Having My Steak and Eating It, Too!

I was raised on a dairy farm.  I grew up on what we now fashionably call organic foods.  We grew our own beef, pork and poultry.  We grew our own vegetables, and some fruits.  Seasonally there was fresh venison, rabbit, and turkey. We drank raw milk.  I was probably at my healthiest dietetically.

Diet has a great deal to do with our healing process, mental agility, and emotional state.  Growing up in the 70's and 80's, with a birthed disability like Spina Bifida, meant that most of your orthopedic and constructive surgeries were done over the course of your life as you matured.  For me it was a range of three days old to about age thirteen where there were regularly scheduled surgeries to get me where I am today.  It was rare if one academic year went by without being pulled from school for surgery.  Thankfully I haven't been in the O.R. for nearly eight years.  But that doesn't mean that I can afford to look the other way with my health habits.  The fact that I'm generally averted to doctor's offices after having been in them waiting for one thing or another, you could say it behooves me to watch what I do.  And that isn't always easy.

Since the New Year my husband and I have been juicing.  We decided to start juicing right after Christmas - starting a new diet during the holidays is just a prescription for total failure.  I had reservations - veggie juice is not pretty.  At all.  It looks extremely unappetizing.  But, to my surprise, I found that veggie juice tastes great - it really does.  I would strongly advise reading and researching recipes, though - veggie juicing isn't an experimental sport until you've gotten to know the territory. And, we've had our share of gag-worthy concoctions that went generously down the insinkerator.

From all that we've read, juicing has only benefits, and  I can attest to their accuracy.  My energy, hair, skin, vision, immune system, breathing, and sinuses are all noticeably improved - no cheesy commercial intended.  I am thrilled with the results due to my own diva vanity...my makeup goes on wicked smooth and I'm pa-raising all that's holy that I'm starting to look younger sans Botox.  This made me want to naturally take things a step further, my reasoning being that more of a good thing couldn't be bad.  I sort of subconsciously gradually cut out meat. 

This isn't the first time I have tried to be vegetarian.  The last time I gave it a conscious shot I nearly creamed my marriage.  In an effort to be happier and healthier I cut out meat and caffeine.

At the same time.

You should probably understand here that if you do a blood draw on me it will be coffee.  Specifically Starbucks.  Coffee....coffee is black gold, mother's milk, life stream...combining cold turkey vegetarianism while cold turkey eliminating coffee was like cutting off my oxygen.

I was restless.  I was bitchy.  I mean bee-otchy.  Conversations with me were a-kin to alien guttings.  You didn't know why you were in pain...you just were.  And you weren't sure why you were bleeding for saying "Good morning."  You just.  Were.  

One day my husband presented me with a cup of coffee and said, "Just.  Drink.  It."  

I ravenously grabbed the steaming cup of life and guzzled it down...the world burst into color and logic.  My scales melted off and my horns retracted just a bit.  It was like an evil spell had begun to lift.

Next he said, "Get in the car.  We're going to McDonald's."  

Funny story.  

We were newlyweds, and he was going to school for his masters, so McDonald's was considered a good time out.  He briskly ordered me a cheeseburger Happy Meal at the drive-thru window and we drove  back into the Austin traffic of I-35.   I tore into the cheeseburger to find that it mushed together like two slices of soft bread.  Because that's all it was.  

I am probably the one person in America that has ever gotten a McDonald's hamburger without the beef.  They literally forgot the beef.  There it was - two sad hamburger buns, sort of squished with a wrinkled fake cheese slice embedded into it, with thin smears of  ketchup and mustard flanked by a lone dill pickle slice.  I burst out crying.  We'd spent the last of our pocket change.  

We decided to splurge-splurge in the name of whatever young married couple's reasoning we could find to "celebrate," and he took me to the Texas Roadhouse restaurant where this little lady plowed through a sirloin steak like a linebacker.  Suddenly all was right with the world.  My horns completely retracted, and I once again took human form.  My marriage was saved, and no one risked bloodshed for greeting me or establishing eye contact.

Now, after a month of juicing which morphed into vegetarianism, I began to feel like I did so many years ago when I decided to become a decaffeinated herbivore.  At first I didn't recognize it as being the same:  At first I thought maybe something was horribly wrong with me! 

I turned to the Internet to self-diagnose, where I ended up with a plethora of diseases to choose from.  I could have heart disease.  I could be diabetic.  I may have had a stroke.  I could have a hormonal imbalance.  I could have thyroid issues.  I might be depressed.  Several of my internal organs may be failing.  I may be old.  As in very, very old.  I may be pre-asthmatic.  I could have poor iron, too much iron, or be low on potassium.  I could be low on Vitamin-D.  Oh my God! I am too young-ish for this!  I already have a freakin' disability!  Anything else the gods wanted to toss my way?  Panic!  Exasperation! 

This was yesterday by the way.  

I resisted reaching for the phone to make an appointment with my doctor, Heidi,  to let her know I was rushing in to see her due to literally dying in my office...I took stock.  Have I made any recent drastic changes in my life? Um....No....   

Wait!  I've been juicing, and I haven't had meat protein in what felt like ages.  

I immediately text my husband, Tyson, and asked what he was hungry for offering to stop at campus Kroger to pick up whatever we needed.  He suggested steak on the grille, and the dots connected.

Okay - he may have suggested steak because my text read something like: "Am hngry cld take dwn a cow."

I left campus Kroger with steaks, frozen red onion hamburger patties, strawberries, dragon fruit, and Buddha's Hand fruit.  A former student of mine ended up being the cashier at the checkout counter, and she grinned with a raised eyebrow and commented that it looked like I was having a pretty major dinner.  I told her about juicing - loving it - but that going without meat entirely? -- I couldn't take it anymore --  and so here we are with a shopping bag full of beef.  It's what's for dinner.  

We prepared the steak Brazilian style, topping each side with rock salt and letting it sit for awhile.  That's it.  We wiped off the salt and threw it on the grille - one would swear there was some secret special seasoning.  The first time we had it prepared this way, we were actually in Brazil.  We begged our host to tell us what steak-rub he used and he looked at us funny and said, "Salt."   

We tried it when we returned home and it turned out to be true.  We don't even use steak sauce anymore.  I swear by it - give it a try if you haven't already.

And last night?  All of my symptoms of pending death and early retirement disappeared.  I was hyper.  Like, hyper-hyper.  I got several hours more work done while bee-bopping to my iPod music on shuffle which I'd plugged into the living room stereo system.  My daughter looked at me aghast and said, "My God, mom!  You listen to Lil Wayne??  Is that really Lil Wayne??"  No...but I do listen to T.I., 2Pac, and 50-Cent...I love those guys.  This morning I had several more bite-sized pieces, and washed it down with a veggie juice - my favorite foundation being fresh spinach, tomato, celery, and ginger.  I was high energy through all of my classes.  

I was back.

Not everyone is vegetarian and not everyone is carnivorous.   I completely understand the vegetarian point of view, the health benefits, and the ethics.  These are all the reasons why I gave it a shot.  Over time Ive learned through trial and error that there is no one diet  that works for everyone - or we would have all been on that damn diet years ago.  Once again it seems to be about the fifty yard line.  Balance.  Which promotes healing, mental agility, and stable emotions.

In many ways, having a steak, including meat protein back into my life made me feel  like a memorable  return home.  Real recovery, from years of surgery and from daily life,  always happened at home on the farm.  Fresh Allegheny mountain air.  Fresh milk.  Fresh eggs.  Fresh meats and poultry.  Deep restful sleep with heady country breezes blowing through open windows, serenaded a chorus of peepers chirping away among bullfrogs croaking.  Spring water was actually from a natural spring.  

I was raised on a dairy farm.  I grew up on what we now fashionably call organic foods.  We grew our own beef and poultry, vegetables, some fruits, and seasonally there was fresh venison, rabbit, and turkey. We drank raw milk.  I was probably at my healthiest dietetically.