Well, well, well. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, I've been living veganously for a month. What have I learned in the past four weeks?
- I don't miss dairy. And for those times I want it--because of habit--I can use alternatives, like soy creamer and purely decadent soy ice cream.
- I once left a cheese stick in my pocket overnight and was amazed at the gelatinous, waxy object it became. Perhaps it was doing the same thing inside me for all those years?
- I feel better. Lighter. As if I'm processing the foods I'm eating more efficiently.
- I definitely have more energy.
- I am a more intentional eater. I stop myself from mindlessly reaching for something to snack on by checking to see if it's vegan.
- I love trying out vegan recipes.
- Traveling-while-vegan is actually easy. It just takes some planning and voicing preferences when choosing restaurants. At a recent client dinner, I asked the person choosing the site to choose a restaurant with at least one vegan option, even if a salad. I took apples, the most amazing easy-to-peel clementines, and raw almonds with me on the trip so I would always have a vegan snack handy during the week, and could eat them for breakfast and/or lunch if the work options weren't vegan. I could have bought them once I got to my destination, but business trips are always so busy and I couldn't rely on finding them. I wanted to be sure I had options. It was such a treat to sit in bed at night reading Coetzee's Disgrace and eating clementines.
- Ahem. I've also learned that it is just as possible to eat a junk food diet while vegan as it is while non vegan. I could eat vegan cookies and cakes all day long if I wanted to, and so another set of choices arises--within a vegan diet, opting for raw, fresh veggies and fruits over processed foods is my next area of focus. Perhaps I've gotten Purely Decadent Pomegranate Chip and Peanut Chews out of my system.
- For the next month of living veganously, I'm going to eat raw until dinner and see how that goes...
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