I never really thought about how hard it would be to write this… in fact, I kept putting it off because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say, or how I wanted to say all the things I want to say.
My year mark was July 8th/9th.
So, I have been vegan over a year.
I kept trying to perfect this post… printed it out&brought it home to edit it like a school assignment, write a few drafts… but here’s the nitty-gritty, the core to what I wanted to get at; I learned SO MUCH this year. So, the interview idea was scrapped, the motivational novella was burned and this light bulb just turned on in my head. A little voice was saying “Screw that shit, just make a list”. So, here it is, 101 things I learned being vegan.
1.) There are lots of different kinds of “vegans”
2.) What kale is
3.) The glory of brown rice
4.)What seitan is
5.) What tofu ACTUALLY tastes like
6.) How to prepare tofu
7.) How to make seitan from scratch
8.) How to clean a food processor
9.) How easy it is to get cut cleaning said processor
10.) Vegan tacos > omni tacos
11.) Vegan pizza > omni pizza
12.) Nooch can be bought in 6lb buckets and delivered to your door. (and 10lbs) http://store.veganessentials.com/red-star-nutritional-yeast-p734.aspx
13.) Not everyone thinks you’re preachy or pompous when you talk about your diet(ary choices) (Some ask for advice or admire you)
14.) Oreos are vegan (STILL bad for you though!)
15.) you can add corn and peas to your salad (Thanks, @VeganliciousLJ!)
16.) How to make vegan gravy ( @HappyHerbivore has a few gravy recipes)
17.) How allergic to dairy I was (lost at least 2inches when I gave it up)
18.) What a good digestion process feels like
19.) What a bad one feels like
20.) I may be gluten intolerant
21.) I don’t have to hate my body anymore
22.) I don’t have to abuse my body anymore
23.) I can still bake.
24.) I don’t have to give up taste
25.) Its not all raw veggies if I don’t want it to be (but I am trying to eat more)
26.) Who Ani Phyo, Lindsay Nixon, Natala Constantine, Isa Mockowitz and the Esselstyn’s are(you should all check them out, too)
27.) Still don’t like things in my brownies…. nuts, beans, none of that.
28.) How to make cauliflower soup
29.) I can add cauliflower to mashed potatoes
30.) Mushrooms can be the main course
31.) Vegan Men are sexy. (my little shout out to the Dude, we were talking about vegan sushi the other night and he got all swoony explaining how to prepare it, very cute.)
32.) I sweat less now and don’t smell nearly as bad even when I’m not eating the healthiest meals I could be.
33.) What the hell “organic” means… seriously, I never knew what it meant before.
34.) There are Farmers Markets in my general area… they’re just a half hour drive away and I have no car.
35.) People feed their dogs vegan
36.) I LOVE nuts
37.) Milk is in so much stuff
38.) High Fructose Corn Syrup is in so much stuff
39.) People forget what vegan means easily…. my friend offered me cheese in several different forms when I stayed w/her one weekend. Doritos, Mac&Cheese and, my favorite, a cheeseburger. Lol. She just felt like she wasnt feeding me, I kept having to remind her I was fine.
40.) You can make your own milk or mylk at home from nuts or rice. (Ani Phyo and Happy Herbivore taught me this in their cookbooks)
41.) I don’t have to conform to a stereotype. Who I am now and who I become is who I am meant to be.
42.) Theres always support. We’re everywhere, we are many and we’re all different and all would love to help you in your own journey.
43.) I am related to vegetarians (2 of my mothers cousins are veg)
44.) I don’t need to be afraid of raw veggies, sometimes I like them (New food is scary, though)
45.) I want a dehydrator
46.) I can break a food processor
47.) I don’t like sharing a kitchen with omni’s
48.) I still like the smell of some meats, but others make me sick.
49.) Practicing or not, I’m more religious than I though… being vegan makes me feel closer to God/dess.
50.) How unhealthy I was and still am (but to a lesser extent)
51.) Its about freedom with me… these animals are as much enslaved to us as I feel to my situation
52.) Food is first and foremost fuel. I need to focus on this more because it will result in me feeding myself better.
53.) I want to be healthy,not just thinner.
54.) Theres a runner deep inside me somewhere. The first time I genuinely ran, I remember feeling so good and wanting to do it again, but my endurance at this time and weight is shot to hell.
55.) I want kids and I want to raise them vegan… I’ll adopt them my damn self if I have to,but I want to start having/adopting kids in my 30′s
56.) The Quarter Life Crisis does exist… mine centered around becoming vegan
57.) I still get to use my Crock Pot
58.) I still get to have burgers&sandwiches in general
59.) In fact… I really didn’t sacrifice anything
60.) Its more creative and less restricting to cook vegan than it is to cook omni.
61.) What squash tastes like
62.) Spaghetti squash tastes weird with marinara but I’m going to have it again
63.) Pumpkin is still my favorite Fall vegetable
64.) Apples are still m favorite Fall fruit
65.) I need to eat seasonal
66.) Pasta is always in season
67.) My Giant Eagle(Grocery Store) does carry brown rice and corn pastas(I buy brown rice)
68.) Black olives aren’t just for holidays anymore now, because I buy my own food.
69.) I still have trouble budgeting… I’m terrible with money
70.) “Every grocery store has a vegan section and its called the produce aisle.” – Natala Constantine
71.) People are awesome… a girl I did the VeganHope E-Workshop with mailed me a blender and a crap ton of vegan goodies including nooch! It was the first time I ever had nooch or saw it, really. I will be forever grateful for that
72.) It’s easy to feel superior when you don’t eat dead things and everyone around you is.
73.) It’s easy to feel like a burden when you visit a friend and forget food or they order out
74.) People will actually offer you meat, namely fish and poultry, and expect you to eat it… or not understand what is wrong
75.) If you don’t say you’re allergic to dairy, sometimes places won’t get your order right… I’m not going to presume this was on purpose because I like to give people the benefit of the doubt of heard stories
76.) Casein is in a lot of things!
77.) Sometimes, making your own milk/mylk is actually safer. Sometimes, specifically in the seasonal flavored milks, Silk milks get casein in them.
78.) Salmonella outbreaks and the like are linked to factory farms with heinous practices.
79.) Kosher isn’t “more ethical” its just as bad, arguably worse.
80.) People actually aren’t afraid of vegan food, a lot of them are curious and love to try. My friend constantly asks if she can try a piece, when I gave her faux chicken once, she said “you can tell its different, but you can’t how.”
81.) There are more vegan cookbooks out there then you can ever read or afford. I have several on my shelf. I love Straight From The Vegetarian Slow-Cooker, An Appetite for Reduction and Happy Herbivore but I also just bought 3 Ani Phyo books this weekend I cannot wait to use.
82.) Vegans probably love their food more than omni’s…. this includes an overwhelming desire to share in any way and as many ways as possible. In fact, my tumblr http://whatthisveganeats.tumblr.com/ is not that uncommon in our community.
83.) I kind of want to do great physical harm to Ronald McDonald, Chef Boyardee and Lucky (the Lucky Charms leprechaun)… or at least the advertising guru’s who came up with these characters because I’m convinced their brainwashing our kids. The Chef Boyardee commercials where the mothers try to keep it a secret that this processed canned crap has a serving of veggies always gets my goat, so to speak.
84.) What Whole Foods, Food Fight and,my local health food store, Raisin Rack is.
85.) Super Size Me, King Corn, The Cove, Fat Head, Fat,Sick and Nearly Dead,FoodMatters and Tapped will most likely appear in your Netflix suggestions
86.) I don’t want to eat animals ever again, I love being vegan, but I will never beat myself for having a baked good.
87.) I need to be more Raw…. as in the Raw food we’ve been talking about… thats why I bought the Ani Phyo cookbooks.
88.) I’m addicted to oil and I need to cut down
89.) I’m addicted to bread, too
90.) I look healthier
91.) But, I’ve always been pretty
92.) Veganism can play Wingman sometimes.
93.) Like I said before, Vegan men are sexy.
94.) I don’t feel at home in my kitchen
95.) Meat has a foul smell raw(I never noticed this before)
96.) Even if the scent doesn’t make me gag, touching usually does.
97.) Its ok to miss bacon
98.) I’m making a difference
99.) My life is just beginning
100.) I can follow through. I am an adult, I can make adult decisions and I can see them through, I just need to trust myself more.
101.) I learned a hell of a lot… this list is fucking long
