Stay Vegan

I’ve been a full fledged vegan for over nine months now.

There’s no way I’m turning back. I’ve given up dairy for good. Eggs for good. Meat has been out of the picture for eleven years.

Now to rid my diet of honey and silly animal by-products that try to sneak their way into my life. For example, I was staying with some Sisters this past week. And the liquid soap in the bathroom, not only did it have an animal by-product, it also had milk and honey. Milk and honey!? C’mon, is that really necessary??

I’ve been pretty healthy, paying attention to everything that enters my body. Currently I’m on 4 supplements (zinc, vitamins d and k, and calcium), and we’ll see how that works.

Sometimes people understand, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they show respect (one even “admired” me), and sometimes they don’t. Many ask questions. It seems like veganism is easily misunderstood, especially since it’s not mainstream enough where I live. That’s okay though. I will continue trying to live as compassionate a life style as possible. That’s what veganism is all about.

I think it’s time to mark this goal as complete. Thanks for all your help and support :)

But Mommmmm, I don’t want to eat bugggsssss….

Well well well, would you look at this. Look’s like I’ve been disregarding some things. Let’s take any accidental bugs out of my diet, for once and for all.

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/EatBugs2/print

I was at my grandparents house on Thanksgiving talking to my little cousin.

She said to me, “I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but I really admire that you’re vegan.”

Now this is the first time I’ve ever made someone proud for being vegan. People always seem to worry or be concerned or misunderstanding about my dietary choices. It warmed my heart to know that someone cared and that they were supportive of my decisions, despite not being vegan themselves.

<3 <3

PS- The other day I was making a vegan lasagna. And I had drained and mashed up the tofu and added the spices and such- and it looked so much like Ricotta cheese- that I stopped dead in my tracks for a moment and was like- “ohmigosh, what am I doing, I can’t eat this! This isn’t vegan.” Then I realized that it wasn’t cheese I was putting on the lasagna, but tofu, and it just looked like it. It really gave me a startle though!

I was so tempted today to break my vegan streak and cheat a little. We were celebrating Oktoberfest in my German class and the professor brought a bucket of milk chocolate bars to class. And they were sitting right next to me the whole class, staring at me.

Then I come home and there’s a basket of Hershey’s chocolates on the kitchen counter with a note that says “take some!” and I saw the Hershey Special Dark and I thought, well, that’s probably not vegan, but I want it badly. So I went and checked the ingredients. Nope. Milk and lactose. Great.

I’ve been craving chocolate an awful lot lately. I didn’t cheat though. I wanted to….

is still going well.

I have vegan friends with whom to talk to about any concerns.

I signed up to help out getting more vegan/vegetarian options at my school (even though there’s only 2 vegans and I’m one of them).

I’ve been cooking my own food and that goes well- lots of pasta. Lots of fruit.

When I go to the dining hall I get salads and veggie burgers and such.

It’s all going well.

Staying vegan has been easy and is getting easier.

PB&J is always a good staple when I go out places that may not have much vegan food.

Vegan friends are always there for support.

Immediate family respects decision and does not try to feed me non-vegan food anymore.

I am in love with vegan BBQs. If you’ve never been to a vegan bbq/pot luck, do yourself a favor and find one/start one/go to one. They are amazing. Vegan burgers, hot dogs, salads, fresh fruit, fun dips, fondue, great desserts.

I made peppermint patties. They turned out wonderful. A little too rich, if anything. Next time I’ll use less sugar. But they tasted great.

Great people, great food, great time.

A wonderful way to get 3-6 servings of fruit in one fell swoop.

A fruit smoothie.

Tonight’s consisted of 7 oz of OJ, 5 oz of pineapple juice, 1 oz of lemon juice, 3 oz of apple juice, and 10 ice cubes.

Usually I stick in whatever fruit I have around – bananas [plenty of potassium], melons [vitamin A galore], apples, peaches, nectarines, kiwis [called the most nutrient dense fruit there is!], oranges – and so it’s a new flavor every time.

I don’t really understand it.

I spend half an hour a day charting my nutrition. Every bit of vitamin, mineral, calorie, etc is charted.

And my mom sees me.

And I tell her about the benefits of x and y [x and y usually being bananas or whole wheat bread or something]. I talk about nutrition all the time.

And she made a comment tonight that she’s worried I don’t get enough protein. Etc.

That’s ridiculous. I’ve been getting more than the daily recommended amount of protein for my BMI lately.

I pay more attention to my health than anyone else I know.

Why are people having such a hard time accepting that I’m a healthy vegan?

It’s entirely possible.

I love being vegan. I know I’ve said it before, but I do love it. I love that I am finally living in sync with my values. I love eating and feeling healthy.

Sometimes I don’t understand why veganism gets such a bad rap. I mean, I know there must be angry and uneducated vegans out there, but there are also plenty of angry and uneducated non-vegans out there too. When people say that I can’t possibly be healthy with a vegan diet, I explain that it’s highly possible to be unhealthy with a vegan diet, and it’s almost highly possible to be unhealthy with a non-vegan diet. How many people do you know that eat fast food for most of their meals? Seriously. To me, it’s about being educated and knowing what you need to consume in order to stay healthy.

Right now I am embarking on a mission to get 100% of each and every vitamin and mineral each day. I got all of the vitamins easily, the proteins pretty easily, and the major minerals. It’s the silly trace minerals that get me.

I’ll bet I spend more time worrying about my intake of vitamin k and molybdenum than any non-vegan I know.

The next time someone interrogates me on my “unhealthy” diet… I’ll just whip out my handy dandy daily dietary assessment.