T minus 2 weeks

First of all, I'd like to say that I intended this "user" to be named "Six-Week Vegan" and not the lame name I typed in and canNOT for the life of me figure out how to change. That being said. . .

Two weeks from yesterday, we will begin our dive into veganism. I think I just made that word up. We're feeling rather veganistic. Vegan-ish? Vegany? Ooo, we could be Veganese. Maybe we can re-title it veganarianism. Wow, a bunny trail in the first paragraph. Yikes!

Why vegan? Well about 2 weeks ago, I came home to Rodney watching this documentary. We laid in bed the next morning talking about the things he learned. What stuck out most to him was the connection between animal protein and cancer.

(There are several links between the two, and you can watch the movie to find out all about it-- because I'm certainly not explaining it here :) It's on "instant" for Netflix right now.)

The generation just before Rodney has been almost completely wiped out by cancer already. So this kind of struck a nerve in him. He wants to get blood work done before we start the "fast" and again after the 6 weeks to see if there's a noticeable change.

We have company in this. My brother and his wife (Tim & Ness) are going to join the endeavor. It's great to have someone along because I know nothing of tofu, quinoa, flax seed, TVP, xanthan gum, nutritional yeast, tempeh, or any of the many many un-prounouncable hippie ingredients that are IMPOSSIBLE to find. Clearly, everyone knows that if Walmart doesn't carry it, then no one does (I have never spent so much time gawking in foreign grocery aisles. I feel like a Kindergartner deciphering which clown is the least scary). Anyway, it's nice to have someone to experiment with, to park their butt next to mine in Barnes & Noble (whilst they try kicking us out), and to just sift things out alongside me.

My sister-in-law Julia actually watched the same movie we did and just got up and went shopping. She's already cut out a lot of dairy and most meats. That's just not fair. I'm trodding this all precariously, like a cat stepping around puddles, and she's off like a shell from a sniper rifle.

I can say that my appreciation for the internet and its wealth of information has come to closely resemble worship. It answers EVERY question I have! Right away! Awesome. How do I substitute wheat flour? What is glucose? How do I cook non-meat, non-processed, non-dairy foods?!?!?!?!?!

Seriously. We've had processed food for like what, 100 years? That means we've had 10,000 years of mommas cooking up rice & beans & veggies. And I can't find more than a handful of recipes that I can even pronounce, let alone cook. Something must be wrong with me. BUT with the amazing internet, I'm able to cherry-pick the wealth of informative websites and pull bits and pieces from where I want.

The journey is becoming less scary all the time. I'll keep ya'll posted.