For Whom the Dinner Bell Tolls

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DSC_0125Imagine brushing your teeth after eating your lunch and not having another bite of food until tomorrow’s breakfast. Sounds impossible? Take it from a guy who used to enjoy devouring banana splits at midnight: you truly can do anything you put your mind to.

I’ve posted before about how staying at a rejuvenation or detox center is one of the best ways for you to be introduced to a raw vegan diet, because these facilities serve up delicious healthy raw organic plant-based meals and are supervised by naturopathic physicians. Oh, if you don’t know what naturopathic medicine is, don’t worry–I just learned about it last year.

Another way to be exposed to a vegan diet is to visit a meditation center for a meditation course or “sitting.” Continue reading →

Top 2 Nutrient-Packed Vegan Travel Snacks

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At last month’s Vida Vegan Conference 2013, I received a swag bag filled with the motherload of plant-based products targeted at vegan attendees.

Everybody likes to receive free stuff–and I particularly don’t like wasting food–but some products barely meet my definition of “food.” Srutinizing each one closely, I weighed my curiosity to sample against my nutritional sense and the pain of carrying additional luggage. Continue reading →

Crazy Sexy Kitchen Makes Plant-Based Excitement

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Several years ago, there were only a handful of vegan cookbooks. Today, there are dozens, and I recently learned there are 200 new vegan cookbooks on the way!

Great news, unless you are deciding which cookbook to add to your library. Fortunately for me, I did not have to choose, as I received a hardcopy version of Crazy Sexy Kitchen as a gift.

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Vida Vegan What? Just Don’t Miss the Next One!

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Two years ago, by the time I learned about the first Vida Vegan Conference, it was already too late to sign up. I was living in Tokyo at the time–shortly after the “3-11” (Fukushima) disaster–and was feeling pretty uneasy.

I didn’t know how it would happen, but I was determined to make it to the next VVC bloggers conference, to be held 2 years later.

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B12 Deficiency Not Just a Vegan Concern

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Often-cited as a shortcoming of a plant-based diet is deficiency of Vitamin B12, an essential nutrient made by bacteria in the intestines of animals (including humans). For many omnivores, this is reason enough to continue eating animal products.

You may be surprised that the most common cause of B12 deficiency is not lack of B12 containing-foods but intestinal disease, and the prevalence of B12 deficiency among vegans is not much different than in the overall population. Continue reading →

Can This Diet Make You Feel Younger?

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There Is a Cure for Diabetes, Revised Edition: The 21-Day+ Holistic Recovery Program

Many people aspiring for a healthier diet are surprised to learn there are just as many varieties of vegan diets as there are non plant-based diets–and not all of them are health promoting. The biggest differences among vegan diets are what foods are permissible, how they are prepared, and the balance of macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

After trying a raw food diet on and off for the past year, I decided to visit the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, AZ, to experience the diet and lifestyle developed by Dr. Gabriel Cousens. Continue reading →

Plenty of Vegan Aloha on Oahu

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On my previous Oahu visit, I wrote about several vegan friendly restaurants and markets. I’m excited to report I’ve experienced even more great dining spots this time around.

After spending several months on Oahu, even a health-conscious vegan begins to crave more variety than offered by the island’s handful of vegan restaurants. In the winter months, you may find even yourself craving hot soup. That’s the time to head to Nickie Cafe (3297 Campbell Ave).

Although Nickie has been vegan for most of her life, her sister (who runs the cafe together) is not. On the bright side, the menu has dishes to please everybody.  Continue reading →

Why Conscious Eating is for You

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Here’s a book that explains why some people really can just eat one potato chip, while others like me can’t stop until the whole bag is gone. And a whole lot more, as you might expect in a book as thick as “Conscious Eating” by Dr. Gabriel Cousens.

In my 8 years since giving up meat, I’ve experienced the spectrum of vegetarian diets, from ovo-lacto vegetarian to “junk food vegan”–avoiding animal products but consuming processed foods and “empty calories”–to diets that emphasize whole grains, beans and legumes to those consisting exclusively of organic living (uncooked) fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

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What does Wheatgrass Juice have to do with a Vegan Diet?

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If you want things to change for you, you’ve got to change your thinking. Those are the words that started my mission 1.5 years ago to design a life filled with adventure and learning.

2012 was the year I left the familiarity of Tokyo, returning to the U.S. where I had spent little more than 2 weeks a year for the past 21 years. Reverse culture shock was no longer just an expression, but daily reality. Continue reading →