Friday, October 03, 2008

Vegan MoFo Day 3: I haven't messed up yet.

Number of dairy items substituted since yesterday: 4
Number of dairy items (including eggs) omitted since yesterday: 3
Number of times I got up to grab some peanut M&Ms from my boss' desk, remembered this project and turned back around: 37 or so
Amount of whining: Surprisingly low.
And I feel: About the same.

This veganism trial period draws my thoughts back to my little bro's lactose intolerance (I know there's more to it than that, but dairy is my biggest hurdle for this project), which was severe and tragic. My family loves the cheese and the ice cream, and my brother was and is a huge fan of cold cereal. Figuring out that he had a hardcore dairy sensitivity - and "sensitivity" doesn't do it justice; major, agonizing reactions sounds more like it - was awful, but watching him adjust to "weird" soy foods and substitutes that have since come a long way was almost worse. Although I probably gloated over a cream cheese smeared bagel at some point, I recall more pity and sympathy than anything else. He just looked so damn sad. Anyway, he grew out of it when he started high school,and has since been a consumer of dairy (although never straight milk) since. He doesn't appear crazy about it though. I think some trauma may remain, and I mean that without sarcasm.

All that to say: If he can do it, so can I. Baby Brother and I are equally tough, and if we aren't, I'll never admit it.

Surprisingly, I nearly forgot to order the egg out of my noodles at the Thai food cart near work. For reasons beyond me (but not my dad, as he pointed this out to me) I'm hyper-aware of eggs and extremely fussy about them. Still. Score one more point for the vegan hordes.

I've also decided that, while I'm blogging the hell out of this escapade, I'm not going to talk about it much. My coworkers already think I'm a freak for being a vegetarian and appearing to subsist on fruit and seeds (it's apple season and I like trail mix...wanna fight about it?) so I may as well roll with it. An ever-increasing number of my friends are vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or are otherwise dietarily restricted, so no one would likely notice that I'm eating more nutritional yeast than usual. I'm doing this, as the kids say, for me. And because I like to write about food.

Totally unrelated: The VP debate. WHY oh WHY did Palin not answer any question without trying (and often failing) to tie in four other totally irrelevant talking points? Biden may be long-winded at times, but at least his statements follow some kind of logical path. Her answers and rebuttals were patchworks of soundbites. To her credit, she sounded more prepared, but I couldn't help but think the questions went in one way and out the other. When she mentioned women's rights, my listening party and I all just laughed. It was a joke wasn't it?

2 comments:

sarchan said...

So cool that you're doing this. Best of luck with your trial period!

Kelly said...

Love that you're doing this. I'm attempting the same thing, but am not always so successful. My approach has been to cook 100% vegan when at home (which is what I eat 90% of the time) and to do the best that I can the rest of the time. Unfortunately Boston is not the easier place to find vegan fare, although there are some hidden gems.