Candy, you can be vegan anytime you want to! I do it for me. I have honored my hubby's desire for turkey on Thanksgiving but after this year, he has agreed to never do it again... especially after the butterball video grossed him out and he said he just didn't feel right after eating turkey this year. YES! Finally! I am hoping to have him totally meat free by the end of the year. Quite the feat when you consider in the beginning he said "I don't care what you eat so long as you don't expect me to give up my meat". I told him I would never ask him to give up his meat... he would just have to cook it himself. He did for awhile but then said he got lonely eating meat alone lol... he started backing off about 17 years ago and eats only chicken and turkey meat... until now. Now he will be giving that up as well.
Just take it slowly, because you have eaten meat for so long, by eleminating one type of meat at a time... (Pork is the hardest on the system so you might start there), give it a bit of time before eleminating the next meat. Drink water to help move the toxins out of your body as you give the meats up.
You can also start on the vegan part... eleminating all that comes from an animal... milk, mayonnaise, eggs, though some say eggs are meat and therefore vegetarian, others put it in the vegan catagory... (you don't want to know what my son calls them; made my hubby very upset!)... This will help you so much with the medical aspects as well. You have RA right? Eleminating dairy will help, as will cutting back on the meat. Adding dark leafy veggies will help. FRESH... not canned. By that I mean, if you eat spinach, eat it fresh in a salad or make a sandwich out of it. I had one recipe posted that makes spinach taste like tuna sandwiches lol... I love it. I will have to get that posted again.
One important thing to remember, especially with RA is to make sure you get enough vitamins and minerals through fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and grains. For example, Chia seeds have the highest amount of protein of all the seeds and oranges and strawberries are great for Vitamin C and avacados are great for the B vitamins (except for B-12, which needs to be supplimented by tablet as far as I know) as well as calcium, etc. Also Vitamin D needs to be gotten from the sun as it doesn't come in a fruit, vegetable or nut (again, as far as I know)... but it only takes about 10-15 minutes a couple times a week in the sun to make all the D your body needs.
You don't have to wait for anyone else to do it with you. Make your meals separate from theirs if need be. You will feel so much better! When they see how much better you feel, they may want to join you just for that reason!
Oh, and it does make a difference on how easy it can be by blood type. O, being the oldest blood type, has a bit more of a challenge than A; and AB is easier than A, etc. My hubby tried to use that as an excuse but I nipped that very quickly lol.... he is O and I am A.
There is so much information you can share with your son about the dangers of eating meat if you think he can handle it. My son's S.O. was bipolar... but since becoming vegan, she has settled down a lot. It was totally her idea after reading about the chemicals forced into, and the cruelty done to, animals. She is now an activist... big time! She wears no leather or fur and spends hours online checking out the activists sites. She got upset with me because I got a leather fringe purse from my niece as a birthday gift (my niece didn't remember that I don't do leather or fur). I don't use it, but I honor the gift and the animal by keeping it in my ritual room.
Anyway, back to the meats lol... (it does all goes hand in hand though).
There are fake meats that you can substitute for meat, so you can make dishes without telling your son they are vegetarian or vegan. Just try it and see if he likes it. If he doesn't like one, try another. Eventually, he may find that he likes them better than the altered meats he has been eating. There are quite the variety of fake meats available at most stores... even at Walmart! I tend to try each new one as they come out. So far, so good lol... they all taste pretty good! Hubby likes them and actually buys them sometimes before I even know they are out.
Ok, enough rambling for tonight. I am really tired and ready to go curl up with a good book and a glass of water.
I wish you so much luck and love on your journey to veganism.
Hugs
Rowan
btw: How old is your son?
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