Color Me Vegan

I made the switch from vegetarian to vegan earlier this month. Living a life that eliminates all animal products from my diet is my last ditch attempt to naturally rid my body of this parasite, forever.

Early lessons:

1. Don't change your lifestyle right before your birthday. Don't change your lifestyle right before your birthday without telling your friends.
2. Eating out is nearly impossible. Eating out is impossible.

The ways I have failed:

• 2 slices of ice cream cake
• 4 homemade cookies from Cookiesaurus
• a Mason jar of homemade granola

• a slice of debatably vegan pizza crust (and really, does this even count if it came up later?)
• a pretzel at Reading Market in Philadelphia
• a portabella mushroom sandwich ordered without cheese on a potentially vegan bun... it was the sun-dried tomato pesto smothering the sandwich at The Boatyard Bar and Grill in Annapolis that I can almost guarantee was not so vegan
• a coconut cream stuffed French toast at Miss Shirley's Cafe in the Baltimore Inner Harbor

Typing this out, realizing I have recorded every morsel of non-vegan food eaten is a bit intense and ridiculous. But this is just like me, to celebrate my defeat as I hold myself to incredible standards.

Instead I could be rejoicing; I should be rejoicing. I feel very empowered after two weeks in which I celebrated my birthday and visited four cities over five days. In retrospect, I made some rookie mistakes during this significant life adjustment. On this list, one item was accounted for before changing and two bullet points were gifts. The three menu items, altered to further veganize them, were the best selections available at each dining establishment.

The original plan was a month long challenge. The adjusted plan is to buckle down for the rest of the month and then continually seek to eliminate--as far as possible and practical--animal products from my way of living. My intent to do something good for myself, the animals, and this planet three times a day everyday will be enough.