(Photo Credit: Snopes.com)
Last week, in Tahoe, as the vegan challenge was winding down; I was counting the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until I was going to shove a precious, precious cheeseburger the size of my head into my face. Then, chase it down with an entire gallon of milk.
Then I got an email that elicited my laughter through tears (the best emotion).
A lovely person wrote me and said that he saw that my vegan challenge was coming to an end, and he offered me $50/week for my charity if I could be vegetarian/vegan for six months. Did you just read that? Six months.
On the one hand, this means a $1,300 donation to Broadway Impact. How could I possibly turn that down? I can’t. On the other hand, it means I’m probably going to die.
It’s possible that I may be slightly exaggerating about the whole “I’m gonna die” thing, but you just never know, now do you?
There is a step-down system he put in place going from October – December in which I slowly have less dairy until 3 months of veganism start. January – March = all vegan, baby. All vegan.
Now that it’s going to be a six-month ordeal, I’m going to have to really make a commitment and treat it as a lifestyle. My wallet, brain, and body can’t handle just eating whatever junk is available at fast food places just because I don’t want to buy vegetarian/vegan groceries. It’s time to put some effort into this.
The trip to the grocery store with Wendy and Marty was really helpful. Shopping with vegans made it seem like shopping as a vegan wouldn’t be the most painful ordeal.
(That makes me sound like a child, doesn’t it? – That I need people to take me shopping and show me how to do it. Oh well. I think it’s fun to experience new things with people who are passionate about them.)
We actually found a few things that looked good. There are these two brands of microwavable food I’d never even heard of – Amy’s has some stuff I can eat (especially before I get rid of dairy). Morningstar has a bunch of fake meat options.
Already this week, I tried two different Amy’s dishes. One was spaghetti with meatless meatballs. One was spinach lasagna. I love lasagna. I love spinach. The spinach lasagna was pretty delicious. So, I’ll keep sneaking good stuff into my diet, as I sneak out worse stuff.
My friends are flabbergasted that I’m doing this. When vegan week started, some of my friends asked, “What are you going to eat?” The big joke was that I might not be able to eat anything if I couldn’t have dairy, and I’d spend the whole week crying in the fetal position.
So, feel free to take your bets on whether I’ll die. I wouldn’t advise taking bets on whether I go through with it – my stubbornness far outweighs my health and everything else in this world. I will finish the challenge. Taking bets on whether I die is acceptable.
Tomorrow, I’ll discuss some feelings I have about vegetarianism/veganism since this is the beginning of a long-term challenge. We’ll see what I learn/if I change my view on anything over the next 6 months…
Yay for veg*nism! Vegetarian is easy, vegan is a little less easy.
FYI, some morningstar products aren’t vegan, they have whey in them. (Yuck.) But the two easiest vegan eating out options are Chipotle (just obviously no cheese, sour cream or meat, but yes to tons of guacamole) and Noodles and Company (japanese pan noodles are vegan and delicious to boot).
Good luck!
Thanks Mel!
I am in agreement that now that I’ve done a vegan week, it makes vegetarianism look easy! In my opinion veganism is way less easy. Tons of things have cream, or butter, or milk, or something along those lines in them.
I have to really be careful and diligent about trying not to make any mistakes with what I eat at races, in people’s homes, in airports, at restaurants, etc. (You have to do that as a vegetarian too, but you have way more options.)
I feel as though being vegan is a lot harder to do “on-the-go,” and sometimes can be hard to do successfully surrounded by people who are not vegan.
Are you vegan? Did you find it challenging at first?
Thanks for the heads up, and the advice on the restaurants! Chipotle is an awesome choice, and was a huge staple of my diet during vegan week. I’ve never tried Noodles and Company, but I’ll have to give it a go!
Boo! I wrote out a long reply but then I accidentally deleted it.
I am a vegetarian who eats vegan roughly 60% of the time, give or take depending on the week.
I definitely do my best, and it’s great to ask questions and read labels, but ultimately if I accidentally eat something with rennet or gelatin in it, I just note for the future (don’t buy Kirkland’s Pesto) and move on. I don’t consider myself any less of a vegetarian for an occasional mistake as long as I’m not knowingly eating meat.
I guess what I want to say is that it’s okay to go by the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law. If you ask the waitress if something is vegan and she says yes, I don’t think you need to grill her on whether the sugar in the ice cream is ethically sourced…
I hate when I write out something only to have it deleted somehow!
But thanks for re-writing something! 🙂
And good for you. Keep rocking it, girl!