Episode 4 How I became a Vegan

How I started becoming vegan. At that time I still worked at Amazon.com working 10 to 12-hour shifts. I was still juicing about two to three times a day. Lunch, dinner, and some snacks. And I was still looking for something more.

I didn't know what it was but I wasn't finding it. So I purchased a Roku TV device that allows streaming services because you could get free cooking channels, on the Roku device. I had like 400 channels to choose from and it was really easy for me to find the different types of cooking that I was looking for.

Some were Vegan, Vegetarian, Indian cooking, all different types of life. And since I was trying to figure out where I belonged, I believe that was the solution. There, I was incredibly lucky, and I found a woman called Jill McKeever. Watching her videos and how she did her food with no oil was a new concept for me. And there, I was able to start. I understand how she puts the different ingredients together using the Instapot pressure cooker or stovetop. How she served her family this rich delicious food that I could apply to my needs. And so I bought her first book. I cooked every single recipe in that book.

I purchased an Instapot pressure cooker, and it took me a little bit of time to understand how the electric pressure cooker worked. But I saved an enormous amount of time, and I'll give you an example. When you're cooking dry beans, you really should try to soak them for four hours in the refrigerator. But because I was working a full-time graveyard shift, I would try to squeeze the beans in a four-cup measuring cup or a six-cup measuring cup, put them in the refrigerator, and go to work.  And most times, after six to eight hours. The beans were ready, but sometimes I would forget to do that. With the pressure cooker, just adding ten more minutes to the cooking time solved my problem, and I was able to cook my meals. 

Now, I ate a lot of beans in the beginning, potatoes, and many different types of foods that I wasn't used to, but it gave me an understanding of how the diet worked. I decided After I cooked an entire book, I would start a YouTube channel because I knew that if I started a YouTube channel, and if I cooked every single week, and I would stay Vegan.

I would be able to show my audience, my friends, and my family what worked for me and how I stayed Vegan. And it worked. Now, the problem was that I had never cooked a day in my life. I could cook an egg, I could cook, I could burn toast regularly, and I might even be able to cook a pancake. But that is not the same as reading ingredient panels, reading recipes, and following them through.

That I had to force myself to learn. When I told my wife I was going to become Vegan, she said, well, have a good time, Gary, thinking that it was going to be a fad.  But I never let go of it. And I learned to become a cook for myself. My wife continued staying carnivore and omnivore, and I stayed Vegan.

For a long time, she wouldn't touch any of my food, and eventually, through time, she did enjoy some of the things I cooked. But she's still not interested in eating vegan food to this very day. I decided that In August of 2017, I would become a Vegan. Took apart my entire pantry and created a Vegan pantry. 

Half of it was going to be my wife's food, carnivore and omnivore food, and the other half was going to be foods that I could eat, which I considered to be vegan food. At that time in my life, I didn't even think that there was anything plant-based or anything like that. I was concentrating only on vegan foods. 

My weight was pretty close to 320 pounds. When I get stressed, I eat. The thing is that now I know what to eat to lose weight. I know what to eat to stay healthy. It's just a matter of doing it. I stopped eating all dairy, which is milk and cheese. All eggs, anything with a heartbeat, and honey, almost all oils. I just kept some for bread and some cooking, all sugars, all sweeteners. I switched my sugar from white sugar to organic cane sugar. I ate, and I stopped eating all-sugar cereal. You know, I used up what I had, but I never bought another box after that. I learned to cook all white bread and white rice, and I learned to cook the different grains. I didn't know how to cook them, but I learned to make my mistakes. I was using equal amounts at the time because I like sweet drinks, and I stopped using chemical sweeteners and white salt.

I went from white salt to Himalayan sea salt. I started to learn how to read ingredient panels and avoid hazardous chemicals. And in some of the processed foods I was purchasing, I learned that just because it's Vegan processed food doesn't mean it's any healthier for you. But that took me years to figure that out.

So, when I first started my YouTube channel, I baked and cooked very basic foods. And for me, it was a new adventure because I had never cooked before. Whenever I created a bread that flopped or whatever, I would talk to my wife about it, and she would give me ideas on what I might have done wrong.

And the next time around, I would solve that. Now I'm pretty darn good at making any quick breads. I do try some very crazy types of bread, like maybe grapefruit and persimmon or anything that makes it exciting and different. And you can see that on my latest channels. I am always pushing myself and trying to try new foods.

My latest real adventure has been the cranberry sauce. For 63 years, I ate cranberry sauce out of a can. And then at the age of 71, in December of  2023, I decided I would start cooking my cranberry sauce. When I realized that it takes a cup of water, a cup of sugar, and three cups of cranberry. Cooking it on the stovetop for ten minutes. And the combination of the fruit, the sugar, and the water made such a delicious cranberry sauce. I got to hear the cranberries popping, and the cranberry sauce was bright and red and beautiful.  I knew that this simple little thing that I'd done had changed me. 

And it's the vegan lifestyle that's done that to me. It's opened up a way of looking at food that I never thought I would ever have. I still eat salads.  Not as much as I used to. Before I was a vegan, I used to eat giant bowls of salad.  Now, I usually eat pre-packaged salads that I buy at Sam's Club or Costco. 

But I don't use the milk products that are in them. I just use the salad as it is. And I put my plant-based dressing on it.  But the thing about that is that I do that out of convenience. I know exactly what the measurements of that salad are. I get full faster. I know my limits. And that makes me feel good. 

So, the same thing applies to pre-cooked vegetables. I buy that at Sam's Club in Costco. I usually buy a, 4-12 ounce bag of vegetables. I know exactly. I eat one of those with an avocado sauce on top. And it's the perfect meal for me.  And I don't have to run to the store and have a hamburger or french fries.

I know that that meal will satisfy my hunger. I've learned a lot from being a Vegan.  But I had to learn first how to cook, and that is really what took the longest because I never knew how to cook. I am a self-made cook.  Now at 71, I'd like to say I could tell you that I'm going to go back to school and become a chef. But you know, to put two, three years into school right now, I'd be 75 by the time I'd come out. It might be useful for another 15 years. Or maybe I'll just continue doing what I'm doing now, sharing my new recipes, the love of cooking, the little bits of popping of the berries, and the delicious food that comes out of just carefully caring for your food. 

In most of my recipes, I have removed at least a quarter cup or more of sugar.  I rarely cook with alcohol. It's not that I don't drink alcohol. I just don't overindulge. I've been a lot happier being Vegan. When I decided to become Vegan, I didn't want to wait until one week before I let go of the eggs, and next week I'll let go of the milk. It came to a point where I had used up all the dairy for that week. All the eggs were gone. The meat was gone because the lunch meats were finished. It turned out to be perfect for me. And that's when it made it easier for me to say, I'm going to be Vegan today. I'm not going to be an omnivore carnivore any longer. 

And I went cold turkey. So I had to purchase vegan processed foods first. And I got to see that Vegan processed foods are extremely expensive compared to omnivore carnivore foods. You can't find, for example, a Swanson's Vegan meal. I mean, you can buy Swanson for like three bucks and get a full meal.

You can't do that with vegan food. It's different.  As soon as that V sticker gets on the box, the price just jumps. That's why it's so important that when you're a beginner vegan, that you cook for yourself. And if you cooked for your family before you were Vegan, The transition is much easier than what I had to put up with. 

My Conclusion  So that's it. For me, everything came in. First, I had a problem with no energy at work, so I started juicing with Joe Cross. And then, from there, that wasn't enough. I needed more energy to do my job and I got myself Instapot. From there, I started buying books, reading books, and watching TV like crazy every single night after work.

Our food is killing us. As soon as I became Vegan, my arthritis started doing better. I started doing better. I started sleeping, all because I ate vegetables.  I'd like you to consider thinking about the vegan diet. If nothing else, I started for health. The health benefits are what brought me into the Vegan lifestyle. 

And throughout the 7 years I've been a Vegan,  I now do it for the animals. I know that I have an impact, not only through my YouTube channel, but I'm opening my podcast channel as well. But I'm sure you're going to love it to death. Bye-bye now. Okay, so we'll see you soon on our next episode, coming soon.  My failed diets. 

If you have any questions or just want to say hello, come visit me on my YouTube channel, it's called Healthy Vegan Living. The address is located on the show notes. 

See you soon, and thank you for listening. 

​ Come listen to our next episode, "My Failed Diets." 

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