Write Again Soon

It’s day 25 of our 6-month vegan adventure and as Bill and I approach the one month mark, I thought I would do a quick summary of how it’s going.

Cooking

We’re doing a lot more cooking, which makes sense since our restaurant options are somewhat limited.  I got a bunch of new cookbooks last week and am excited to open them soon!  So far we’ve had really great results with “Vegan with a Vengeance” and I’m SUPER excited to get my old vegan cookbooks back from Elizabeth next weekend.  I’ve been really surprised to see how many baked goods can be scrumptiously veganized—that’s definitely a new thing since the last time I tried the whole “no animal products” experiment.

Vegetables

It seems strange, but I seem to be eating fewer vegetables and more starches (like tofu, pasta, rice, and bread).  It’s probably because I’m trying out the recipes in my cookbooks where I have all of the ingredients on hand, and it just so happens that a finely stocked pantry will almost always be able to come up with the necessary foodstuffs for pancakes, noodle stir fry (mostly noodles, with half a red bell pepper and some scallions), and peanut butter oatmeal cookies (which I made last night on a whim).  It’s much harder to accurately plan and shop for meals chock full of fruits and vegetables, since they have a nasty habit of going bad before I can cook them up.  And frankly, I’m just not going to become one of those people that goes to the store everyday—not when the “good” store is a 15 minute drive away.

Health

With just over three weeks of eating a vegan diet, it’s hard to say if any noticeable changes have happened with regard to my health.  Bill got back from a week in Hawaii and gave me a strange look and asked if I’d lost weight.  I said I thought not, in fact I was sure that I hadn’t (see the pancakes, fried noodles, and peanut butter oatmeal cookies above).  But then I was curious and got on the scale to see that I’ve lost eight pounds.  So that was nice.  One can only imagine what would happen if I actually got my five-a-day of leafy greens.

Travel

I was out of town last week with a client, and I’m leaving for another trip tomorrow morning.  Next week I’ll be gone for three days with a new client…WHO MANUFACTURES SNACK FOODS.  This remains one of the biggest problems—there is just a stunning lack of satisfactory vegan food in the “casual dining establishment” that is the main source of food during a business trip.  Unless you want to pay $13 for a salad that is just a plate of lettuce and a few slices of tomato, you’re out of luck.  Last week I actually had a lunch of almonds and French fries, because the “vegetable pasta salad” I ordered (“without any cheese, please”) came smothered in mayonnaise. 

Overall

Despite the obstacles, things are going pretty well.  Aside from being tempted on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis by the thought of sushi (WHICH BILL ATE IN HAWAII LAST WEEK!) I’m not having any regrets.  We’ll see if that sentiment holds out for another five months.