I'm a day late and a dollar short on my final report on being a vegan, but hey, life got in the way. First let me say that I and my true love, butter, have been happily reunited for a week now and I am so glad i can cook with something besides canola oil.
I can say that I survived 23.25 days more or less as a vegan.
So on to the questions
1. Did I lose any weight? Nope I stayed exactly the same not an ounce lost nor gained thus proving that a vegan diet is not a diet per se but more of a lifestyle choice.
2. Did I cheat - Yes I did. I admitted to eating French toast at Denny's and my downfall seems to be chocolate. I had a couple of pieces of Halloween candy and a slice of chocolate cream pie but overall I did try to stay true to the vegan food principles.
3. Was it easy? If the definition of easy is convenient then nope it wasn't. I was able to find a limited number of convenience foods as well as the usual suspects e.g. veggies, fruits, soy etc. at the mainstream grocery stores so kudos for them. Eating at a restaurant, not surprisingly, was much harder. Vegetarian choices seem to be pretty prevalent but not vegan. The one restaurant where I asked for cheese to be removed from the veggie sandwich was accommodating and the Black Bear diner where I thought I'd find nothing vegan had a veggie burger but for the most part I avoided eating out as I knew the choices would be slim.
4. Do I feel better physically? No I don't and for the first few days I actually felt pretty lousy as did the spouse. We both had stomach problems from the soy products and I had a headache for a good four days. I have to admit the headache is probably my fault. I suspect I simply needed to increase my water intake. My guess is that i was lacking due to no milk consumption.
5. Will I stick to a vegan diet - Heck no but I do plan on becoming more of a vegetarian eater again.
6. What was your first non-vegan meal? The spouse had suggested we go out to lunch on day 23 and I mentioned that I couldn’t as I had one more day of veganism to go but then he mentioned Baja Cactus and I caved. They have THE best enchiladas enmoldas so my firs ton vegan meal was chicken enchiladas and boy were they good.
