try veganism for two weeks

I saw

I conquered

And then, pleased with my efforts, I sprinkled boursin into my tomato soup! Hahahahaha! Welcome back into my life, mon cher fromage!

And then I’m going to have a seven cheese omelette and a pint of warm milk!

Hurray for dairy!

Not really sure how, and even if, to procede now. I stayed at an onsen with D last weekend and we ended up eating loads of fish and meat as part of the “banquet”. I’m trying to push on through anyway but part of me wonders what the point is. I know now that once the two weeks is over I will definitely be eating eggs and dairy and fish again, so what’s the use in not eating them for the next 10 days or so?
On the other hand, the experiment has shown me that I really do not want to be putting growth hormone and mercury into my body on a daily basis.
I have found a local organic egg seller, so I’m planning to start buying my eggs from her, and to ask her about organic dairy farmers in the area. There aren’t many cows round here though. Would I really be prepared to give up milk if I couldn’t get it organically? And fish – I don’t know where the fish I eat here comes from but I’m fairly sure it isn’t sustainably fished. Japan isn’t exactly reknowned for that. Obviously, more decisions and research lie ahead.
I guess I’ll push on with the vegan diet in the meantime (it is only nine and a half days after all), until I’m more certain of the sacrifices I’m prepared to make.

testing for a variety of reasons. Apoplogies to all the “proper” vegans out there, because my reasons are doubtless far less noble than your own!

MEAT: I very rarely eat meat because I can’t afford to buy it, and lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the sheer inefficiency of using land to feed people with meat. I’m not sure how much longer we can go on ignoring the finite set of resources we have availiable, especially since urbanisation means farmland is shrinking and looks set to continue doing so on a huge scale in countries such as China. So, more grain and fewer cows!

FISH: I like fish/ seafood and it’s very healthy. Since consumer demand for it doesn’t put the same kind of pressure on the way we organise agriculture as meat does, I’m fairly sure that once the two weeks are up I will go back to eating sustainably fished fishes in all their finery. But I thought I’d give it a try anyway.

DAIRY: Kind of wierd to be drinking stuff “designed” for baby cows, no? I’ve thought that for a long time but never done anything about it. Add to that the health issues and it kind of makes sense to cut it out. I probably should care about cows being continually impregnated in order to produce milk, but somehow, not to sound callous, it doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure how I’ll cope without white chocolate and milk in my tea, but it should be feasible for two weeks and I’ll see how I feel after that.

EGGS: Like the fish, I’m fairly certain I’ll reintroduce these once the trial is over, but I’m eliminating them at the moment for completeness’ sake.

HONEY: I never fully understood whether vegans could eat this or not, but I use it to bake bread with and I’m not going to stop. Sorry!

LEATHER/SUEDE/FUR: You must be joking! As if I could afford anything made from that!!

GELATIN: well, I suppose if there was ever a time to give up crushed horse bones it’s now… and my teeth will probably thank me for it. No more jellybeans…

ASSORTED MISC ITEMS I HAVEN’T EVEN CONTEMPLATED: un-contemplated, sorry!