It’s been over a year since my last experiment, so it’s about time to take on another lifestyle challenge. While it wasn’t my intent to make this all about food, it seems like those kinds of changes make the most sense. Although I’m always open to suggestions! Plus, I just finished another A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically, and he was listed as a source of inspiration in my first blog entry about trying different lifestyles.
So, for three weeks, I have decided to go vegan. I have thought about this for a while, and I’m very interested and excited to try a vegan diet…although I don’t think it would be something I would be committed to long-term. I definitely love cheese too much!
Some people might think this will be easy for me. I have been a vegetarian for the majority of my life after all. While I concede that my lifestyle would inherently be closer to a vegan’s than an omnivore’s, veganism and vegetarianism are still very different lifestyles. Eliminating all animal products from your diet is a huge step – especially for me. I usually have yogurt for breakfast, and lunch and dinner almost invariably have some kind of cheese. But honestly, taking a look at my diet, becoming vegan could do me a world of good.
Last week, I ate pizza for four days in a row. Three different pizzas. It started on Thursday night when I went to Uncorked, the local wine bar, with a friend. I had the Wild Mushroom Artisan Pizza along with the Cheese Fondue. I took the majority of the pizza home with me as leftovers since the fondue proved to be plenty filling, not to mention the three free samples of wine and resulting two glasses of wine. ;-) Friday, I finished that off, plus Francisco popped a Red Baron frozen pizza into the oven to complement my leftovers and give him leftovers for the next day since I planned to be out. Saturday, I went to spend the day in Indianapolis with a friend. For dinner, we ended up ordering pizza from Bazbeaux, which has gourmet pizza toppings. I took the leftovers home with me, so guess what I ate Sunday?
So, vegan vs. vegetarian…what’s the difference? A vegetarian diet excludes all meat, including slaughter by-products, fish, and poultry. There are several variations of the diet, probably the most common being lacto-ovo-vegetarians, who eat eggs and dairy products. As I mentioned, I love cheese – and I also eat eggs – so I would fall into this category. Veganism is more of a philosophy, and vegans strive to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. On top of the items that vegetarians avoid, vegans won’t consume milk, eggs, or any food that is derived from animals.
Last weekend, while in Indy, I stopped at Trader Joe’s to stock up on some vegan options. I ran out of time and didn’t make it to Whole Foods, which was going to be the main stock-up store. So, I have a few essentials, but I’m going to have to make a grocery run this weekend to get started on the right foot. Sunspot Natural Market is a local store I intend to check out; I’m really hoping they have vegan coffee creamer or I’m going to have to get creative with my morning coffee next week. The nearest Whole Foods is about 70 miles away, which is a mild inconvenience. :-P
I think the plan is that I will start on Monday, so I plan to have a really cheesy weekend!
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