January 5th, 2010 ... A Good Day to Become a Vegan

Let me introduce myself: My name is Nancy and I'm 60 years old. I have two rescued Standard Schnauzers (Lena & Mike) and was recently adopted by a stray cat (Gypsy Sue).

I've toyed with a vegan diet for some time. It started innocently enough when I decided to give up red meat for health reasons. Instead of beef and pork, I began to rely on fried chicken. (Now that's healthy!) So after a few weeks, I decided no meat or poultry but I'd still have dairy, eggs, and seafood.

I was in dire need of some good recipes so I went searching the Internet for ideas and found myself on websites that educated me about the horrific practice of factory farming. I couldn't imagine seeing the fear and confusion in the eyes of my critters that I saw in the eyes of the farm animals in the undercover videos I came across. Videos are available at http://www.peta.org/ or http://www.farmsanctuary.org/.

After viewing many videos and reading many books I had no trouble giving up meat. I still allowed myself occasional seafood, eggs, and dairy, though I tried to police the origin of them all. My concern was primarily their lives. Talk about a ridiculously time-consuming task! It's too much! How can I guarantee that Bessie is treated well? If a farmer responds to an email asking about conditions, how do I know it's true? And, for heaven's sake, dairy cows must be pregnant ... yes? If I believe in a woman's right to choose, how can I not believe in a cow's right to choose? Okay. That's crazy. What happens to the baby? I wish I didn't know. I can't stand it! I'm a mother. Do Not Touch My Children!!!

And seafood. Criminy. Mercury. Disease. Messing up the natural population with farming populations. Quotas, line caught, nets, trolling. STOP!!!

So, here I am, educated about the horrors inflicted on innocent creatures by humans. I don't want to inflict pain and suffering on any creatures, much less brown-eyed, sweet-faced cows or intelligent, adorable pigs, nor do I want to pretend I have no impact when I choose to visit McDonald's or buy a pound of ground beef at the local market. I can only see the burned beaks of chickens when friends tell me they stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner.

I have a friend who can't (won't) watch the videos because they're too painful, but will blithely go through the drive-thru at Popeye's to bring home dinner. I don't even know where to go with that. At least look at what you're doing before you drive-thru.

Back to today, January 5th, being a good day. Today I went totally vegan. I am done justifying and playing around and feeling guilty. I'm tired of feeling like crap because I eat a crap diet. I'm done. I am a Vegan. Today. January 5th, 2010.

I like the feel of it. It feels fresh and clean and freeing. I don't care to be involved in the abuse of wonderful, amazing creatures. It's like stepping up and living my values, and that feels good. I'm sure there will be times when it's more difficult than others, but I think I can get by those times. I can just look in Lena's big brown eyes or Gypsy Sue's brilliant green ones.

My son recommended I blog about the journey I'm on and I decided to take him up on it. I will honestly share my thoughts, successes, and struggles in this blog. I'll be sharing some websites and information I come across, along with recipes that I love. I'll try to remember where I got the recipes I share.

So, there you have it. Day One is in the bag with nary a craving for cheese or yogurt! I had a fantastic breakfast of oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and banana. Lunch was a Gold Yukon Potato sliced onto eight-grain bread and topped with my amazing-anything-goes barbeque sauce. Between lunch and dinner I had some carrots and celery, and a banana for a snack. Dinner was Corn Chip & Salsa Soup from Dr. McDougall's website (http://www.drmcdougall.com/), a tasty blend off salsa, black beans, corn kernels, homemade, nonfat corn chips, and freshly cubed avocado ... Wonderful!