Monday, March 1, 2010

"The Kind Diet" Review

Monday, March 1, 2010

I’ve been a fan of Alicia Silverstone since I forced my mom to take me to see Clueless when it first came out in theaters. I’ve always admired her commitment to animals, but thought being a vegan would be too extreme for my lifestyle. I’ve struggled with my diet throughout my teens and early 20’s and now that I’m closer to 30 than 20 I’ve been starting to feel like I need to change something, no more excuses. Recently I was watching Oprah and Alicia made an appearance on an episode about healthy eating (I only saw clips online so I’m not sure when it aired or the exact “title” of the episode). I was excited to hear she was coming out with a book, I love books! I have so many diet books it’s actually sort of pathetic. I have a few Biggest Loser books, the South Beach Diet, the Fat Smash diet, etc. I’m sure they’re great, I can’t say I’ve read any of them. I’ve skimmed a few pages, but as I tend to do with a lot of things, I lose interest. I was hesitant to buy “The Kind Diet” for that reason, but I decided to give it a chance. I’m happy to say that I read it from cover to cover in three days, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

The book is divided into sections. She first discusses nasty foods vs. kind foods. As you can imagine, the nasty foods include meat, dairy, and processed foods and the kind foods are plant based and whole grains. I don’t want to go into too much detail (then you won’t want to read it yourself!), but it was very educational. Some of it I already knew, but it’s still shocking to read all the bad things eating meat can cause. There is also a nutritional FAQ which I found very useful.

She then discusses her three kind eating levels: flirting, vegan, and superhero. A flirt is just that…someone who is flirting with a vegan lifestyle by incorporating healthier choices into their diet. My favorite portion of the book is a chart with her recommendations of prepared vegan foods to buy in the grocery store. I will admit I am not the biggest fan of cooking so a lot of these ideas have been useful to me over the past few weeks ( I’ll actually be discussing a lot of these items in future blogs so watch out for that). The vegan stage is obvious as well, it’s completely eliminating meat and dairy from your diet. The superhero phase emphasizes eating a macrobiotic diet with mainly local ingredients. This seems like the most difficult phase to actually live, especially for a girl in central PA, the grocery options here aren’t the greatest. The final section of the book is recipes. I haven’t had the chance to make anything yet, but I’m really excited to try out a lot of them. My goal is to make something new at least every other week and blog about it. It’s just a matter of finding the ingredients, I really, really wish I had a Whole Foods here. I’ve never been to one, but am hoping to make a trip to one in the next few months. Luckily I have a Wegmans in my area which does have a decent selection of organic/vegan food items, but I wish it was better.

Overall I’d give “The Kind Diet” 4 out of 5 tofu cubes (when I rate things on this blog I’ll be using tofu instead of stars, I know, so clever!). I wish there was a little more depth to some of the factual research involved in discussing the nasty and kind foods. Obviously Alicia is biased towards the lifestyle she lives, which is perfectly fine, but at times it can get a little preachy. However, I absolutely love the layout of the book and it’s incredibly user friendly. Even if you have no desire to become vegan, it’s still a wonderful read. Below is a link with prices and online availability.


http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=the+kind+diet&cid=828034630669984010&sa=title#p


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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Welcome...

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Hey everyone! I mean, hey three friends that I paid to read this blog! Just kidding. The goal of this blog is to document my journey into becoming a vegan, and also to share some wonderful healthy and earth friendly products. I plan to discuss various books, cleaning supplies, foods, recipes, etc. If I can get a decent following, I may even do some contests. Who doesn’t love contests?!?!

I’ve decided to “officially” launch this blog on February 28th, my first year wedding anniversary. It’s been a great first married year, and I thought, “Why not make year number two a healthier, more productive year?” I didn’t want to do the whole cliché New Year Resolution thing, so instead I’m celebrating my marriage by committing myself to something else - a healthier lifestyle.

I’m really excited about this whole endeavor and hope I can entertain and inform as many people as possible, so feel free to spread the word. Obviously it’s not going to be a change that happens overnight, but as Aerosmith says “Life’s a journey, not a destination.” Speaking of Aerosmith, my post on the 28th is going to be a review of “The Kind Diet”, a great new book by Alicia Silverstone (star of Aerosmith’s “Cryin” and “Crazy” videos). Then we’ll start of the month of March with a look at an awesome not-so-guilty pleasure, and we’ll see if I can find a vegan cheese I can tolerate. It has not been a successful venture thus far to say the least.

Stay tuned J


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