The KInd Life Community Forum

Hello All!!

I just wanted to say Hi! I am now in Ottawa but grew up in Alexandria! I was so excited when i saw Glengarry in the connections!

I read the kind diet and became flat out vegan over night. I already do alot of yoga and i feel that it has increased the connection i feel with myself. And I kinda wanted to take this one step further and purify my body with a vegan diet. Alicia's book is very convincing in terms of benefits and sensitivity to yourself that you develop. My boyfriend and I are also very environmental and i feel that i am somewhat contributing by laying off the meat.

I have only been vegan for 2 weeks but so far so good :)

To Ashlee:

so if it can help, we are big on not wasting, so i am simply letting the boyfriend eat the meat, milk, eggs that we have...! I do have roommates too so i gave them my coffee cream! I guess, if not roommates, a relative or soup kitchen might want to use it if ever u feel bad about wasting :) For me, the first vegan grocery was hard and took time and planning but once it was done, then its easier. I also made lists of foods by minerals, and tried to get a few items from the different categories!

Hi Celine! It's great meeting people here from your area that are also just starting to become vegetarian or vegan. Tomorrow will mark for me 1 week vegan (I cheated once by having parmasian cheese). I'm feeling pretty good and having lots of fun trying out new recipes. My boss is also starting to eat no meat so it has been nice to have a friend to talk about it and share the new recipes we are trying.

Ashlee - Spirulina is a seaweed. Look for it at a health food store, or they might have it at T&T.

I don't find groceries particularly expensive. But I tend to stick to fresh veggies and whole grains. And I get most of my food from the regular grocery store. I even found a bunch of stuff at Costco. They have soy milk there, and hummus, some of their produce there is pretty good, I bought a huge package of romaine lettuce and spinach. I also got my olive oil and balsamic vinegar there. I also got some premade falafels. My kids love these and they are super easy to pop in the oven or even the microwave. We put them in pitas with veggies and hummus or even just eat them as meatballs! I also like Food Basics. There is one on Walkley which is on my way home from work and they have tons of great stuff at great prices. They even have a good ethnic selection. They had lots of asian and indian ingredients. They didn't have very much in the way of soy yogurt or that sort of thing though. For the harder to find items like nutritional yeast, vital wheat gluten and spirulina, I would try Rainbow foods.

Good luck fellow veggies!!

Hello all! Thanks for the welcome :)

It is so fun to be sharing this with people and that are so close geographically too!

Lynda, i still do have family in Alexandria.. I go back all the time :)

And good job Ashlee and Amanda for starting...! Go us! I am finishing week 3 right now and loving every moment of it..! I feel so passionate about it too.. and i almost feel like its a gift that i have been missing out on.

And for groceries, i do find that some things are a bit more expensive organic and non organic thigns, especially quantity wise. But in terms of over all cost, not that much. And i guess if you think about how much you would be spending on meat, i always feel better if i do end up spending on organic things hehe

HOw was ur next grocery Ashlee without the staple items?

Also, my boyfriend is good at making us use the things we have. Even if we dont like them, we try to be creative and intergrate them in things. So in my first week i bought red kidney beans and chick peas (dry not canned). I have been making some every week And i still have half the bags left..! I might try new ones once i finish the others :)
Also, the tofu i buy is like 99 cents!! That is so cheap i get excited about it lol And like linda i mostly buy fresh veggies and make them with either rice or couscous, and tofu or beans for supper. All cheap, simple and nutritious :)

Hi All,

My grocery shopping has gone great! I made Alicia's sweet potato and lentil soup the other night and it was delicious. My boyfriend and his roomate were extremely jealous of the smell and they both loved the taste. I think I'm bringing them over to the good side :)

I'm also experimenting and trying things that I knew I loved in the past. I made some fried brown rice and added in mushrooms and onions, collard greens and a sauce with tamari and almond butter and I swear I haven't had a better stir fry.

I'm on day 5 now and I also feel great, It's that lovely time of the month and my cramps and bloating have been wayyyyy more tolerable that before.

Also, my vegan friends have shown me a great website and an awesome podcast by Collen Patrick Goudreau. She has an amazing podcast that you can subscribe to all for free on itunes or any other pod catcher website and I listen to her everyday! She's so supportive and is constantly providing information for everyone.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/VegetarianFoodForThought

She's great and talks to you like a friend and I'd strongly recommend listening to her, or downloading the mp3 onto your ipod or onto a cd. I've been marathoning her for the past couple days at work :P

Anyways, I'm so happy with everything and glad I have you ladies to talk to! Loving the support!!