Vegan iPhone App

Now ain't this rad. Any of you iphone, itouch, ipad users out there can now us this handy dandy app to check out protein content in your food.

Protein App for Vegans

Don't that just make life a bit easier.

Vegans Fire Back!

HYSTERICAL!

Marla Rose has posted this biting and well written post in response to this weeks very hot topic: Ex-Vegans

Sure Its a a tad over the top, but hey, she is keeping in style with Tasha's post.

Highlights:

If I can trace my falling out with omnivorism, the path would lead back to our family dog. His being helped to usher in the first inkling that something was wrong. I could observe that he had emotions, that he had preferences and the same reasons anyone else would have for not wanting to be exploited, abused, killed. Then, somehow, this view expanded outward, try as I might to contain it, and it grew like a thing out of control to encompass the birds, pigs, cows. Before I knew it, it no longer felt justifiable or rational to eat some but not others.

When I threw away the cheese, tossed the chicken in the garbage, it just felt so profoundly right: even more, when I piled the pizza high with gorgeous roasted vegetables, a cornucopia from our local farms, it just felt so correct, deep inside, and I felt the ancient echo of uncomplicated contentment I had been missing from my life for so long as an omnivore. I don't know if I had ever been so hungry or had that innate hunger so completely satisified. Yes, my starving soul nearly screamed with each voluptuous bite of silky roasted vegetables and chewy crust, yes.

Read it in all its glory here: Vegan Feminist Agitator: Omnivore: Fail

FREE Vegan Resources

On the heels of my rant on ex-vegans, I have found this interesting link that requires sharing.

Virginia Messina of the Vegan Examiner gathered together a great list of FREE vegan online resources.

The opening paragraph of her article also made me laugh:

There’s just no excuse for a star like Angelina Jolie to abandon her vegan diet. After all, the rich and famous can hire personal nutritionists and private chefs. Eating a healthful plant-based menu should be a breeze for them.

A must read for ALL VEGANS new and old.

Be Educated, Be Smart

Five must-have resources for new vegans (and they’re free!) - National vegan | Examiner.com

This one is my recommended reading. http://www.veganoutreach.org/guide/gce.pdf

She also had some funny words for my massive girl crush: Angelina Jolie.

Can't everyone just listen to Jack Norris when he says: “Something as simple as not eating enough calories might be a problem for an uninformed person who decides to give the vegan diet a try for a few days. They might only be aware of low-calorie vegan foods (e.g., salads, vegetables, fruits), and eating only these foods for a day might leave them feeling hungry and weak.”

Love

It's always amazing when I get emails, comments and notes sent to me, good or bad, about the things I write and post. I shocks me to realize that people actually read my blog. I really though I had like 2 friends and a few family members popping in just to be nice.

I was sent this note after I posted a comment on a YouTube video and it warmed my heart so I wanted to share the love:

MinaInSA hat dir eine Nachricht gesendet:

Veganism

Congrats to your first anniversary!!! Just celebrated my first anniversary of being vegan, too (on the 1st of October) and read your comment at the video -maketheconnection-.

I feel the same you do, never felt better and cannot imagine to ever go back again for I've learned so much about life and educate myself every single day.

No regrets, eyh?! Only one thing makes me sad, the fact that it took me so long to find the right way.

Keep well and keep up your spirit. :-)

Vegan hugs and love from South Africa, Cxx

Ex-Vegans - A Rant

Over the last few weeks, a few articles and posts have popped up online about or written by ex-vegans, discussing how they came to toss their vegan lives out the window and each article seems to have the same effect on me.

They make me mad. Very mad. Angry even.

Not mad because "We" have lost one to the "Other" Team, but angry because they were so fast to flip and seeming so easily swayed back to meat and dairy.

Where was the conviction of choice? Where was the passion? Was it ever there to being with? Were these people every really on board or were they just tagging along for a ride?

When I made the CHOICE to become vegan I knew that I was going to have to be diligent and educated in order to keep healthy, fit and strong. I knew I would have to supplement my diet where needed (B12, iron, etc.) and that just removing animal products from my diet and not taking the time or care to learn how to replace them was just stupid and irresponsible.

Don't all people who make massive life changes realize that they will actually have to do some work to make it an effective change?

After reading these posts I feel that these cases of ex-vegans are isolated and relate only to those that are mis or under educated, lazy and basically stupid. And I really don't care how that sounds. Harsh, fine, mean, fine. I really don't care.

People like these make it hard for the rest of us to be taken seriously and to be respected. They make it seem like its all crap, when in fact it's just them; they were the ones that didn't do the work to being with and are now suffering.

All in all, I guess what I am ranting about is this: IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A LIFE CHOICE, BE EDUCATED AND INFORMED ABOUT IT AND USE YOUR HEAD!

Wanna read the articles that got me all riled up? Here they are:

Do Ex-Vegans’ Stories Make the Case Against Vegan Diets? | The Vegan RD

A Vegan No More

A Review: The Vegetarian Myth

Let Them Eat Meat

And that was a nice little Monday rant ... now back to work ....