be a better vegan

i’m going on two years as a vegan. and i want to perfect my vegan diet. i rarely eat non-vegan around other people because i’m embarrassed to admit i do eat non-vegan at all. that being said, i just scarfed down a piece of baklava after sitting at a coffee shop without any other food options for two hours. my roommate’s birthday was last weekend and i bought her a cake. and i had a piece of it with my roommates (shocked them), and then another piece secretly on my own! i bought myself a peppermint patty candy and another candy thinking they were dark-chocolate and so would be fine. when i realized they weren’t vegan, i ate them anyway! i would never have done any of this when i first became a vegan. i want to get back on track. non-vegan food makes me feel sick.

The New Year marked the end of my third year of veganism, and only now am I finally consistently rejecting food with bleached flour!

And I finally bought Agave nectar… pretty good, a little higher in cals than I’d like, though.

I think I have the diet part down pretty damn well, I just have to work on the clothes and such.
I got an alternative down comforter for Christmas, so I got rid of my real down ones, but I’m having some difficulty finding stylish coats that aren’t made out of wool. And I have kind of a lot of soap/shampoo/conditioner/lotion with honey it.
I’ll have to work on that …

Everything I eat is vegan. But I’m still not sure about my soap and shampoo and stuff like that.

I want to be a better vegan, and really strive to always. I will admit, every couple of weeks I slip and have a couple bites of something with cheese, then get sick, its like a bad cycle, and overall I am not super strict… but this is because I want to eventually eliminate all products where I can’t pronounce an ingredient while simultaneously choosing the natural over man-made anything…

Even though I could always do better, I am still very proud of myself, for the past 6 months I have had really good intentions and am working towards a long term life style change.

Can I ask though… is it just me or is it hard to be a vegan and not be an ass-hole? I find this struggle daily.

I’d been a ridiculously devout vegan for five years… but the last two… I’ve found myself thinking things like: This has whey protein isolate as one of the last ingredients… it’s not THAT bad… but it is. I’ve been occasionally slipping on things that contain honey as well. I need to buckle back down and say no to all products that have even touched an animal. I hesitate before I say “I’ve been vegan for seven years.” even though most people would agree that I have.

Blah…
I think the pizza I had a couple days ago had parmesan cheese in the sauce..
But my mom bought it for me so I couldn’t really not eat it.
And it was pretty damn good, by the way.

Ah well.. forgive, forget, and move on!

drat! I was doing so well! I haven’t mindlessly chewed on rice crackers or sweets or crisps without checking ingredients, or had any late-night after-drink slips with hot chips, but DAMMIT I yesterday accepted a bottle of flavoured vitamin water at a job interview and it had dairy in it!

it’s not the world’s hugest deal but it upsets me that it could’ve been so easily avoided.

recommitting to be ever more vigilant!

I’ve now been vegan for about five months, and it’s a positive wonderful life change that makes me ridiculously happy.

Still, the road to ridding my life of animal products as completely as possible is a long one, and I’ve gotten careless at points. I’ve eaten rice crackers without knowing what flavour they are, for example, and when I’ve had a few drinks I’ve even had hot chips while out (not vegan here in Aus). The worst thing I’ve done, I think, is continue eating a salad even when I realised it had some parmesan in it. It’s not something I’m beating myself up over but it’s something I want to change.

I’m starting now!

I ate three square meals, all of which wear delicious, nutritious, and thoroughly vegan. For lunch I had some of the soup I made with the armful of dumpstered greens (five ready-prepared packs of cabbage, leek and broccoli plus several packs of asparagus) I brought home from work, which ticks the environmentally-friendly box as well as the animal-friendly one. Dinner was more greens (I have a shitload to use up now :P) with mashed potatoes and fried tofu. Yum! I also had three servings of homemade chocolate cake and soya cream. Who cares if it’s nutritionally invalid, it was gorgeous.

To quote a wise woman, “Nom nom fucking nom.”

;)

I’ve been doing so well!!!
I haven’t knowingly put anything unvegan into my body, including honey and even bleached flour, in a super long time!
I’m trying to steer myself a bit towards a raw diet, or at least more natural, with less veggie burgers and more vegetables.
That being said, I found this AWESOME vegan restaurant, with all vegan pizza and subs. Fortunately I don’t live too close to it so I won’t gain a hundred pounds :D
That would also put off my natural nutrition goal too, so it’ll just be an occasional treat.