VEGAN GYPSIES 2012

Current Goal July 14, 2012:

Hi all, we are Kim Davis and Mike Stangeland. This is our lifelong, we call it Vegan Gypsies because we have been traveling the US and Mexico continuously since early 2004 in a 5th wheel and diesel truck and we became low fat vegans March 20, 2012 which has been one of the most important and positive lifestyle changes we've ever undertaken.  The present goal of this log is to pass on the experiences we've encountered during the transition to veganism from the viewpoint of an older couple (Mike 66, Kim 54) on a very limited income, trying to make it on the expensive left coast of the US and trying to eat, as close as we can afford, an all organic, non-GMO, whole foods diet. We've sort of settled in Morro Bay California for the time being and may be back traveling next year.

Current History:


We've been vegetarians for 4 years but included dairy and fish in the diet and could never reach our health goals even through we ate what we thought was a 'good' diet and exercised every day usually climbing steep hills for 1 to 4 hours to get in our aerobic time. We read about the new movie "Forks Over Knives" in early March, watched it on Netflix March 19th and became very strict low fat vegans the next day. It's a very powerful movie that every person on the planet should watch. 


The diet we've adopted is a low fat, whole foods, plant based diet which includes NO meat, dairy, eggs or animal products of any kind and no vegetable oils.  When you follow this diet any excess weight should drop off effortlessly as long as you avoid added fats and processed foods.

Since March 20th Mike's lost 15 pounds and Kim's lost 10 pounds with no other change to our lifestyle than the new diet.  Mike's blood pressure is normal now for the first time in 20 years, he has been able to reduce his diabetes medicine to 1/3 of the original dose and we can't wait to see the results of his blood work in a couple of weeks! He should be able to discontinue all medications within a few months which will be an enormous boost to our budget.

We eat lots of green, orange, yellow, red and blue fruits and vegetables and make sure we're eating whole grains such as whole wheat breads, pasta and brown rice, plus beans and lentils and minimally processed soy products such as edamame, tofu and tempeh.

We avoid processed "pseudo-meat" products that contain textured vegetable protein, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate or other concentrated soy protein additives.  Many times processed soy "cheese" and "meat" actually contain whey protein from cow's milk, or casein protein (also from cow's milk) so you have to read the ingredients label carefully if you decide to eat those kinds of foods. Products with soy isolate have been found to be carcinogenic and should be shunned, and casein has been proven to be one of the most health damaging foods humans can eat, "Got Milk" is like saying "Got Poison".  We also try to avoid products made with GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) soy and corn, otherwise known as 'frankenfoods', (more on this horrible planet wide disaster later).

As we ramble along we'll probably include a lot of recipes with photos, maybe a few films of dish preparation, and recommendations for good value vegan products. We'll probably create list of great vegan websites, stories, books, lectures, organizations, and anything else that compliments the goal. 

We've both dabbled in the arts and music over the years so will probably go off subject with image series as mini-installations, observational essays, and even images and stories from the past that are brought back by current experiences. We've been naturalists for 20 years and have studied birds, plants, and now butterflies all over America and Mexico so will often include stories and images from this side of our life.