Hello and Welcome!

I will not make this first blog too long as it is just an introduction. So, here it goes...

As I mentioned, I am a graduate student at the ripe age of 38 (it's never too late to go back to school, right?). I was born and raised in West byGod Virginia. I have lived in various cities over the years; Pittsburgh PA, Columbus OH, Takoma Park MD, St. Louis MO, Cincinnati OH and I even spent a summer in Dar Es Salam Tanzania. Currently I am in Columbus OH, this is my home and where I belong. I have spent numerous years working in kitchens (cooking, prepping, managing and being a Sous Chef). I became tired of kitchen work and went back to school in 2001 and earned a BA in Sociology and Criminology. After that, I spent 5 years working for a Fortune 100 organic food retailer and became very interested in food from a policy perspective. So, here I am now, back in school for a MA in Public Policy. There are other things that led me to food policy, but I'll save that for another day.

As for my diet and physical woes, I began seriously looking for a cure for my migraine headaches about 10 years ago. I have had them since I was 5 and I reached a point where I felt medicine was only aborting the headache, but not keeping them from happening in the first place. And yes, I have taken every preventative (meds and herbs) known to human kind. So, I decided that perhaps meat was causing my headaches. I had been eating it since I was little so surely that was the cause!?!? I promptly adopted a vegetarian diet. After a year on the vegetarian diet I noticed a slight reduction in my headaches, but I developed a new stomach problem; bloating, gas, and constipation. I went to the doctor and went through a series of tests and they found nothing. The doctor told me I had IBS-C (Irritable Bowel Syndrome-Constipation) and that it was likely caused by something I was eating. Well, I was eating copious amounts of cheese as a replacement for the meat I was missing. So, I decided to get rid of dairy from my diet (and went ahead and got rid of eggs too). And so my veganism began.

I think I will stop right there and finish this story up tomorrow. That way I don’t bore anyone… I know humans have short attention spans. ;-)