What is Healthy?

As most of you reading this blog probably know, for about one year exactly I have eaten a vegan diet. The start of my 6 week detox was pushed back (by the program coordinators) to Monday, yesterday. It was so great to see my family in Iowa, but I felt like all I did this past weekend was eat. My family laughs at how much of a foodie I am:I took pictures and remember pretty much everything we ate this past weekend. I got to Iowa later than I expected, so my sister and I pushed our reservation back to 7:45 and dined at The Red Avocado (http://theredavocado.com) an organic, vegan restaurant in Iowa City. The two of us split a homemade gnocchi special served in a lemon caper sauce with local greens and broccoli. It was okay, in my opinion. I Loved the College Green Sunset: Layered herbed white bean pate, tempeh sausage, tofu ricotta, and caramelized onions wrapped in a flaky filo pastry purse on spinach polenta with horseradish-root vegetable-sweet-corn relish, roasted red pepper sauce & a fine drizzle of sweet balsamic reduction. Of course no meal in our book is complete without dessert, so we share a gluten free chocolate cake and an apple cobbler a la mode. 

Lucky for my tired self, my sister was also tired. We borrowed Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which in my opinion was not even a movie (aka not good). I fell asleep during various parts of the movie, and I would guess we were in bed by 11. With such an early bedtime, I was shocked to wake up at NOON! My sister woke up about 45 mins later and we grabbed brunch at Fairgrounds (http://www.fairgroundscoffeehouse.com/) where we went all out. Everything here can be made vegan. I got a green tea latte; Monica ordered a Caramel Almond Turtle Latte. Then we split a Texas Omelette Waffle (Scrambled tofu, onions, red and green bell peppers and cheese baked into a waffle, smothered in our homemade salsa.) and Creme Caramel Grilled French Toast (Two slices of homemade focaccia dipped in batter and grilled, drizzled with our homemade cream cheese and caramel sauces, and topped with butter and powdered sugar! ). Shortly after brunch our parents arrived. We hung out together, checked into our hotel and made our way to dinner at Vesta (www.vestaiowa.com). Somehow I was hungry again?!

Vesta presents itself a funny little story. I really like trying a lot of different things, so Monica and I got a dinner for two which included a Hummus trio — white bean/truffle, garbanzo/tahini, fava/basil, Strawberry salad - greens, strawberries, avocados, sprouts, croutons, balsamic vinaigrette, Tasso pasta- pesto, angel hair, sun dried tomatoes, yellow squash, Spinach and ricotta raviolis- yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, artichokes and Chef Hershey’s warm peanut butter-stuffed chocolate cake and mascarpone ice cream for dessert. My Mom ordered the Bruschetta quartet — asiago/asparagus, beet/goat cheese, tomato/mozzarella, butternut squash/sage and Eggplant parmesan pizza — fried eggplant, fresh mozzarella, olives, artichokes, basil, giardinera.

Everything was delicious, but when we got the tasso pasta, I was wondering what tasted like meat. At first I thought it was eggplant. My mom thought it was mushrooms... I went up to look at a menu again: sun dried tomatoes and yellow squash? I asked the waitress and learned that tasso is spicy ham. Lovely... From now on I will definitely ask if I don't know what a word is. Luckily, I'm not intense like I can imagine some people being; it was just less for me to eat. After dinner the fam went back to watch the Bulls loose- lame! I wasn't really feeling tired, but everyone else seemed to be going to bed, so I did too. We shared a buffet brunch in the morning (w an amazing dessert section), and then I headed back to Chicago.  (I don't now why this is double spaced now?)

Back to the title of this post: Yesterday I started my first classes at Pacific. Besides trying to balance school and still helping out at my old job, I am really excited! In my class today, the professor was talking about yin & yang energy. From that theory comes the different energies that the body needs yin (fruits and vegetables) and yang (meats). (I remember hearing that most people transition from vegetarian to meat eater in their time at Pacific. I talked to the professor a little while after class. He told me that his most unhealthy patients are usually vegetarians and vegans, so he usually recommends a couple of small portions (aka credit card size) each week. 

A couple of hours later I had an acupuncture treatment. If you follow this blog pretty regularly, you will remember that I had to get an ultrasound and some other tests done when I visited my gynecologist a couple of months ago since I don't get my period anymore. Well, before taking any medicine I want to see if acupuncture works. Well... My practitioner today also suggested that I eat a little meat. She also taught me that the Chinese essentially HATE raw food. I guess it's hard on the organs to digest and uses a lot of energy.  

So here I was, gung-ho to eat raw for 6 weeks, which is still vegan, and then I am turning this information over and over again in my head. This leads to my question, "What is Healthy?" My Tai Ji professor that I spoke with wasn't overweight, but I wouldn't describe him as slim and trim either. If I believe in this kind of medicine, do I also need to trust their diet. Or were the animals that lived 4,000 years ago very different from the ones that inhabit this earth today? I am a person who likes to have immediate answers, but I feel like I will need to sit on this stuff for a little while. Instead of doing my homework now, I am thinking and reflecting. I might need to do some trial-and-error, while journaling, to see what makes me feel the best. I know I bought groceries for a couple of days of raw, so I went to use that up. Then, maybe I need to wait on that a little to see if my acupuncture and diet recommendations can make a difference. Alright. I should go. I still have 6:30 meditation.