Blood Test Results - 3 Years Vegan

A week ago I was ordered by the Israeli army to get a blood test at my health insurance provider... so I did.  Here I am publishing the results for the whole world to see (if you click on them they will get bigger, some of it is in Hebrew but the important stuff is in English).

Why am I doing this?

Well... for three years now I have practiced a plant-based/ vegan diet (and vegan lifestyle in general). All the time people ask me: Where do you get your protein? What about Vitamin B12? 

You can see here that both my Vitamin B12 and protein are within the normal value ranges. If my diet was ever going to cause me a deficiency, it would have already happened. 

Sometimes I will be talking to someone I met on the street or at a get-together and he or she will tell me, "Yeah, I was vegan for a few months but my hair started falling out," or "... but I felt really low in energy all the time," or "... but I could never feel full," or "... but I became anemic."

I have no way of knowing whether these statements are founded upon truth but what I can say is that these people probably did not invest the proper time to really research and plan out what they should be eating to make up for the calorie/ nutrient hole that forms as a result of removing animal products from one's diet. 

So you may no be wondering what exactly it is that I eat... 

Most of my calorie intake comes from yummy ripe fresh fruit!

I ate all of this in about two-three days :)

Bananas, mangoes, peaches, nectarines, dates, persimmons, oranges, figs, apples, pears, watermelon, cherries, etc... (except for papaya which I really don't like...)

I usually eat about 2,000 calories a day, sometimes more. If I'm hungry... I eat :) 

I'm always happy to share about my lifestyle so if you have any questions let me know. Perhaps at a later date I will post about being vegan in Israel... bye for now!

Staging a Silent Protest; This Vegan is in Jerusalem

Yesterday I arrived to Jerusalem for a five-day leadership conference sponsored and organized by an organization called Masa Israel. I have met people from all over the world here. I'm guessing there are about 200 participants. But more on that in a later post.

One of the planned activities for today is taking place in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo right now as I write this. Instead I am in the hotel. Yesterday I mentioned to one of the staff members that I didn't feel comfortable going to the Zoo. He told me that at the Zoo we wouldn't see the animals, we would just be going to use the space for our activities.

The Zoo is less than a mile from our hotel. I joined the group for the walk to the Zoo, but when I got close to the entry gates, I simply couldn't enter. There were banners in the front of the Zoo with pictures of nonhuman animals' faces. I couldn't go in.

Entry gates to the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem

I found a staff member and she tried to assure me that a lot of the animals are either in the process of being rehabilitated before being reintroduced to the wild, or, they are on the brink of becoming extinct. I haven't decided how I feel about human animals intervening in the existence of other animals- BUT I do know that I don't believe nonhuman animals should be forced to exist to serve as a form of entertainment for human animals. Perhaps if they were able to give consent then I would not be opposed ... but who knows if we will ever be able to communicate with nonhuman animals in the same way that we communicate with human animals.

The point is: I would not want someone to take me away from everything I know as normal and then put me in a confined area where I can't leave, with little-to-no privacy. I'd feel like I was living in a glass house. What kind of life is that?

So alone, I walked back to the hotel and, silently, I protested.

And though my protest is silent in decibels, it will be heard with more strength than a loud revolt. I am getting inside people's brains. Other participants at this convention are are probably wondering, where is Rebecca? And when they ask me later tonight where I was, I will have the opportunity to explain to them why I didn't feel it was appropriate for me to enter into a this type of 'prison.' And so the seed is planted.

The seeds in their heads will grow. They will ask more and more questions. We will have a dialogue, and not because I brought it up in conversation (I will never bring up my views on this subject out of the blue), but because they did - they want to know. People are intrigued by other people who break from the norm - especially when the norm is their norm.

Later in the week or the month I imagine that at least one person from this convention will in their own time look more into veganism and the movement for recognizing the inalienable rights of nonhuman animals. And to me, if I can just spark a little interest in one person, I, along with others who are doing the same, can change the world. We may be small, but we are mighty. Rome wasn't built in a day ... right?

It would have been easier for me to turn a blind eye and say, I am just one person - what does it matter if I go in there? But that is the problem, I would know. And I would not be able to forgive myself. And I am not just one person, I am my person, and so I have to do right by me.

So I didn't go to the Zoo.

It all begins here- new faces, new places

A tiny tidbit: I wrote this post sitting on the bus with my group as we descended from Tel Aviv down to Eilat two days ago. 

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My program has started!

It feels a little bit like a model United Nations conference! We met just two days ago but between the jet lag and extremely closed quarters it seems like much longer! We are 14 people ranging in age from 19 to 29. We are from the U.S., Ukraine, South Africa, Romania, France and Georgia (the country!).

Between all of us there are probably at least six or seven languages spoken. Our guide Rami is originally from Ukraine and he speaks fluently in Ukrainian, Russian, English and Hebrew. Being around so many people from non-English speaking countries has really opened my eyes. Languages build bridges between nations, civilizations and between humans. With language we have the power to tie the world together. I am convinced that if everyone spoke the same language, there would be less violence in the world (though this is just a theory!).

That night we went out as a group to an American-themed bar called Mike’s Place. It was open mic night and two people from our group performed! Not to mention there was a crazy man who got on stage shouting profanities as if he had some kind of agenda to dominate the bar. That man needs a good therapist, maybe an hour or two with Oprah and he’ll be all set! I wish I had a picture of said crazy person... but instead, just these crazy people ;)

The next morning we had breakfast and then headed to Haifa! This trip was especially exciting for me because on neither of my two earlier trips to Israel did I go to Haifa. We learned from a tourguide, Natalie, that Haifa is a symbol of the world’s ability to practice coexistence. In Haifa exists the Bahaii gardens and a Bahaii shrine, the second holiest site for the Bahaii religion. The Bahaiis believe in uncompromising world peace and beauty in nature. They are pacifists. Some Bahaiis also practice other religions. To me it seems the Bahaiis should practice veganism… I would just think that if they are interested in achieving world peace, they need to also acknowledge that humans are not the only beings of the world. But hey, I could be wrong.

View of Haifa from above the Bahaii gardens.

People come from all over the world to see the Bahaii gardens.

Artsy shot of Bahaii Gardens in Haifa

After touring the gardens we learned the port in Haifa is a very old port and was involved in the African slave trade a few hundred years ago. During a single moment everything for me came full circle - I have now been to Charleston, S.C., to Accra, Ghana and to Haifa; all three were involved in the African slave trade. It is so baffling to think people would trade other people as commodities. Going back to my earlier theory - perhaps if they had spoken the same language the oppressors would have seen there was no difference between one man and another, regardless of skin color. 

This artwork is plastered on the side of a building in Haifa. It is a symbol of the city's unparalleled coexistence.  The boy on the left is Jewish and the boy on the right holding his hand is Muslim.

Random view in Haifa Arab neighborhood.

We then went to hear a member of the Islamic Ahmadi community share with us his sect’s views on how the Qur’an has been misinterpreted by millions of people who proclaim themselves Muslims. Omar, our discussion leader, said that jihad is supposed to be a holy war within one’s mind and NOT an interpersonal battle. After a less-than-heated debate with the discussion leader on a few tenets of the religion, we got lunch and visited a small market in an Arab neighborhood. After only five minutes I was able to see the entire market and took advantage of the time to study my Ivrit!

Market in Haifa - such a colorful array of fruits and veggies!!!

The building where we had a discussion with the Ahmadi leader. We were not allowed to enter the actual mosque due to our dress.

Max, Costa, Luca, Dima, Rami, Nata (None are American!)

The Ahmadi sect's mosque in Haifa.

The group peaks into the doors but not all were permitted to enter.

When we arrived back to Tel Aviv three people from my program and I went into the city, had dinner and explored before settling into a popular bar on Dizengoff Street. We met a few German travelers and I got to share my knowledge of how to say 555 in German ;) They wondered why I knew how to say this and not even to know how to say “hello.”

Restaurant we ate at had a vegan menu!

This is my dinner, it was SCRUMPTIOUS!

Vegan gelato labeled in green! Wow!!!!

Navigating through the city was difficult because there was a NEVER ENDING stream of participants in the 10 kilometer Light the Night run. It was a pleasure to see so many physically fit people in a city that is smaller than the one to which I am accustomed.

Yikes!

Eventually we made our way back to the hostel and met up with the rest of the group. Together we ventured to a nearby bar where I learned a few Ukrainian words and phrases from the Ukrainians in our group! Ex. How are you: Yak teh?; I’m good: Klows-no. Hello: Pree-veet. It is really a pleasure to get to interact with people from completely different backgrounds and upbringings. We are all so different and yet at the core we are all the same.

The next morning we woke up, took a guided tour around Tel Aviv and headed out for our breathtakingly beautiful voyage through the desert! 

A Tel Aviv man has transformed his home into a Matkot museum. Matkot is an Israeli sport played on the beach. It is like ping pong but without the table and net.

To be continued...