Today I began my Vegan for a Month experiment. As much as possible, I’d like to explore what it means to adopt not only a vegan diet, but to the best of my ability, a vegan approach to life in general. You won’t get a grocery list of all the food I ate each day. I hope to learn a little about myself in the process including my personal limits and my ethics of consumption.
Ultimately, this month at Mind on Fire should be about more than my experiment. I’d like to increase empathy and understanding for the growing population of vegans and vegetarians in the U.S. I am planning to invite a few friends to help out. These are bloggers who are currently vegan, formerly vegan, or who seriously contemplate the impact of their dietary choices on themselves and on the world. I hope that they will share their why, what, how, where and whens. How and when did they become vegan, what are their varying approaches to veganism, why did they make such a decision, etc.?
I’d also like to examine public perceptions of vegans, too, and the social ramifications of holding to a vegan diet.
I’m not making a completely radical shift today. I’ve been transitioning into this lifestyle over the past few weeks. Even though I only ate meat twice last month, and I stopped eating eggs and drinking milk for the most part, I’m still amazed at how careful I have to be now.
The picture above shows a few of the products I bought at lunch today to fill the void left behind by vacated dairy and other animal products. I went to take my vitamins this morning and realized I had been habitually swallowing fish oil supplements. So I replaced those with flax seed oil.
I exercise daily, and am currently in the steep beginner’s curve of increasing strength as a rock climber, so I’m concerned about getting adequate protein. I also already eat a lot of soy, and don’t want to add more, so I found a 100% vegan, soy-free protein supplement.
Over the past couple of weeks, I realized that it’s easy to have a few hours with food in easy access, but with little or no healthy vegetarian or vegan options. Those are painful, crabby, hungry hours. So I’m going to start carrying a couple of Clif-bar type snacks and maybe have little boxes of almond milk and fresh fruit and nuts on hand in my office.
One of my first realizations is that vegan does not necessarily mean healthy. An order of fries (in most cases, these days) and a Coke is technically vegan. I start each day with plain, organic, nonfat European-style yogurt, sprinkled with raw almonds, and sweetened only by pure distilled awesome (and fresh fruit in season). This morning I had to make it with the only soy based yogurt I could find at Trader Joe’s and it was syrupy sweet. And it had saturated fat. So I have a dual-challenge: not only do I have to completely eliminate animal products, but also to maintain a heart-healthy, strength and endurance athlete-friendly diet.
Anyhow, wish me luck!
Or taunt me. I shall only grow stronger. 
