Monday, October 12, 2009

Vegan no more! or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Cheese!

Sigh. Well, it actually lasted longer than my mother thought it would.

On June 8, 2009, I proudly announced on this blog that I was now a vegan.

But a few weeks ago, I encountered some of this stuff.

Plus I just couldn't give up sneaking some of these whenever my husband brought them in the house. (In case you didn't know, honey isn't vegan.)

I hung on valiantly, resolving to only indulge in these items very, very occasionally.

But then, last Friday, I realized something. I'd been eating vegan since June, and not only had I not lost any weight (as the veganistas insist you almost HAVE to, if you're a True Vegan (tm) ); but I was hungry ALL THE TIME.

I just kept wanting to eat, snack, munch, nibble - even after what should have been a filling meal.

And I was spending a lot of $$ at work for between-meal snacks - but being vegan I was limited to fresh fruits (apples and bananas), vegetables (edamame, salad) breakfast cereal, soy milk or oatmeal.

I ate them all. AND I WAS STILL HUNGRY.

So last Friday, I bit the bullet. Or, to be more specific, I bit the Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich at my local Organics to Go (the most humane local source I could find for my animal cravings).

That's right. I ate the whole, mouth-wateringly delicious thing.

And guess what I ate the rest of the afternoon, before going home and having supper?

NOTHING. Nada, nil.

My hunger had been satisfied. And I felt GOOOOOOD.

Sigh. Does this mean I don't care any more about the poor animals who suffer horrible abuses on the factory farms?

NO! Absolutely not! I care just as much as I did before!

However, I'm realizing that it's possible to make their lives more pleasant and their deaths more humane - without making MY life more miserable.

It's possible to make good food choices. To insist that those who supply the animal products I eat meet high standards for humane treatment of those animals. To only shop at stores that hold their suppliers to those standards.

In other words - to LITERALLY put my money where my mouth is!

So I guess from this point (at least till the next fasting period - Advent, I think), I'll be what my beautiful niece, Rachel, described herself as when we went out to dinner together on my birthday: a Flexitarian. Most of my meals will be vegetarian, but from time to time, I will indulge in some sort of critter and/or critter byproduct, as long as I can be sure he/she/it has been dealt with as kindly and humanely as possible. (Not goat milk, though. I love the goat CHEESE, but the goat milk ... well, let's just say it's OK except for the GOAT part!)

Or a Frisbeetarian. That looks pretty cool too!