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!

Mondays ... Wednesdays ... when the hell do you update this stupid blog anyway, lady?

Well, sorry about that! I was pretty busy Monday recuperating from my 2/10ths of a pound LOSS over the weekend.

Yes, I am now 180.0, down from that whopping 180.2 of last week! It was pretty exhausting but definitely worth it to see that scale millimeter down ...

In other news: I won the Toastmasters Downtown LA Area 52 Tall Tales Contest last night! If you don't know what that is, it's ... well ... you've heard of Area 52, right? That restricted place out in Nevada where they hide all the Rosswell aliens?

Well, last night we told stories about them and then one of the Toastmasters actually revealed that he is, in fact, ONE of them! It was very educational and I'm sure Steve P. was honored to be there for the great unveiling!

Oh, and tonight they're bombing the moon. I'm ready to do my part (by getting bombed - get it?).

Back to Mondays? well ...

OK, let's start with all the positives:

1. I LOST all the vacation weight - now I'm back to 180.2 and feeling great! The trick (for me) was to actually schedule, in writing, my treadmill workouts - like making an appointment with myself that I just HAD to keep!

2. I WON the "Tall Tales" contest at my local Toastmasters! Which means next Tuesday I go on to compete in the district competition - which means I have to stay at work after dark! Fortunately Steve P. is willing to come and pick me up (health permitting - get better soon, sweetie!!).

3. I'm starting college today! Grand Canyon University online, that is! Today is the first day of my first class and I've already done the first assignment (posting a short bio in the "Cyber Cafe"). Hey - that was easy! Where's my degree? nyuk nyuk

Changing My Patterns - Maybe That'll Change my Weight Loss!

Uh, gulp. To anyone out there who was actually thinking of me as any kind of MENTOR fawgawdsake -

This week's weight GAIN - 4.4 pounds.

(Moment of silence for my temporarily deceased Weight Watching efforts.)

But that's TEMPORARY and I am determined that, now that we're home and pretty much done with all the vacations and the super-exotic Amtrak vegan meals (HAH!!) I can get back on track (get it? Amtrak? back on track? I kill me!) and get the weight LOSS going again!

And I'm making a small but perhaps significant change to help jump-start that effort. Notice that I'm blogging on Saturday evening, instead of the usual Monday? Well, from now on I'm going to blog more often, basically whenever the mood strikes me.

Will still "check in" on Monday but won't be so OCD about it. If something interesting happens and I think, "Ooooh, I should blog about that ... if I can remember it till Monday!", well, what the hell, I'll just get to a computer and blog right away.

Speaking of which - I got a comment last week from a new member of the Conservative Vegan Club (a small but proud group, we are, eh?) -

conserVegan

Check it out! conserVegan self-describes as "Christian, Conservative and Vegan".

Hey - just like me! This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship! Or at least, a profitable cross-linkage for one or both of us (depending on who actually gets more hits, and I suspect it's conserVegan, but I'm gonna see if I can do something about that, nyuk nyuk!

Back in the saddle - well, maybe next week!

This was the second Saturday in a row that I didn't do my usual weigh-in at Weight Watchers. Last Saturday we were in Phoenix, and this Saturday I was in Hell.

Well, not literally - but it felt that way! I've had the Toothache of the Damned ever since I drank a full bottle of Coca Cola Classic(tm) that my mom gave me for my birthday. (No, I don't THINK she was trying to kill me, though anything's possible.)

Anyway, in spite of all the pain and trauma I've been going through, I'm still keeping an eye on the scales at home, and my weight is still holding steady between 180 and 182 in the mornings.

So this week's weigh-in should be OK - if not a spectactular loss, at least I'm holding my own. Hope you're doing the same!

By the way, our church (St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic in Sherman Oaks) is setting up for a rummage sale on Sept. 26, and I went over there yesterday after church. All the circuit equipment from It Figures is there, looking forlorn but still strong. I have dibs on one of the upper body workout machines, but won't be too upset if someone buys it. Had fun showing some of the kids how the machines worked - and trying to explain to them why anyone would subject themselves to so much torture!

And that's the tooth!

Eek - sorry I haven't updated the blog this past Monday as usual!

I didn't weigh in last weekend because we went to Phoenix to visit my parents. And probably the less said about that the better (nyuk nyuk!).

Anyway, I came back with a raging toothache - it's not hurting all the time but when it does, watch out! I may need to take out my frustrations on someone!

I'm taking Friday off to go to the dentist - I'm kinda wishing I hadn't had to burn all my bridges with "Downtown Dental" a few months ago as it would be a lot more convenient to just go there on my lunch hour. But on the other hand, I get to take the day off ... yay??

Vegan Meals on Amtrak, and a Vegan's Confession!

First of all, it's kind of hard to concentrate on this blog post because I'm looking out my window on the 49th floor in downtown Los Angeles towards the San Gabriel Mountains, and seeing what I can only describe as a mushroom cloud. And it just keeps getting bigger. So prayers and best wishes to everyone fighting the fires today.

Let me get my confession out of the way: I fell from Vegan grace this past week. Sigh ... yes, I ate not one, not two, but THREE animal products.

First, on Friday, I added a can of Trader Joe's Tongol Tuna to our regular supper casserole. I don't know why, but I'd just been craving it all day. My rationalization was: it had already been purchased, long before I became a vegan. And it would be disrespectful to the fish to have put it through all that pain and suffering, and then just throw it away. Right? OK, so also, I really like tuna. So I ate that.

Then I went to Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park, which has primarily vegan stuff but also vegetarian. And I gave in to yet ANOTHER temptation and bought real cheese instead of the fake "Chreese"!! (Well, actually, I bought some Chreese too, 'cause I like it. But I digress!). Actually a tiny little container of Goat Cheese from France. I figured whatever they sell at FYH is probably OK as far as meeting basic humane standards.

And finally, last week when we took the Coast Starlight from Van Nuys, California to Olympia, Washington (a great trip, by the way!), I didn't get my order for Vegan meals in on time for the trip up. I was able to find suitable meals at breakfast and lunch, but for supper, I had the Vegetarian Pasta ... which contains cheese.

Sigh. Well, in my defense, I've said all along (and my husband can verify this) that I don't think it's intrinsically wrong to consume animal products, just to do so in any way that causes pain and suffering to the animal. And I'm going to continue to aim towards veganism.

However, once in a while I will probably indulge. You know why? Because I'm a human being, and human beings aren't perfect. (In case you hadn't noticed.) But I will at least do the best I can to find the most humane possible animal products available.

Now, about those Vegan meals on Amtrak ... I did manage to get them on the way back. They insisted on the phone that I select from three different styles - Moroccan, Chicken, and Veal (I made sure they meant FLAVORS, not actual Chicken and Veal!!!). So I picked one of each.

And guess what ... they all looked EXACTLY the same. (Sort of like that Simpsons episode where they show Duff, Duff Light and Duff Special Brew all coming out of the same tank!). Half the plate contains a big fake-meat cutlet which tastes sort of like chicken-fried steak, and the other half contains rice.

And that's IT. That's the "vegan option" on Amtrak! I had this exact same meal FOUR TIMES IN A ROW, and by the third time I was stealing salad from my husband's plate just to get some variety!

Hey Amtrak, guess what? There are all SORTS of Vegan meals you could provide which are easy, cheap, delicious and provide variety to your customers. For example, all your salads could have the option of being served without cheese. You could have the fake meat and rice, but dump some frozen veggies on top.

You could even have soup! In fact, next time I travel Amtrak, I'm going to skip the "vegan option" and just bring my own stuff. Because by the time the second dinner rolled around, I was ready to roll off the train at the next station and start eating the grass!!!


(P.S. - weigh-in 181.4 - up by 0.6 - not too shabby for two weeks' vacation!!)