We made it through another month of vegan diet. Well...most of a month. We were on vacation for the first few days and when I think vacation I think food and when I think food I do NOT think vegan food.
What a month it has been so far. I like to proudly refer to myself as one of the most unhealthy vegan eaters in the month of March. Betcha didn't know Oreos are vegan. And you can pretty much toss anything in oil and I will eat it.
One of the things that Di and truly enjoy about making ourselves stick to a vegan diet for a month, is the food exploration and consciousness we experience. We start reading labels and making more pragmatic decisions than we do in other months. We are also forced to cook more which is good and bad. At the end of the month though it is something we are always proud of sticking to and I think for the two of us it truly means that we are willing to sacrifice and stick with something together. Not to get all corny, but it means we stand by each others side and cheer each other on.
Now there are some bad things about vegan March. First, you can (just like anything) fall into bad habits. Once you have a number of items you eat, you stick with it and don't like other things. Also, generally speaking, you trick yourself into thinking that whatever you ate could not have possibly filled you up so you eat more and end up overeating.
There are 2 other things I do not care for during vegan March. First, Lobsterfest starts in March. Sometimes those damn Red Lobster commercials look sooooo tempting! So much so that Di and I dropped out early last year and ate the shit outta some lobsters! Sorry vegans but those animals were delicious!
I also hate the fact that it seems like everyone you know who is aware of the fact that you are vegan for a month, seem to take it upon themselves to police you. "Are you sure that's vegan?" or I hear things like "pulling off the cheese does not make it vegan" or "that's cheating". God damn I hate when people do that. And admittedly we follow our own rules. Is it 100% vegan? Heck no. Do you have any idea how expensive and time consuming that would be and how cranky it would make me? I still have coffee creamer which has like less than 2% of some weird milk derivative and when it comes to bread we do not look at labels to closely anymore these days.
All in all, we do pretty well and while I am glad Vegan March 2014 is coming to a close, I am excited to do it again next year and excited to someday share it with our children.
For now though Di and are content to just stick to it ourselves. Di originally took it as a challenge. Imagine that, Di feeling challenged and then sticking with it. That NEVER happens (insert sarcastic tone here).
Cheers!
-Mitch