Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe

Photo BY: S. Duquet

I’m back, hopefully with all of my dental woes behind me. It is really a challenge to prepare and enjoy vegetables when you can’t chew. Let the heavy chewing commence in a few days! Kale, be very afraid.  Lately I have been noshing (read slurping or sucking) on alot of smoothies and looking forward to more crunchy days ahead.

Random Chloe sighting. Here is a photo of Chloe enjoying a nap. I haven’t shared any in quite a while and I thought it would make you smile the way it does for me.

For as long as I have been vegetarian (13 years) and as long as I have been vegan (8 months) many people have engaged me in some type of unsolicited conversation about this choice by saying, “Oh are you vegetarian?” or “So, you’re vegetarian.” Me, “Yes I am.”  Them,  “Oh I could never do that…I love  fill-in-the-blank too much to be vegetarian/vegan.” As if I had asked them to participate or was actively recruiting. I never asked you about your dietary habits…you asked me.  (The Exploits blog is my mainstay for sharing my ideas.)

In that moment it feels like they are trying to prove to you why what you are doing is wrong or in the very least….not right. Most of the time it rolls right off me and sometimes it makes me feel badly. I am not usually prepared with the best reply in the right moment. I want to share all I know and how amazing their lives could be if they would only try one little step at a time. I want to tell them that although they believe I am missing out on the good things in life, I am only missing out on hospital stays, expensive, painful and scary medical procedures and  diseases that can be prevented through a compassionate and plant healthy diet. I am missing out on high cholesterol and high blood pressure and I am also going to miss out on diabetes.

I typically don’t say those things though because I can’t find the words in that moment or it seems too forward.  I am also caught off guard by the subsequent tone that is signaling that my choices are being challenged or judged for the way I to nourish myself. These types of conversations have come up even more lately since we started the Engine 2 Diet. People ask me all the time,”Well then what do you eat?” As if my refusal to consume animal products, oil or foods from a can or box leaves me no other choice but to go without food. This is an interesting commentary about our society’s normal dietary understanding.  I vacillate between a deep desire to spread the message even farther that a plant strong diet will change your life and the desire to cloister my vegan habit away from public ridicule or pointing.

Today I choose the former because I really, positively and assuredly know that we can change our world and our lives one meal at a time. That being said, I saw this commentary today and it made me want to throw my hands up and cheer. This post on Dr. Fuhrman’s site said all the things I wish I had on the tip of my tongue when I am challenged or shoved in a corner of a family meal, cocktail party or water cooler conversation. It is called I could Never Do That and I think you may really enjoy it.  It’s a quick, informative read and delivered as an amusing reply.

I Could Never Do That

Have a delicious day.

Tags: compassionate eating, dairy free, Disease Proof, Dr. Furhman, E2 Diet, Engine 2 Diet, going veg, plant based diet, plant strong, Rip Esselstyn, trying vegan, trying vegetarian, vegan, vegan challenge, vegan transition, vegan wannabe, vegetarian transition