Vegan is as Vegan Does

Today is the last day of World Go Vegan Days. This last week has convinced me that this is something I could do and something I will do.

Someone asked me how it has been. I told her it has been incredibly easy yet incredibly difficult. It was easy to make the shift at home and not nearly has difficult to make the shift when eating out. The biggest issue was the convenience foods. Example: I had to be on campus earlier than normal on Wednesday. My initial thought was, "No big deal, if I'm running behind I will just get a muffin." No vegan muffins on campus... So there is more planning involved, but even after a week I have found that getting easier or less obvious.

So, this is the deal... I need to lose weight, and I have been. I've lost 21 pounds. My short-term goal was to lose 20 by the end of October, my long-term goal is to lose 50. I would like to lose ten more by the end of the year. Most of the weight loss has been due to changing my diet. But I want to keep it off and we all know that can be difficult.

For a long time I didn't considered being a vegetarian a big part of who I was. It was what I ate--not a lifestyle. Last Christmas I was talking to my sister-in-law about vitamins, etc. She and my brother take fish oil to help with joints, etc. She suggested I do it, but I pointed out that I was a vegetarian. She understood that, but to her, this was different. Thing is, I found myself getting almost defensive. Defensive in that kept saying again and again, "But, I'm a vegetarian, I can't do that." Well, I could, honestly, but I wasn't willing to break that promise that I had made to myself. Being a vegetarian meant too much to me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it had become a lifestyle.

So, now I live in a hippie-dippy area of the country, and I have been thinking more and more about my place in this world, my responsibility to the environment, etc. And I realized that being a vegetarian wasn't cutting it. I didn't know if I could take that final step. On top of that, I want to eat better. I want to lose weight and find a way to keep it off. Then today someone offered me some amazingly awesome brownies. I wanted to eat them so badly, but I didn't. I couldn't. I couldn't because, like the fish oil, taking them would mean breaking a promise to myself. I realized it was easier not eat food that is bad for me if I am doing it for something I believed in.

So, I've made the decision. I'm going vegan. I still have food at home that is not vegan. Once this week is over I will eat it, but once it is gone, it's gone. I am going to not buy leather, but I will continue to use the leather items I already own (this is huge for me since I am a complete shoe whore). My goal is to have transitioned into a vegan diet by the end of the year. Being vegan is a process and it evolves, so what I will and won't eat (as far as preservatives, etc.) will probably change over time, but that's life in general, isn't it?

A friend asked me why I decided to do this and I said, "Because it feels like the right thing to do." And it does. And I'm happy with it.