THE RANT!

I keep hearing, "Being a vegetarian is tough, But being a vegan is next to impossible....for me."
I stare my friends in the face, my gaze boring into them, wondering where they are coming from. I am a vegan, Being vegetarian is not tough at all and being vegan is even less of an issue.

I know I have been a vegan for a long time and also that I made it for health choices, but I slid into it so simply that I never struggled...except for cravings. Now with all of the new products that are coming out for vegans, I rarely, if ever crave, and when I do it is because of the hard core food additives rearing their ugly head in my body due to me being ill last year.

Anyone can make the choice to give up junk. Anyone can make a stand against food oppression (more on that later) anyone can make the change.... to change a life, save a life, protect a life or to create a life. It all boils down to what is more important, eating garbage and dying 20 years early or giving up the junk that is killing you and live an additional 30 years.

I have no paitence when someone comes up to me in the grocery store while I am buying tofu or bok choy and asks me why I eat it....Let me rephrase since you cannot see the person asking me.
I cannot stand it when someone who is morbidly obese comes up to me, with a chip on their shoulder and asks me why I am eating that nasty junk (this is a true story) and then tells me that they could never eat that JAP. food, and then waddles away smirking to themselves about how they told me, then they get back on their hover round with their cheetos's and whole milk and twinkie dinner and putter off in search of baby powder so their skin doesn't chaff.....
Infuriates me!!!!
Now do not get me wrong, I am a chubby girl, I am no petite little thing, but here... where I live, I am next to looking like an Ethiopian. There are so many obese people here that it is normal to see a 20 something girl walking down the street with her stomach down by her knee caps. You see 400 lb. men in extra large wheelchairs at chinese buffets. Women in hover rounds riding with obese children in the front basket... IT IS ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU GO INSANE.....And they will fight you tooth and nail to say that they eat healthy...because they eat corn and potatoes.....About 6 years ago, I was thin, well by my standards, I was a size 13, that is tiny around here, believe me... I went to Wal-Mart to get some gimme lean sausage and a few groceries and this young woman probably about 19, approaches me to ask if I know where the (blah blah blah, I forgot) is, and I said yes and pointed her toward the item in question. She started to walk away and then turns around and came back and asked "Why are you buying fake sausage?
I eat it because I an a vegan I said....she had no idea what a vegan was. So I explained to her what vegan was and why I choose that way to live and also how it is a better way to live..etc...She was really interested and she thanked me and took of in search of her items...About 10 minutes later she is being pulled by her mother to the produce section (I was bulk buying I guess or lingering over fruit).
Her mother attacked me for planting (this is the best part) my hippy ideals and moral propiganda into her daughters mind and that they do not eat like birds, all the men are robust healthy and strong in her family and it kept going......I am standing there with my mouth hanging open looking at this women who was probably pushing 300 lbs. dressed in a summer dress that resembled a mumu, gettting my butt handed to me for talking to her kid about nutrition.....I smiled politely accepted my butt chewing and then apologized for upsetting her way of life....and then I cried....like an idiot. I didn't realize what just happened, I was not standing on a soap box handing out brochures and lecturing The fat, the unhealthy, the weak and downtrodden...I was buying MY groceries, minding MY buisness.....PFFFT!
I can handle myself now, I tell people what they ask to know, ignore the people that want to fight and bascially just go with the flow.
My sister in law has horrible eating habits, just ungodly bad. She tries to feed me and I am like, ummmm no, I already ate, then she will say, I made you a salad... but you can't see the lettuce, it is loaded with cheese and bacon and chicken and ranch dressing and eggs.....and iceberg lettuce...
She thinks if it is a salad, it is vegan...yeah...NO. She also thinks steak and potatoes are a food group. No joke.

Kaiti and I are junk food junkies....I admit it, but...it doesn't control us. We indulge occasionally. But not everyday. It will kill you, plain and simple.
We have been watching Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution, it is pathetic what we feed our children and what we deem is ok for food. Actually it is disgusting... If you haven't watched it, go watch it now.. It is on ABC on Friday nights or on hulu.com
I knew it was bad, that is why I sent my children with sack lunches to school, but honestly I didn't want to know, now I am inflamed by it....I want to march into the high school and say where is your dietician......lol

I know that we as vegans are very healthy(well, most of us, I can think of one in particular that is not at all, and no, it is no one here), our blood pressure and cholesterol are low, we are not loading up with junk food (very often) we will live longer and longer lives because of it. BUT....why can't everyone else see that they are killing themselves, the obesity rate is the highest it has ever been, children are develpoing breasts at 2 years old (hello!!! hormones in milk) Children are suffereing from diabete's, heart disease and high cholesterol...and we take them out to McDonalds for dinner, we feed them fried donuts for breakfast and then give them sugary sweets for rewards..... We are killing our children, we are killing ourselves, and no one is trying to stop us.... NO ONE!
Where is the coalition for childrens nutritional rights...Why aren't WE in the schools teaching nutrition? Have you seen the USDA food chart?? GO check it out.. http://www.mypyramid.gov/

Someone needs to start a revolution, Jaime Oliver includes meat in his revolution....when will there be vegan negotiating terms with schools and talking to the government???
I would be the first to sign up for change? Wouldn't you?

Sorry about the rant people...My friend and I got into a debate last night over food, again and it set me off!
For the record, I know vegans can be unhealthy, I realize that the change begins with one person and spreads, but I do not see the change often and I am tired of feeling attacked all the time for eating healthy.... The End : )