Vegan Report Card - Target

Store: Target
Location:  Gastonia, NC 
Vegan Friendly Grade:  C


When this brand spanking new Target (now with Fresh Grocery) opened - the whole town got excited!  Yep - me too!  As nice as it is, I would have to give it a mid grade.  The vegan selections were not as impressive as I had hoped they would be.


Here are the vegan pros and cons of this Target store.

Let's start with what is missing:

• No refrigerated faux vegan products - no soy dogs, Vegenaise, or Daiya cheese.
• No vegan or organic pet food.
• Very weak organic make-up selection.
• Most disappointing gluten-free offering.
• Very limited (if any) organic produce.

What was all right!

• Vegan snack options galore, include smoothie drinks for kids!
• Decent selection of "milk" options.
• Several non-chemical based cleaning product options.

Huge Redeeming Factor!!!

This Target store had a massive spice section with affordable spices.  I loved the little bottles and found msyelf really wanting to buy one of each.

All things considered, I would shop at this store to purchase snacks and spices but I would not use this Target store as my grocery shopping destination.




Code Red Alert!


Lyvie loved the Cutie drinks (made by the same folks that bring you the Cutie clementines) - I read the ingredients and they were all approved ingredients.

It wasn't until I went to the website that I found that some of them are not Vegan Approved!  New blog to come on that - the site says that each drink has 10 grams of Whey protein!  The one that Lyvie drank, Tangerine Pineapple did not have that ingredient on the label.  I'm looking into it!

WHAT?


Disclaimer:  I do not own, represent, or work for any brand mentioned in this blog.  I was not paid or provided with product to write this review.  This review is pure opinion based on my own shopping experience.  To submit your product for review, click here.

Breaking a Family Curse - Belly Fat!!!

EE and my beautiful Mother in 1964

All the ladies on my Mother's side of the family make reference to "Voncile's Belly."  My grandmother, who I affectionately referred to as "EE" was cursed with a bloated belly.  She was a thin, attractive lady but still had a belly.  I have always seen it as always looking like we are 4 months pregnant.  We have all allowed that characteristic to remain in our appearance because it we viewed it as a physical curse passed on from EE.

I can recall being a size 6 and still needing to wear a girdle.  That was so frustrating!

I've switched to a vegan (plant-based) diet in the last year and I've been surprised at how I lose weight but the belly fat remains.  WHAT?  That didn't seem fair that I was depriving myself of cheese and still have belly fat.  (The reminder of the cows not suffering engorgement for my cheese consumption brings me out of my pity party.)

Someone at my work mentioned that gluten is a common culprit in keeping belly fat - well, fat.  A light bulb went off!  Don't worry I'm bald so nothing to catch on fire...

So I tested this theory!

I woke up one morning after not having any gluten the days before and was amazed when I put on a dress with no girdle and no belly fat.

Keep in mind, I am the biggest I have ever been and I am trying to lose weight.  I have been wearing a size 12 dress because of my belly.  This was an empire waist dress so it was a size 8.

I looked in the mirror and saw a clean line.  No belly fat!  The dress looked very nice...

Two hours later I ate some homemade zucchini bread and guess what?  I found myself trying to hide my protruding belly under the conference table in our meeting.  That light bulb turned on me, busted me over the head and said, "I told you so."

So - this week without gluten, I have lost 5 pounds and the bloating is gone!

I know it is hard to imagine a life without gluten but it can be done and it is so worth it!

What the *BEEP - VEEP!!!

So I see a post on Facebook by my good friend, Georgia Van Cuylenburg that the show VEEP has dissed our peeps!  Really Veep?  Here is her post:

This week on VEEP Julia Louis Dreyfus' character (the Vice President of the US) said "The kids had alopecia and the mothers were on crack. It was a freakshow!" - this makes me sad! Words can hurt no matter how funny you think they might be (coming from an alopecian comedian!)

Freakshow?  Kids with an incurable auto-immune disease compared to "mothers on crack?"  Wow...

After years of being teased and being laughed at and made to feel like a freak, it comes to this.  After being suicidal as a teenager because I believe I was a freak, it comes to this.  After counseling young children with Alopecia that they are "beautiful just as they are," it comes to this.

Perhaps the writers of VEEP are the ones on crack.   America - this is why Alopecia Research gets no funding or attention.  This is why the suicide rate is so high.  

Forget the Zombie Apocalypse - there's 4.7 Million freaks among us!

CHALLENGE:  Go to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and the mountaintops if necessary and shout our battle cry - "WHAT THE BEEP - VEEP?"  Use the hashtag #veep and #whatthebeepveep to spread the word.

We have a new bully in town in HBO - you've picked a fight with some little freaks who have some big freaks on their side.

Book Reviews Coming Up!!!

I read two different books last week and I am working on the reviews right now.  I really enjoyed these books!

Here's a link if you want to read them with me and share your thoughts:

Velvet Ball and the Broken Fairy by Patricia Puddle (Ebook Edition and Paperback available)

Charity Moon by DeAnna Marie Kinney (Paperback and PDF versions available)

Check back soon!