Aurora's Blog

Originally, I said I could never give up Doritos. But I did (at least until this challenge is over).

Although, if you feel you absolutely must have Doritos, did you know that the Spicy Sweet Chili flavor is vegan (or at least, that’s what PETA says)?

I also said I’d never be able to give up ice cream. Sure, I want to be healthy. But sometimes I just want that sweet, sweet ice cream! And yes, I’ll admit that fatty, delicious, thick ice cream tastes incredible…

However, for one thing, I barely eat ice cream anymore. (I mean it when I say I want to be healthy.)

For another, I have grown to love ice cream made of coconut milk (and sometimes soy or almond milk, depending on the brand). Intellectually, I remember the dairy ice cream tasting better. So, I might be a little crazy to say this coconut milk stuff is delicious. But, it seems to me that taste buds can get used to new things. So, whether the old stuff may taste better in real life… in my mind, I don’t even really register that, because I have grown to love the new stuff.

In fact, when I was still eating dairy (well, I still am sort of eating some dairy, but when I was still eating things that were mainly dairy, such as ice cream) – I ate some of that full fat, heavy ice cream after I’d been trying to transition to the vegan stuff… And it tasted a little… off.

It still tasted pretty good, of course. But now that I’m used to coconut milk ice cream, cream-based ice cream felt almost too heavy. [*big wide, eyes*] I know?! Isn’t that weird?! I hardy know who I am (or at least who my taste buds are) anymore!

So, I didn’t have a ridiculously hard time replacing the dairy-heavy foods I loved. Sure, it was hard at first. But I switched to eating potato chips with salsa instead of Doritos with salsa. (Ultimately, I think the salsa was possibly my favorite part – and that’s vegan. Yay!)

I slowly replaced milk (which I thought I loved) with almond milk (which is delicious and just as filling, if not more so).

Since I went at a nice slow pace throughout the first months of my vegetarian challenge, it wasn’t jarring. It was more like I realized one day, “huh! I’m mainly vegan! If people came into my apartment, they’d only see vegan stuff!” Well… for the most part. But we’ll get to that next.