be vegan for a month

it is said that it takes 21 days to incorporate a new behavior into habit. i gave up meat (including fish and fowl…strange that people ask me about those two) for lent and it went super swell so i kept it going after easter hit. i love meat, love love love carnitas, bbq, thanksgiving turkey, the whole shebang. but i have had a shift in consciousness. maybe it’s from all of the meditation i have been doing. i have always struggled with my enjoyment of eating meat vs. how very much i love animals, all animals, not just pets. so, now that my boyfriend is a terrific guy who happens to be vegan, when he suggested a 30-day vegan trial there was no reason to say no. maybe it will become habit after 30 days. maybe i’ll decide that local handmade organic cheese is ok. food is a personal thing so i would never begrudge anyone their choice. but for me, for now, i’m going to see how this feels.

No more slip-ups so far, so I might just count this goal done by the end of the month. I’m going to go see my parents for Thanksgiving, and while I can pretty much ignore meat, I might accidently have some eggs and ghee (which is what my mom cooks everything with).

I’m really enjoying being vegan and my only concern is that I eat so many grains. I’m not sure that’s the healthiest way to go, but I know that I do end up eating way more fruits and vegetables also! Next step is probably going raw. I might give it a try soon :)

It’s been two weeks and it’s mostly going good. However, I did slip up a couple of times. Once, when I was visiting family and I was really hungry. They were making brownies Ooops! I’m sure there were eggs in there, although I didn’t ask. Then, yesterday, my friend did a speech on cheesecake making, and I tried a little piece. I’m going to keep going anyway, and by the end of these two weeks, I will decide if I want to count it done or not. I could do another month :) I can always count done being a vegetarian for a month ;)

P.S. I did get sick during the second week. I got a mild cold. I do wonder if it’s detox or if I need some different nutrients.

It definitely doesn’t feel hard to do to me, but then again I’ve been playing with being vegetarian and cutting out dairy for the last three years. I’ve never gone a month being vegan though.

Challenge for the second week: Cutting out vegan junk foods, like popcorn and soy ice cream. Since my meals tend to be light and not very dense, I have more room for dessert after. There is only so many calories I can eat in vegetables. I wonder if I should increase volume of everything that I eat, instead of filling up on dessert afterward. Since vegetables are so low calorie, choices for filling foods are fruits such as high calorie bananas, grains such as wholegrain bread and oatmeal, and fat, like nuts, oils, and avocado. I’ve been favoring grains so far, but maybe I should add in more fruit and fruit smoothies.

All I have to say is that I LOVE BAGELS! They are wholesome, sprouted grain variety, but still I wonder if I should be eating so many. I made a tofu and vegetable curry for dinner today, and shared half with my partner. I could honestly eat the whole thing by myself easily and then still be hungry. Gotta fill up on those fruits and veggies! I also need to remember to eat more flax seeds, since I’m not taking fish oil anymore.

I think once I’m a couple of weeks into it, I won’t make so many entries, but for now it’s keeping me on track. It went well. I had a lot of green smoothie, at least 4 glasses. I had lunch with a friend and we had fried potatoes with onions and mushrooms, and a salad on the side. So DELICIOUS! I didn’t miss meat or dairy. I do wonder sometimes about my protein intake. I have some beans and such. I’m thinking I’ll add some spirulina and hemp powder to smoothies to supplement protein.

Today I had a ton of brown rice! It was really yummy. I worry about how much I’m eating though, it’s mostly fruits and vegetables, but I also put oil on my salads and in my rice. Oh, also I made some dessert out of almond butter, and had quite a bit of it!

Went to visit my friend and had to refuse a fish dish. She was completely baffled why I would not eat fish LOL It was actually pretty funny really. We are both from Ukraine and meat is very much a part of the culture. I’m glad I’m in United States!

Second day today and I’m doing pretty well. I had some tortillas with vegetables for lunch. I ate at least 3 tortillas, so it definitely seems like I’m trying to make up with eating more grains. I was a little tempted by my baby’s goat yogurt today, but nothing that was difficult to cope with.

I’ve been mostly vegetarian for a long time. It gets hard, when people around me are eating animal products. For example, I love ice cream, and when boyfriend keeps it in the freezer, I have hard time staying away. So my question is, how do I stay away, even when I see things, that are tempting to me every day? I know I can definitely manage for a month, but I do wonder how to make it easier for myself.

I have been now on a vegan diet for about one month. Don’t really see the point in getting back to dairy and eggs, although my vacations to Portugal are going to be an exception and there I’ll probably include fish also on my diet.

There was a handful of times when I couldn’t avoid eating animal products during these last 28 days. I ate familiar soy hamburgers that had some egg before I read the ingredients and noticed that they had eggwhite powder. Last weekend my good friend was having his bachelor party and we had a pit stop at a hamburger place. There I had to eat in a big rush a vegetarian hamburger with mayonnaise and cheese. My intestines were crying after such a bad meal.

Otherwise I haven’t been missing much of dairy products. I thought summer would have been more difficult, but then again I found so many different and delicious substitutes made of oat (namely Oatly’s).