So, it's March 10th and as I sit by the window listening to the crows and the rain, I've decided I'll officially try "going vegan" (food-wise only) for 30 days starting in April. (Maybe the rain & the crows did it or maybe finding out beer, wine, and chocolate are still options for me did...)
This is something I've been toying with for some time. A year or so ago, I started eating meat only once a day. Now that initially seemed like "...really, that's it? That's your big step?," but I was amazed how thoughtful I really needed to be about it! I'd have a sausage, egg, & cheese breakfast sandwich, then a turkey sandwich for lunch, and then chicken & veggies for dinner. While I felt like I was being fairly healthy (okay, maybe not with the breakfast sandwich, but breakfast is one of my favorite meals... I had to splurge a little), I realized I'd essentially just killed 3 different animals for 1 day's worth of food. It also seemed a little excessive to be eating so much meat, so I knocked it down to 1 meal a day. And while I tried my best to stick to it, some things our outside our control, so when I wasn't in charge of the meal, I'd try to stick with 1 type of meat per day. There's (probably, definitely) no scientific basis for that last part - I'm sure my turkey didn't all come from the same turkey (which was the idea behind it), however, psychologically I felt better about it. And isn't it all about me (read the sarcasm)? Anyhow, this progressed to trying to eat mostly vegetarian throughout the week, which has been fairly successful.
All that to say this: I think I'm ready to take the plunge. My thinking is that I'll try eating vegan for 30 days, and then move into vegetarian eating. Why vegan for 30 days? ...I'm not entirely sure. I've got a feeling about it. Is that a fair answer? For me it is. But, I do appreciate more support than that for decision making. So I plan on using the next 20 days to explore other people's reasons to help me make up my own opinion & to stock pile recipes, tips, etc. so I will be well prepared for my experiment.
Here are some of my immediate thoughts, and what I'll hopefully address over the next 20 days:
Can I live without cheese?
Is it going to be crazy expensive?
More importantly, am I still going to be able to go to my local grocery store, or will I need to go into the far-reaches of the land to find ingredients?
Along similar lines, will I still be able to enjoy my time out with friends who aren't vegan?
My main pursuit is to eat real food. Is vegan necessarily real food? Or is it a whole bunch of chemically created substitutes?
Will being vegan be extra time consuming?
Will I simply become a carb-a-vore?
