Special K and the outer vegan regions

Today I'm starting the "Hallelujah Diet". This sounds a lot more whackjob than it actually is. I'll let a crazy preacher explain a little more.




Right, well that doesn't explain very much about anything except Barley Malt, which according to my bud who actually is a vegan (and has a lovely blog with lots of tips about it here) is fecking disgusting.

The Hallelujah Diet is basically a vegan diet. According to the website:

"Hallelujah Acres was founded in 1992, but the story of how it began dates back to 1976 when Rev. George Malkmus was told he had colon cancer.

In 1976, Rev. Malkmus was a very successful pastor of a large church in upstate New York when he was diagnosed with colon cancer — the same disease that took his mother, despite chemotherapy, radiation treatments and surgery.

Feeling like the “treatment” his mother received was more of a threat than a cure, Rev. Malkmus turned to an evangelist friend, Lester Roloff, who advised him not to go the medical route, but to simply change his diet to raw fruits and vegetables, and to drink lots of fresh carrot juice. He did, and slowly but surely, symptoms began to dissipate and disappear. So he studied everything he could, including the Bible, about this simple way of eating, and found the answers he was looking for in Genesis 1:29."

BASICALLY, this nice pastor suggests that living on a strictly vegan diet is good for you, and I can see how this would be the case. I was thinking about vegetarianism as opposed to veganism and the vegan lifestyle seems to make a lot more sense to me. If you're not going to eat animals, why would you eat their byproducts?

I was at a barbeque yesterday with Velo Vegan herself, and I had the chance to sample some barbequed tempeh and seitan, which were delicious! We chatted about what's available to vegans and it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to do, especially when it's only for one week. You can get your protein from other sources pretty easily, and there are so many delicious and nutritious alternatives to meat. I'm quite excited at the thought of making my own smoothies and cooking up tofu and tempeh.

For lunch today I'm going to hit Govinda's (although now I think about it I'm not sure it's totally vegan, I must ask). I ate some brown bread toasted for breakfast this morning with spread (not butter!) and downed a glass of orange juice, and I just had a kiwi there. I don't feel limited at all, I have to say.

The Hallelujah Diet also recommends 30 minutes of exercise every day, including stretching, and a "daily dose of sunshine". Well, sorry to disappoint mate, but we live in Ireland, currently under an ash cloud. I got plenty of sun yesterday however, so maybe it'll even out.


Moving swiftly along, I'm also going to lay some knowledge on ye today, about the Special K diet, which guarantees that you'll drop a dress size in no time at all if you eat Special K for breakfast and lunch, and a balanced meal for dinner.

Lies!

Well, maybe some people dropped a dress size but I certainly didn't. I didn't follow the plan to the letter however. When I was in school I was considered a little odd by some of my associate contemporaries, a fact not aided by my regular consumption of whole tomatoes, in the same manner one would eat an apple, or an orange. I'm all too familiar with the funny looks you encounter when you're eating something that you shouldn't be and cereal in the middle of the day is one of those things. For this reason, the Special K diet isn't an easy one to follow.

Cereal is nice in the morning. You're just waking up, your body's not fully functional, your taste buds would be thrilled by contact with cardboard- cereal's best enjoyed in the morning. Now, my younger brother eats copious amounts of Special K, mainly because our mother refuses to buy him coco pops. He likes the taste though. I'd like to raise a question: What the hell does Special K taste like?

To me, it tastes pretty much like nothing. Sure, it's a pleasant texture, especially when combined with cold, liberally poured (skimmed, as they would have you drink it) milk, but it doesn't exactly taste like anything. It's very bland, actually. It's not enjoyable when making up two thirds of your daily intake, and to be perfectly frank, Special K ads really grind my gears. The women they display as being supposedly "curvy" are far from it, people who do not need to diet, often women who look like they could do with a good ham sandwiching. They're unrealistic. It's weird advertising, and just like the ads the Special K diet is just something pretending to be something else despite the glossy surface and empowering red colours.

Diets work essentially by lowering your calorie intake below that which you need to survive. It is suggested that if you wish to lose weight to stay at or below the 1500 calorie mark. If you have stored fat your body will resort to burning it for energy, and when you exercise regularly, at an accelerated rate. Special K is masquerading as a wonder food when all you're really doing is lowering your calorie intake pretty dramatically, and let's face it, it's antisocial. For me, the Special K diet is all a bit "meh" and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone when you can get the exact same results by swapping one of those bowls for a fresh salad, getting more vitamins and nutrients in the process. And as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life, which is one of the reasons I'm so looking forward to trying out being a vegan for a week- I might just expand my palate.

Check back this evening for an update on how my first day sans meat went. Besos.