Lately I’ve been super addicted to greens – green salads, green smoothies, etc. Green smoothies have become my new coffee (since I don’t drink it anymore). I can’t function well without it in the morning! Haha. I have also begun buying the pre-packaged organic salad mixes again because it’s so much easier to get a large selection of various lettuces that way. When I buy various heads of lettuce, something always goes bad before I’m able to eat it. Buying the pre-packaged salad mixes makes me a little nervous because I know they are irradiated, but… oh well.
So I’m in a bit of a quandary right now over my diet. For one thing, my hair is falling out in strands. Now, this happens every year in the summer – I recall it happening many times before and it’s always super-annoying because I have such long hair. However, I am suspecting that maybe more of it is coming out than usual this time. It’s not like I can pull on it and it comes out – nothing like that. But I am finding more of it around lately – much more. The strands loosen or something and hang at the end of my hair, annoying me to no end. Plus, my hair has gone from being shiny, silky and soft to dull, flat and lifeless. I am so disappointed, to be honest. My hair is one of my best features and now it sucks! Healthy hair and strong nails are huge indications of health, and lately, my hair has been bad and my nails just OK – not their best, but they aren’t as strong as they were a few months ago either.
What can I do? What should I do? I have spent some serious time thinking about this situation for the past few weeks and have come to the conclusion that maybe – just maybe – it’s my ‘mostly’ vegan diet causing this. I mean, it can’t be lack of protein because I’ve had plenty of protein over the past few months in the form of grains, beans, seeds, nuts and other veggie proteins. (I still occasionally eat cooked vegan meals – I haven’t quite transitioned back into fruitarian yet, although I’m easily eating 7+ servings of fruit per day these days). Back when I was eating eggs and a yogurt every morning, my hair was simply amazing. I got tons of compliments. So… it got me wondering if I should start eating a yogurt every day again to see if that helps. (I can’t stomach the thought of eating eggs anymore so that is simply out of the question.) I’ve been contemplating this for a couple of weeks now and even bought some yogurt a couple of weeks ago, but hadn’t touched it. Until yesterday…
The funniest thing about the sudden yogurt buying was that I spent several hours one day watching TV, and there were a million dairy commercials on that day. Suddenly the thought came into my mind – and I am NOT kidding, it literally popped into my mind – that I need to start eating dairy for health. How weird is that? It’s odd how the thought would come out of nowhere like that when I have been so adamantly against dairy for a few months now.
Anyway, as for eggs… truth be told, eating eggs regularly (nearly every day) has always been the #1 thing to make my hair its absolute best. I’m not going to lie. I think it’s the vitamin K and/or E in them. But I just cannot stomach eating eggs, especially now knowing what I know about them.
So I’ve made a tough decision. As of yesterday, I’ve given up on veganism and have decided to just settle on vegetarianism for the time being. Yesterday and today I’ve had a non-fat Fage Greek yogurt (which supposedly has the least amount of lactose in it) with my salad at lunch. I was surprised to find that I actually like it plain. Most people say they have to add stuff to it. It seemed to digest OK (well, somewhat, I had a little tummy upset that went away). I’m also now taking the Mega Mineral supplement, which has all of the stuff I sometimes come up lacking in my daily totals (calcium, zinc, iron, D, iodine). I am going to look into a Vitamin K supplement as well.
I figure one serving of dairy about 5 times a week should be OK. I don’t know… I feel guilty for eating the yogurt, but at the same time, I’ve never given up cheese or dairy completely for a long period of time anyway. (I’ve had cheese roughly twice a week since that long 2 1/2-week stretch without any). I still think the dairy industry is cruel.
So I guess I’m a hypocrite. 
But I’m concerned that my body isn’t getting proper nutrition and I’m not sure what else to do. There are only so many supplements I am willing to take.
I’m going to do this for a while and see how it goes. I hope my hair gets better, it really sucks to walk around with horrible hair when you’ve had great hair your entire life!
Please… no harsh criticism in the comments. I already feel guilty!
Here’s a picture of the salad I had yesterday for lunch:
It was delicious – mixed salad greens, English cucumbers, tomatoes and red peppers with an organic and all-natural roasted red pepper dressing.
I’ll be honest and admit that I’ve eaten very low calories in the past few days. Lower than I usually do. (And no, this isn’t the reason for the hair situation because that started over a month ago). I realized once I started REALLY writing EVERYTHING down that I eat and/or drink, that I had been eating MUCH higher calorie totals than I thought on most days – like over 2000! No wonder my weight loss has been so slow. So, in an effort to correct this, I’ve cut [way] back temporarily to see if the scale will get moving. I have yet to weigh myself though because I keep forgetting until it’s too late in the day!
Later Update:
I am so excited! Because I run fan blogs for certain CW shows, they put me on their mailing list and I now have in my possession the pilot episodes for ‘The Beautiful Life’, ‘Melrose Place’ and ‘The Vampire Diaires’. Yay!
