I can’t believe this is my 100th post. Thanks so much to everyone who reads this blog–especially those who leave comments! To show my appreciation for everyone who follows along and gets engaged, I’m giving away a copy of one of my favorite recent books. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents, Kindle users, and very patient residents of the R.O.K.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that The China Study (T. Colin Campbell), Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer), and Spent (Dr. Frank Lipman), have all made a big impact on me in the last six weeks. The winner of this giveaway will get to select one of these amazing books. This blog is largely about shared experiences, so I want to share these reads with you. I originally thought about selecting just one book, but didn’t want to exclude readers who already had/read it, and I couldn’t pick just one that I would recommend over the others. So the choice is yours!

To enter, leave a comment telling me which book you’d like to win, and why. Once you’ve done that, you can also use these additional ways to enter, just be sure to leave a comment for each telling me what you’ve done:

• Follow my blog in Google (or a similar) Reader
• Link to this giveaway on your blog
• Add my blog to your blog roll
• Mention and link to this giveaway in Twitter

I will randomly select a winner on Friday, February 12. Winner will be contacted via email and announced on this blog. U.S. readers can choose between a print or Kindle copy, international Kindle users will receive a Kindle version, and South Korean residents can choose between a print or Kindle version, but will have to wait until late April to receive the print version. (Sorry–international shipping is expensive!)

Thanks again, and good luck!

That’s not what I’m going for—necessarily. What I care about is living a full, vibrant, energetic life while I’m alive and kickin’. I’m not just after longevity, I’m after vitality. This explains my latest reading choices (The China Study, Eating Animals), as well as my latest health adventure: following Dr. Frank Lipman’s Spent program, as outlined in his book. (I think his marketing team changed the title to the Revive program in later editions, but I’ll stick to calling it Spent if for no other reason than that’s how I think of it.)

This program seems to have a nice balance of regimentation and flexibility, which really appeals to me. I’m (pretty) good at following rules, and do much better with directives like don’t eat gluten than I do with general pronouncements about how it’s best to limit your intake of x to y servings a week. Dr. Lipman sets out forty-two changes—one each day for six weeks—designed to recalibrate your body and help you feel vibrant. It’s not all about food, either. He talks about sleep (something I’ve struggled with my entire life), environmental stressors, and the like.

Right now, I’m on Day 2, and so far, so good. I think (hope!) that yesterday’s change is the most difficult for me. Day 1 means No. More. Sugar. For six weeks, I’m not to have any added sugar, though fruit is fine. I’ve done a good job of weaning myself off my candy habit, but wine remains one of my greatest pleasures, and six weeks without any imbibing of any kind does not sound fun. It also means no refined carbohydrates, like the ubiquitous white rice and my favorite spring roll wrappers. But I’ve done this before (once on a 4 month candida cleanse, and then for multiple 3-4 week detoxes and elimination diets), and I can do it again.

For me, the trick is not feeling deprived. To that end, I went out yesterday and spent way too much money on healthy indulgences. I stocked up on sparkling water, which costs an arm and a leg here (but is cheaper than wine, right?), herbal teas (because caffeine is getting yanked at some point, too), and yummy fruits and veggies.

The Day 2 “change” was easy for me, as it’s already my favorite healthy habit: make a green smoothie for breakfast every day. I actually cheat a bit and make a massive green smoothie every other day and drink it over two days. It might lose some nutrients that way, but it’s what works for me at this point, so that’s good enough.

I don’t know all the changes ahead because I’m really trying to focus on the tasks at hand and take it one step at a time. 2009 was the year of getting my finances in order; 2010 is the year of finding my optimum health. I’m content to go slow and steady on this one, because I want these changes to stick. Feeling rundown all the time isn’t good enough for me. I want to live a big life, and that can’t happen when I feel completely depleted most of the time. That is why I am giving this plan a shot.

I would love to hear from anyone who has done this before, or anyone who is thinking of starting it soon. What do you do to feel vibrant?

(And stay tuned for my very first giveaway coming up in celebration of my 100^th post.)

Fully embracing my new omnivorous lifestyle, I became quite the connoisseur of meats. Rabbit wrapped in pancetta. Bacon-wrapped-pork loin. Even bacon ice cream. My second date with the love of my life was a bacon safari, and I’ve been known to talk bar owners into giving me some raw bacon if the stores were closed so I could fry it up in the morning.

So why on earth did I, the woman who has declared pigs her favorite animal because they’re “wonderful in all forms,” title this blog post a slow transition to (mostly) vegan?

The short answer is that I could no longer ignore everything I’d learned. Let me first make clear that I do believe eating is a largely personal choice, and I have no intentions of telling my friends and family how they should eat. I simply want to explain why I’m weaning myself off animal products, and where I got that information. To give you a quick list:

• The China Study, by Colin T. Campbell, which outlines how what we eat impacts our health on every level.
• This article in the New York Times Magazine, from Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, Eating Animals
• Michael Pollan’s Food Rules
• Food, Inc.
• This critical information about the environment via Kathy Freston, author of Quantum Wellness: “World Bank agricultural scientists Robert Goodland, who spent 23 years as the Bank’s lead environmental advisor, and Jeff Anhang, a research officer and environmental specialist for the Bank, argue convincingly that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to our desire to eat chicken, pigs, and other farmed animals. That’s right: Add up all the causes of climate change, and you find that eating meat causes more than everything else combined.”

Many of these deserve blog entries of their own, but if you’re curious (or if you think your friend/sister/daughter/cousin (me) has gone crazy), go ahead and check out these resources.  For me, though, The China Study was definitely the most compelling, and made the single biggest difference.

It’s not that I’m determined to live to be 110; I just want my years here to be as vibrant and enjoyable as possible, and that means I have to be healthy. I’m only twenty-five, and I’ve already spent much too much time in doctors’ offices and feeling lousy. I want to do everything I can to spend the rest of my life living instead of shuttling from one office to another figuring out what’s wrong with me. I truly believe that a diet rich in whole foods and with little to no animal product is my best chance. (Well, that—and yoga.) The China Study is what finally got me to admit this to myself. As an added bonus, here’s a video of Kathy Freston interviewing T. Colin Campbell on extra.