In It To Gym It

It's Natalie Dee, y'all! Click the picture.

All right, guys, so if you read my last post, you know that starting tomorrow, I’ll be going vegan for the month of April.

I’m mostly doing it to clean out my system. Then when I add things back in, I can see how my body really feels when I eat them. I’m looking at you, cheese. And I love you. Oh, how I’m going to miss you. Don’t forget about me. It’s only a month. We’ll be together soon. I hope. Unless you’re part of the problem. In which case, we’ll probably be like long-distance lovers.

Whoops. Got a little off topic there.

First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent me recipes or snack ideas or book ideas or websites to help me through this little experiment. You guys are awesome! (Just a Girl, What Kind of Girl, Graygrrrl, Natalie, Antje, and everyone else.)

A special thanks to April, who said that if I decide to be vegan for good, we can’t be friends any more. Because she likes her friends to eat cheese. Little did you know, veganism could end friendships.

I also want to take a moment to assure you guys that, well, I’m not an idiot. I have actually thought this through. I have a degree in biology. I’ve taken more than one nutrition class at a college level. And more importantly, this is only for a month. I do have a plan for eating protein, I am not going to starve myself, I do know that soy can be dangerous if eaten in large quantities, and I STILL don’t care about cows and chickens.

This isn’t just about losing weight, folks. Granted, I can’t imagine that this will cause me to GAIN weight. But I’m not doing this in an effort to become a stick figure. I’m doing this because I DON’T FEEL GOOD. Like ever. And I’m tired of it. So I’m going to essentially do a reboot. I’m going to clean all the crap out and give my body a chance to TELL me what it likes and what it can’t handle.

Yes, it’s going to be a long 30 days, but I’ll make it. Yes, I might slip up from time to time (accidentally or on purpose, it’s going to happen), but the key is to stay on track until May. I’m guessing that at the end of the experiment, I’ll end up some form of pescatarian (with an occasional side of bacon).

This week, I have been eating at least one vegan meal per day, to prepare myself and to see what my options are if I need to eat out during the month. The idea that I will have packed a lunch everyday is just ludicrous. I can barely wake up in time to brush my teeth.

What I’ve found is that there ARE ways to eat vegan in restaurants, but you really can’t listen to ANYTHING the people who work there tell you. It seems that no one really knows what “vegan” means. Yesterday, I decided that lunch would be my vegan meal, so I went to the little cafe where I eat regularly. Normally I have a club sandwich (no mayo) with a side salad. So when I walked in, the cook asked me if that’s what I was having. I said, no, that I was going vegan for the month of April, so I wanted to see if there was anything on the menu I’d still be able to eat.

One of the ladies who works there handed me a laminated card with specials on it. “Oh honey, we have plenty of options for you! These are all the things we have for Passover.” So apparently by “vegan” she thought I meant “Jewish.”

The specials were all full of cheese and eggs and even some meats. I said, “Well, most of these don’t even appear to be vegetarian, much less vegan.”

The other lady said, “Oh! We have a vegetarian sandwich. Why don’t you get that?”

I looked at it. While it does have vegetables, it’s also on bread (which has eggs) and contains two kinds of cheese. I said, “Um, why don’t I just do the Greek salad, but without any of the cheese.”

She said, “No cheese? Not even the feta?”

By that point, the whole thing was almost comical. So I just smiled and said no. When they brought my salad out? It had a beautiful piece of buttered bread sitting on top. Which I couldn’t eat.

People, this is hard enough without being tempted with cheese and bread over and over! Like I said, it’s going to be a long 30 days.