why i'm going vegan again + a little about endometriosis

Hey guys! I know it's been a little bit since my last post, for that I apologize. I have a list of excuses prepared for you: a.) I have to move again, so I spent some time fretting and some time searching for a new place. The latter was a success and my new place is HUGE and SUNNY and I won't have to bring all of my things into my bedroom to photograph (yeah, that Christmas ham was photographed in my bedroom...!). b.) holidays, of course. c.) I took a break from writing my book while I was healing and during the holidays and there was some inertia there getting back into it, but the last few days I've been working on it non-stop and I haven't wanted to interrupt that flow. d.) a general lack of ideas....and also the people who lease our apartment have been doing some invasive renovations that have been pretty disruptive and distracting.

Think about me without a stove or oven for a week and you will understand why I haven't felt like doing anything!

Alright, enough of that. . . . I know this blog is mostly not personal stuff, but since it's my blog I thought I'd talk a little about me and my life right now. Which is going great, by the way, except for basically one thing:

As I mentioned before, I had surgery just before Christmas. The surgery was to remove an ovarian cyst that
has ruptured a few times but never gone away. My doctor suspected it might be endometriosis and it turned out to be just that.

While they removed all of it during the surgery, there is a good chance that it's going to come back. My doctor was pretty insistent that the best and possibly only way to reduce this risk was for me to take birth control. I don't really believe in that. I was on the Pill for four and a half years and they were the worst four and a half years of my entire life. Since being off it I made leaps and bounds: I don't feel sick all of the time anymore and I don't have the severe mood swings or deep depression that I suffered from before.

recipe here

I believe wholeheartedly that you ARE what you EAT and that people are quick to dismiss the healing powers of food. Think about it though: food powers your body. It's what makes us go. Other animals have extremely strict diets because they need very specific things from their food to keep their bodies working properly. The human body has adapted to tolerate a wide range of foods but that doesn't mean all of these foods are beneficial.

That is why I am going vegan again. I'm giving it six months before I meet with my doctor again to determine whether we need to take other measures.

I'm cutting out all foods that contain hormones which primarily includes dairy (the worst offender), meat and soy. (Soy! you might be thinking, How can a vegan live without soy! Trust me though, it's possible and while hard to avoid when eating out, it's not an imperative staple in a vegan diet). This is because endometriosis is aggravated by high levels of estrogen. I'm cutting out sugars because they're inflammatory and I'm cutting out alcohol because it inhibits your liver's ability to filter toxins.

recipe here

Because I have endometriosis, my body is constantly repairing and healing itself. 8.5 million women and girls in America are estimated to suffer from this disease and that might make you think that it's common and therefor not a big deal, but that's simply not true. Any disease is a big deal because it means there's something not right in your body.

Now, I'm not saying there's not something to be said for modern medicine. I think modern medicine is great and it saves countless lives every minute of every day. But I think people have come to rely on drugs to treat their ailments TOO much. It can be so much more simple than that.

Obesity is a disease that illustrates this point perfect. Weight loss drugs are a HUGE industry in our world today which blows my mind because obesity is nearly always caused by poor diet and lack of exercise. So, instead of eating more vegetables and getting your body moving, people choose to put MORE chemicals in to try to shed the weight, but I've seen VERY little evidence that that even really works. The veracity of the claims by these drug manufactures are continually being debunked and then a new drug pops up. It's just crazy.

Anyway, I'm getting off point.

My diet change will mean a change for l'elan jolie, as well, as you may have guessed. I'll no longer be posting hams or chicken soups, but I promise that anything I do post will be delicious and suitable for all of you omnivores out there (my primary taste-tester Tom, is not vegan so he'll tell me if something sucks or not!)

If any of my readers out there are suffering from endometriosis as well, please feel free to get in touch with me! Despite the prevalence of this disease I don't actually know anyone else who has it but I'd love to talk about how it's affected your life and what you have found useful in coping with it. I'm still learning!

Thanks for reading and I PROMISE to have some more on point posts coming up soon! <3

Peace,
-A.