If you are reading this, it must mean that you are somewhere on the spectrum of interest in a more vegan-oriented lifestyle. Maybe this means you would like to incorporate more plant foods and reduce animal products in your daily diet. Perhaps you feel ready to completely overhaul your meals from the Standard American Diet, as fully explained in my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World” , and go cold turkey, er, cold Tofurky? Either way, this is meant to give guidance so that whatever transition you choose is easy and enjoyable.
Before getting into the subject allow me to put reality into focus. What would you do if you went into a restaurant and asked what’s for dinner and got this reply?
We have meat with antibiotics, bovine growth hormones, steroids, the remnants of the dead, dying, diseased and decayed animals not fit to be sold as food but fed back to the live animals and GMOs, which are regularly put into their feed, poultry immersed in feces but given FDA approval to be sold as long as the doo doo can’t be seen liquid fat in the form of milk and cheese that is devoid of nutrition due to pasteurization and homogenization, chicken’s menstrual cycles, also know as eggs, which will give you more cholesterol than you hope to achieve in your lifetime, and fish loaded with mercury, PCBs, toxic wastes, radiation, fluoride, plastics, and heavy metals. And then, because the human digestive tract is like a convoluted switch-back road, everything would remain in your body dispersing the poisons and eventually blessing you with a plethora of diseases that would turn you into a “trick” for the pharmaceutical/ medical fraud of profiting from your illnesses.
I think you would say, “Feet don’t fail me know”, and get your okole out the door so fast that you would probably set a world record.
So, one of the great things about truckin’ down the vegan road is there is an endless amount of knowledge to absorb about every facet of the lifestyle, from the food to the consciousness, from the fashion to the philosophy, and the fact that your health and immune system would take a turn for the better and most of what you are plagued with will soon be gone.
The upside is that the adventure never ends. The downside is there also tends to be a lot of misinformation and criticism out there by those that do not profit from it..
It’s important when researching anything to be able to separate the cold, hard facts from the bullshit. Veganism will change your life for the better despite the skepticism based upon fear and conditioning.
Branching out to different blogs, forums and websites to find new and exciting recipes and staying up to date on what environmental, health or animal rights information empowers you the most, will be a blessing in disguise.
But also remember that being a student of your lifestyle does not mean being an expert. It is okay to not have the answers to others’ questions, and yes, you will receive a lot of questions, but to instead speak from your heart and say why your choice is important to you.
Before you considered a vegan transition, what were your eating habits? Mealtime routines? Kitchen skill set? Budgetary expertise? All of the things you already know about yourself will inform you on how to take care of implementing the change in the foods you eat.
If meal planning, meal prepping and a closely-watched budget describe your flow, then start looking up some recipes, make some charts and check out the prices of produce. In all cases those prices will always be lower than Rx meds and doctor’s visits.
If you are more on the taking a walk on the wild side, ask yourself what types of foods you typically enjoy and consider veganizing some of your favorite meals and how to make the switch simple.
Many people may think that going vegan means buying expensive, exotic-sounding ingredients and relearning how to cook. It just means only buying the vegetables, fruits and whole grains and passing on everything that had a face and a mother, the chicken’s period, and liquid fat also known as dairy.
If your family enjoys Taco Tuesdays and that packs most of their lunches, then maybe it’s time for lentil or veggie fajita tacos and simple sandwiches, soups and stir fries that can be packaged to-go!
If you are more of a takeout type who only enters the kitchen to make Sunday brunch, well, start examining local restaurant menus and fast food options and make a plan for a fulfilling, delicious vegan brunch spread!
This advice I cannot stress enough: find at least one other vegan with whom you can connect for support and questions. Being vegan can be hard sometimes, largely because most the world is critical and still catching up.
Vegan folks can feel surrounded by eye-rolling and meaty menus and, therefore, isolated and alone—especially where there aren’t a lot of other vegheads around for support. So, just find an online community, local meet-up group or social media connection to feel at home.
Most of our daily life can begin to feel like a rat race from time to time. If you start to feel unenthusiastic about dealing with grocery shopping, meal prep or dealing with the same old questions from co-workers (“Where do you get your protein?”), remember that what you have to fall back on that brings you joy. Simply stated, protein is protein whether from plants or dead creatures. The only difference is that the plant-based protein, while being the same in content as the dead animal protein, is cleaner.
Perhaps getting creative in the kitchen is your thing and gets you out of a rut. Maybe you went vegan for your compassion for the animals just treated as “products” and taking time out of your day to connect with your companion animals or taking a trip to a farmed animal sanctuary brings you peace. Or, if your moment of zen is kicking back with a good book or film, there are so many informative and entertaining reads and documentaries on the power of veganism that will invigorate your soul. Like I said earlier, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”, will put into very clear perspective why you should continue truckin’ down this new road.
Whatever it is that connects you to the reason you chose to become vegan, keep it close to your heart and take action to connect with it on a daily basis. It will extend your life, give you peace, and soften your heart.
Aloha!
To learn more about Hesh, listen to and read hundreds of health related radio shows and articles, and learn about how to stay healthy and reverse degenerative diseases through the use of organic sulfur crystals and other amazing superfoods, please visit www.healthtalkhawaii.com, or email me at [email protected] or call me at (808) 258-1177. Since going on the radio in 1981 these are the only products I began to sell because they work.
Oh yeah, going to www.asanediet.com will allow you to read various parts of my book – “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”, containing a wonderful comment by Mike Adams.
Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.
After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.
Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.
I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.
So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".
Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.
I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.
But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.
The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.
But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.
So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.
Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.
I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.
Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.
A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.
In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.
My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.
I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.
Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.
The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.
Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.
For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.
Namaste!
