So, yesterday I had my first knowledgable, willful transgression of the boundaries I set for myself at the beginning of this month.
I came home after a long day at work–a day without any exercise, which is my equivalent of a chill-pill–and spent two hours making two dinners: the rawsta primavera that was a hit with Jana and CatGirl last week, and a hot vegan lasagna more along the lines of what GameBoy would enjoy. The lasagna was a lot of work. In addition to prepping the noodles and spinach/mushroom filling, I had to make a cashew and tofu based ricotta. It turned out to be one of those uncommon dishes that delighted every member of the family. I was about to take my first bite of the pasta when it occurred to me to check the noodle ingredients. I pulled the box out of the trash, and saw “egg” listed about half-way down.
Fuck.
I was cranky with low blood sugar, and ate my serving of lasagna anyway. It was delicious. There are plenty of leftovers, but I’m going to pass on them. Don’t worry, it won’t go to waste. The family will devour the rest.
I’m about half-way through with my month-long experiment with a vegan diet. Observations at this point:
This isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I mean, I could never give up cheese and ice cream, right? Sorbet fills my need for Ben & Jerry’s, and I find myself walking past farmer’s market specialty cheese-sellers without any sense of longing or temptation. There’s so much goodness in our farmer’s market that it suffers little for want of cheese. There are at least a dozen varieties of pluots, for crying out loud, and each one is differently delicious.
When I started two weeks ago, I thought of veganism as a sort of strait jacket or a set of blinders, as something hugely constraining. And without a doubt, it still is when compared to an omnivore’s choices. But I don’t *feel* that restricted now. I’m excited about the possibilities that still exist in fruits, vegetables, legumes, pastries, etc. I mean, even as omnivores, how varied are most of our diets?
My family and friends have been very supportive, but since I’m public about this, I encounter occasional snarkiness or even criticism. My first reaction is defensiveness, but I’m trying to soften this. It’s interesting to me that the public treats veganism simultaneously as a casual lifestyle choice (getting annoyed at lack of flexibility) and as a strict and foreign ethical code (with ever an eye out for perceived hypocrisy).
This prompts some introspection. It makes me wonder how often I’ve belittled and held to my own stereotypes other folks’ behaviors (mostly American Christians). People are complex. The last thing I should do is imagine what their moral/ethical code is and then berate them for not upholding it.
Physically and emotionally, I’m doing well. I’m still climbing and biking and slowly increasing my weekly running mileage, and I seem to have as much energy as I ever did. I’ve lost about three pounds in the past two weeks, which is an acceptable rate for me. And I still don’t sleep much, but I didn’t last month either.
Lastly, I find that vegan concerns mesh nicely with my own desires to respect life, and to be as aware and conscious of my impact on others, and on the world as possible. These are rooted for me in my politics and in my Buddhist/Shinto and Quaker background, and these life-approaches all seem to complement and reinforce each other very well.
Now that I’m almost over the hump, I wonder–how much of this vegan approach to life will I take with me past September 2010?
