Today I'm reviewing Going Vegan, Your Daily Planner: Everything You Need to Transition to a Vegan Diet by Michelle Neff.
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
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Generally I like to start out with a disclaimer. I am identify as a magical Buddhist. I look for the connection between magic and science without the need to search for a creator. I believe in spiritually and holistic wellness. I find that we can heal the world if we just sit down and and listen to the breath. I believe that magic, science and nutritional well being are the cornerstone to a well rounded holistic life. I have recently updated my site from Confessions of a Modern Witch to my new page To Live Whole. I welcome you to come along for my journey of health, wellness and self exploration.
I receive no compensation for these reviews and all my links are standard Amazon links and not affiliate links. I am a practicing photo reader and have spent the last 16 years honing my craft. I offer personal readings by request and have a strong online history that boasts over 438,000 views.
As you know I'll be switching over to reviewing only e-copies of books shortly. I will miss handling the books but the amount of trash that I had piling up for all the shipping was just overwhelming. I will be doing a giveaway for the remaining physical books that actually arrive as well as asking my publishers to provide giveaway copies shipped directly to my winner's homes going forward for all giveaways.
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Image Source - Book |
My review copy was a soft cover slightly larger than average sized book. Its a soft cover book in a journal format that requires the reader to crease the seam in order to jot down all the daily food logging that this book recommends. I should also add, that I am not a vegan. I do have a very vegan like diet. I believe that being vegan has a bit of a history around it and leads people to believe certain things about people who wear that badge. I live a mindful, compassionate life. I follow the eight fold path and practice meditation. I diet is best described as Whole Food Plant Based No Oil. Being plant based, that means that it is a type of a vegan diet, however vegan diets include things like canola oil while excluding honey. My way of eating would be opposite of that. I see tons of health benefits for honey, while oil on the other hand is quite harmful to the body. That being said, many of the suggested recipes in this book would be strictly off limits for my household, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the first part of the book before going into the recipes.
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Image Source - Book |
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Image Source - Book |
This book starts out with the author giving us an overview of the Vegan diet as a whole. She covers vitamins and minerals and includes a section on that all important question we are all asked, "Where do you get your protein??" I like the inclusion of a vegan pantry. While, I wouldn't recommend going out and purchasing all this at one time, it is a great place to find a list of all the typical things one would find in a vegan pantry. Keeping in mind that a large majority of people I am meeting in my groups are also gluten intolerant, I would skip the breads altogether in our house. And of course, no oil at all. We don't use any type of processed oils, spreads, mixes, butters or anything of that nature. I think that some of these items are great to help wean you off of the bad stuff but overall they contain just as much harmful ingredients and should really just be skipped completely. I found the vegan substitution chart to be useful in some cases and in others a tad redundant. The yogurt substitution is vegan yogurt. I think that's pretty self explanatory and seemed like just a space filler.
There are a lot of charts in this book. One on fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, meat replacements and of course vegetables. There's even a few blank pages for you to fill in with the nutritional information around your own favorite foods.
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Image Source - Book |
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Image Source - Book |
The planner section is next. It is broken down into weekly sections over twelve weeks. Each week has a recommendation for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack, with a review page to jot down what you ate, including the nutritional break down, a section for thoughts and a plate diagram to show your fruits, grains, protein, veg and even a little place to tick off your water consumption.
The very first day recommends whole grain toast with peanut butter and sugar free jam with a banana for breakfast. A veggie burger on whole grain bread with cake and baked beans for lunch and vegetable marinara with whole grain pasta for dinner with a kale and tomato salad. Not a horrible day but for me, I would have to do a lot of removing. The pasta and bread are both highly processed and have gluten so both of those would be out for me. I don't eat nut butters or jam, so both of those are out and of course that veggie burger is processed as well. Instead of this I would have something like an oat bowl for breakfast with oat milk, blueberries, raisins and strawberries. For lunch I might have a veggie stir fry *no oil* over brown rice or maybe some vegan Tom Kha soup with Soy Curls.
The book does include a recipe for every day of the week in the book. I found that the Vanilla Date Breakfast Smoothie looked really good. I use frozen bananas and dried dates for an assortment of recipes. Once you are able to cleanse, your taste buds will go back to their normal unprocessed setting and you'll find that things taste quite different that you are used to. For example, oats are naturally very sweet. Oat milk is amazing without any sweetener at all and I pour it over my oat bowl every morning. Raisins are another great sweet treat. Once off the processed sugar you'll find that so many foods are just great tasting on their own. Over the years (even documented in this blog) you'll find me posting about how much I hate onions, mushrooms and peppers. I now eat them everyday. It is quite amazing how quickly you can switch over to a healthy lifestyle if given the chance.
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Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Image Source - Book |
Overall I think this is a great book for becoming vegan. The daily entry allows you to take responsibility for your eating habits and the charts and tables provide a great deal of information. I think that going vegan is a great step in the right direction to getting back to where I believe we were naturally intended to eat.
If you think you might be interested in learning more about the whole food plant based no oil lifestyle, be sure to check out my Facebook page -
Real Rations and my Facebook group
Real Rations Recipes. Here my hubby and I share information on health, holistic wellness and nutrition as well as great recipes that will get you on the way. I have lost 137 pounds changing to this lifestyle and Elijah has lost 120. We welcome you to come over and check it out!
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