit organizations in the US and UK. She is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She just celebrated my 70th birthday and bought herself a silver Volvo convertible. She’s also been a part of the 12 Step Recovery Programs for the past 25 years.
