It's My Veganversary!!

So yep, one whole month of not eating meat, or any meat products.  Nothing from a cow, a chicken, a pig, a fish, a bee, or anything else that has a face.

So what (chicken-less) nuggets of vegan wisdom have been bestowed upon me in my first 30 days? Hmmm...mostly, no one believes you will actually stick to it for the first like 28 days.

Once you get past that, people believe you are now an expert in vegan nutrition. I am truly not. The internet is a fabulous place, use it. I check vegan websites. I do research before I shop, so I at least have an idea of what I can buy without standing in the grocery store reading labels for like six hours. Trader Joe's has a great list of vegan items. The first time I went in there to stock up on vegan-friendly food, I had a list and I felt like I knew what I was doing. On the flip side of that, I now do not trust that anything that one would assume has no animal products in it, in fact, has no animal products in it. It's hidden in the oddest damned places. So, I pretty much stick to the produce section of the regular grocery store. If it doesn't have a label on it, and you are in the produce section, most likely it's okay. If it is clearly made up of one single solitary item, say..a cucumber, chances are you are good. If it has a label and it says VEGAN, or has this little "V" on it somewhere...you are still good. Also, I buy a lot of spices, but do not buy "spice blends", if I really want to make sure there is nothing "extra" in it, I can blend them myself.

I read labels.  If there is anything on a label that I cannot pronounce, or identify as being vegan-friendly, I don't buy it.  I have truly tried to stay away from "Frankenfoods", which in my world is anything that has been overly processed.  By that I mean, I mostly cook my own stuff from scratch. I know what is in it, because I put it in. I do have a stash of chicken-less chicken, and beef-less beef, and veggie burgers, that I keep on hand because when I don't have time to cook, I don't want to feel like I have to starve. Every processed food I have purchased is identified on the package as vegan.

So I know this started out as a 30-day Challenge, and technically, my 30 days ends tonight at midnight...but it turns out, I'm kinda diggin this whole vegan thing, so I'm gonna do another 30 days. I feel like I have found some of my lost willpower, so I'm gonna have to see how long I can hold on to it. And I still have veggie burgers and chicken-less chicken in the freezer, so it would just seem wrong not to keep going. Oh, and I also feel really good, so that's a plus too.