I Lava My Veganniversary

Well, folks!  I'm turning one as a vegan!

A very serious meat-free burger at Native Foods in LA.

Last year at this time I blogged about how I had made it through my first year as a vegetarian and I resolved that I'd set aside one day a week to eat vegan.  And then I just kept eating that way.  When I checked in in June about it I felt great.

My amazing friend Aurora went vegan too- actually she's the one who got me on the vegan bandwagon.  She was even more hardcore though, she wasn't even a vegetarian beforehand and she quit cold Tofurkey!  It was really great having someone else doing it with me in those fledgeling days of not knowing what was and wasn't vegan, and if it was malt-o-meal and contained no animal products was it secretly not vegan somehow?

So here I am, a year of being the world's most hated kind of eater under my belt.  And boy, do people really hate vegans.  Aside from the bacon jokes and the "eat a steak!" jabs, there are the "Well, what KIND of vegan are you?" questions and the pro-meat pictures that a few friends post on my facebook wall.

Eating a vegan diet has been easy in comparison to the magnifying glass that I feel like I'm under as an "out" vegan.  The hardest part has been being pressed to define my choice all the time, when the reason changes from week to week.  The important thing is that I've not wavered in my desire to follow an animal-free diet.  I vacillate from the "ew" factor of the meat and dairy industry to animal rights issues, then to environmental reasons and most frequently finding myself agreeing the most with the health benefits. I try not to be an asshole about it, but by saying I'm a vegan I already am one.  I've accepted that's the perception, and I even ordered "Vegan Asshole" business cards for my twitter handle. 

The focus on what I eat has made a big difference in how I spend my money when choosing food.  I've had the shift in mentality from buying the cheapest thing on the shelf to buying items that cost less on a larger scale.  When possible I buy organic now, I read every label I come into contact with so I know the ins and outs of my pantry and I'm really shifting to buying more in-season locally grown produce.  It's pretty major.  I remember when my children's father and I went on our first grocery shopping trip and we argued in the canned goods aisle over where to buy the brand name kidney beans or the store brand and I was fighting for that 11 cent difference.  Now I'd be glaring at the labels on both and looking for added preservatives and who knows what else they might sneak in.

I also like that there are loopholes though.  I like chocolate.  I like junk food, and while i don't eat a lot  it definietly helps when the PMS is getting the best of me.  Little angels sang and flew around the room and rays of lights were everywhere when I learned that Oreos are vegan.  Not healthy by any means but sometimes a hidden cache of chocolate sandwich cookies are absolute necessity.  I don't eat the whole tray of them anymore like I used to.  That's something, right?

 I've been toying with the idea of trying a raw diet, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.  In the grand tradition (started a year ago) I'll be adopting a day a week to declare as a raw day so I can learn the preparation methods and all of that good stuff.  I'm choosing hump day because I like to put two words together and make magic, and Rawednesday is too good to pass up.  Plus I have my swing lessons on Wednesday nights after work and I always go to our local raw cafe, Revive, anyway on those nights.

So here's to my health, I lava being a vegan!

I LAVA checking in: Hey little vegan, how's the eatin?

It's been 3 months, give or take a few 144 hours since I dove in and went vegan with my diet.

It's been a big deal, game changer sort of decision.

My first week freaked me out.  Even though I'd been eating Pesca/Lacto/Ova/Vegetarian for a year already it was scary imagining a life of reeeeaaaaaaly reading labels, being obnoxious at restaurants and standing on my cruelty-free soapbox to tell eaters of flesh the error of their ways.  I lived on Malt-O-Meal for a few days because I knew that at least was safe.

I was still unsure of whether I wanted to be full time vegan or if I wanted to just do a day a week, I was really really into chile relleno burritos at the time and it just seemed an insurmountable challenge. 

I started my first vegan day and after that I decided to see if I could o two in a row.  And then three.  After about 6 days I flubbed up and went on a deep fried cheese bender during the Opening Day game for the Giants.  And I felt like barfing.

See, being vegan just feels good.  Like really fucking good.  When I have a little cheese on something my tummy does flip flops, and not in that fun "in love" way.  Think more in that "Oh my god this is gonna be public and embarrassing and stinky" sort of way.

My body and I are really synced up, the food I put in processes well (and I'll leave it at that) and when I slip up (which happens a few times a week, I'm not perfect) I really notice it.  

I'm finding that I don't even miss cheese at all anymore.  I don't like the way I feel after I eat it- and what's ridiculous is how long I just put up with that feeling because I assumed it was just how eating was supposed to be.  Admittedly it got waaaaay easier to live cheese free once I tried Daiya.  I had a mouthgasm when I first tried a grilled cheese sandwich made with the stuff.  My "friend" was with me as I was eating it for the first time and I am pretty sure he was a little jealous of the sandwich as I moaned in ecstasy over the melty vegan goodness.

So what, if not cheese, do I miss now that I'm vegan?

I miss easy ordering at restaurants- some places are awesome and have tons of vegan options, others are just pure hell.  

I miss not being judged every meal- even if I don't bring it up, when I'm in a group of people as I'm ordering someone always calls attention to my order in one way or another and I'm asked a bazillion questions that usually all boil down to "How do you live without Bacon?!"

Amazingly well.

 The questioning thing has been the real challenge though.  Having to define my diet for other people.  People always want to know why I do it- and it's no one reason.  I love animals, but I'm not some uber sensitive wimp who can't deal with death.  I just don't like unnecessary suffering.  And I'm totally creeped out by eating anything that thinks and poops.  That's no different from my vegetarian days except people just ignored it and asked zero questions back then.*

I love the health benefits of going animal-free.  My skin is fantastic.  

I think I look better without makeup now than I ever have.  My stomach is calmer than it has been since I started procreating.  It's dumb but I actually feel like I'm less stressed out because I'm not eating some product of a stressed milk cow.  And I have had noticeably fewer days of self loathing directed at my body- which is badass since I haven't had to count any calories or hold back since I started this.  Face facts- when eating vegan there really aren't a ton of splurge items that I can OD on without effort. 

Another aspect of defining my veganism has been to which degree I am taking it.  I don't *always* count honey because truth be told, I fucking love that shit, but I did cut way back and now only have it in things once every few weeks.

I will no longer be purchasing anything made with leather, I never buy fur, but... and this is the big but- I will not stop using animal fiber yarn.

Day old cria!  <3

I love yarn.  I work for a yarn company.  Am I gonna stop lovin' up on cashmere?  Hell no.  

I just visited the alpaca-pals that the company I work for gets our 100% alpaca lines from.  They were so cared for and loved- she totally even knew every one of them by name. 

It's not the most vegan thing to do, but dang it, as long as I'm conscientious about the mills the yarn comes from I'll let this one slide.

And if that bugs some other vegans, whatevs.

Because ultimately, even though the animals and the environment benefit from my choice not to eat animals or their products, this is an act of loving myself and doing something that makes me feel good.

Isn't it nice to know that the LAVA we put into ourselves goes out into the world has a way of coming round full circle like that?

* I totally don't mind answering real questions. It's just the "How do you not eat ribs?!" stuff that kills me.  I'm always down to share my tips and favorite things with anyone who might want to try a vegan diet.

I Lava My Vegetarianniversary

Somehow in the muddled up reality that I've been inhabiting lately I totally missed celebrating my First Vegetarianniversary. 

Uh... that's kinda big.

Warning, this is gonna get vegetarian-high-horse-y.  I try not to do this, but dammit, its my big day.

A year and 4 days ago I was totally freaked out by meat thanks to bottle feeding a dying baby goat and making the connection that every time I had Indian food I ordered goat curry.

I was done, that was it.

The goat died, it really had no chance.  Doug brought it home from the Cherry Auction, a flea market swap meet kind of place where it's easy to wanna impulse buy the heck outta some livestock.  Problem is the animals there aren't healthy.  At all. As soon as I'd washed my hands and put flowers out in the pasture under the tree where we buried him I tried to eat a hamburger and couldn't make it happen.  I smelled goat shit.  I heart the pitiful bleating.  I pictured the limp neck and legs that would no longer hold him.

Done.

I was the girl who blogged about cheeseburgers with such love and devotion that (with the help of an article run about my blog in the local paper) my favorite place to grab one sold out of buns. That's right.  Sold the fuck out based on my voracious appetite for meat.

But I think that once my mind made the association it flipped a switch that couldn't be turned off and adopting a mostly vegetarian diet was pretty straightforward.  I decided to base my eating habits on my sister's because she's been at this whole no-meat business since she graduated high school- I could go to her for troubleshooting.   She follows a Pesca-Lacto-Ova-Vegetarian diet, and so have I for the last year.

I've only had meat once or twice in trace amounts since making the switch.  I enjoyed an egg roll made by Cho- you can't turn those down because they're so amazing- despite some ground pork and bacon in with the veggies.  And of course, I had corned beef for St. Patrick's Day... a slice almost as big as my pinky fingernail!

I've missed some things.  The Cheddar Burger being one of them, I also miss beef stew and the way the meat melts in your mouth, but then I always remember the reason I'm abstaining. Flesh, dude.  I'm willing to bet I'd cook up nice and tender too if I were in a crock-pot for 16 hours.  Let that marinate for a few seconds.

Yeah.  Gross.

I also like that I can still make terrible food choices and have crazy calorie days when I want to.  I think my love for Chile Relleno Burritos (so important it gets proper noun designation) transcends the love I felt for cheeseburgers.  And french fries, oh my god, don't get me started.

That said, I'm gonna be tweaking things a bit with my diet.  I'd like to say I'm giving up fish, but the sushistarved side of me just isn't ready for that step yet.  I am, however, going to have one day a week where I eat all vegan.  Just to try it out, y'know.  I'm looking at Fridays right now.  I might increase it to two days, and who knows, I might naturally fall into a vegan eating pattern some day.

To prepare I've purchased The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone on my Kindle, as well as Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  Even if I do still enjoy my Chile Relleno Burritos and all of their eggy cheesy goodness and I am not ready for a full vegan lifestyle, at least I'll have an arsenal of delicious recipes that I can make regardless of what dietary path I take.

Side note: I never thought this would happen but I'm even creeped out by leather now. 

I really LAVA being a picky eater now.  I love that my diet is more environmentally conscientious than it was last year.  Overall it's been a great switch and I look forward to trying out some tasty new things in the coming year.  Happy Vegetarianniversary to me!