Day 5

Ok, I know yesterday was a successful food day, in terms of being able to eat tasty vegan products, but I'm sorry to say the honeymoon is over.  While I was pretty happy about getting my hands on delicious dairy free chocolate and inhaling the mouthwatering soy chicken nuggets, I have to say, this will be my last week on this diet.  

Why?

For one, just the absolute length I have to go to for EVERY SINGLE LITTLE THING.  I do not live in SF, DC, or NYC, where vegan products are much more accessible and easier to get by.  I am pretty limited in what's available for vegans in my neighborhood and frankly this diet does not seem sustainable in this particular area.  Chocolate is a necessity for me (I'm sorry, I can't help it!).  To have to drive 30 minutes for a dairy free chocolate bar is ridiculous.  For more vegan friendly entrees, again I have to venture out to the local specialty market, which putting an hour of to/from commute time, is just not realistic.  There are some vegan choices at my nearby grocery store but they are minimal and after time, I'm going to need to have a more diverse menu.  I know I am coming off as selfish and weak, but I feel I am being practical for my circumstances.

Secondly, since I've been on this diet, and yes while it's only been a few days, I have put on weight.  I have kept my exercise regiment the same (work out for 45 to 50 mins a day, 6 days a week) and have had the same amount of food intake, but the main difference is I've switched all my dairy options to soy options.  I was trying to figure out why in such a short amount of time I had gained 2 lbs, why my jeans were so tight and why my belly was getting fat, and then I did some research and came across a couple of different thoughts on soy, the effects of soy, and weight gain related to soy:

http://www.vegancoach.com/is-soy-healthy.html

http://rickosborn.com/soy-can-negatively-affect-your-weight-health/

http://hiddensoy.com/

This experience I am sure would be vastly better if I was in a different location (say a bigger city!).  Attempting this in the South was a stretch and I can say I gave it an honest and good try but it's not working for me.  I'll stick it out and finish tomorrow and Sunday as a vegan, but from Monday on, I'm back to the old ways, with less dependence on cheese though =)

Day 4

I finally had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday when I was at the local specialty market and found dairy free chocolate.  I went looking for dairy free chocolate chips for a cookie recipe I have to make this weekend but also found actual vegan chocolate bars in addition to the dairy free chocolate chips.  Hallelujah!  And the vegan chocolate bar tasted good!  I went nuts and ate half a bar at 10pm because I was too impatient to wait until the next day.  The brand is called "Taste the Dream" and they sell dairy free chocolate bars, dairy free beverages, and even dairy free ice cream.  As my experience with them is pretty limited, I can't speak for their other products, but I can say that the pure dark chocolate bar that I had was delicious. I also found out from the sales associate who I spoke to, that the Dream brand is one of their vegan chocolate bar best sellers.  I'm interested in seeing how the ice cream tastes.  Anyways, here's a link to their website - http://www.tastethedream.com/index.php

Other good news - I was able to get my hands on delicious soy chicken nuggets while I was shopping for the chocolate, and got the very last two containers because I put off my shopping until the very end of the day.  They glazed the nuggets with a sweet thai sauce, and eaten alone or with some type of grain, the nuggets taste amazing.  I chose to have mine with a bowl of quinoa.  Today has probably been the best day so far in this vegan experiment.  I'm happy to say I don't have anything to complain about.

Till next time...

Day 3

Ok, this vegan diet is not getting any easier! I'm so tempted to throw in the towel.  It seems like EVERYTHING has some kind of animal derivative in it so just about everything is off limits!  I hate that eating chocolate is such a challenge now.  Last night I had a bowl of chex mix (traditional kind) and thought I was safe (I read the ingredients first and did not see any dairy or any ingredient that would make me think it was not vegan).  Out of curiosity I googled it and multiple sites said it is NOT vegan, so I think I involuntarily did not stick to my diet (I'm still not sure because I do not know specifically which ingredient is an animal derivative!).  I really can't believe how many dietary changes I have to make, it's so much more than just cutting out dairy.  If I lived in a bigger city atleast there would be more vegan friendly markets and restaurants so the process would not be as difficult.  Trying to attempt this in the South where people think a chicken sandwich is vegetarian, is I have to say, a little nuts.  I'm going to keep going with this diet to fulfill my goal, but I am worried about how the next 11 days are going to go.  In the meantime, here's another picture of another vegan meal, my lunch today ....

Wheat tortillas with Indian daal and saambar

Day 2

Being vegan is haaaaard!  I barely made it through yesterday and have to say I really missed my cheese!  I had a bagel with tofutti cream cheese for lunch.  The vegan version of the cream cheese was ok, but it definitely lacked the flavor of the garden vegetable type that I'm used to.

For dinner I had a bowl of quinoa with some Indian huli, which is basically daal with vegetables.  I used some Silk Soy Yogurt and found it to have a strange after taste.  It wasn't terrible but it definitely was not close to what yogurt traditionally tastes like.  Fortunately the seasoning of the huli itself was really good that it overshadowed the weird yogurt residue in my mouth.  So far the only dairy substitute winner I've encountered is the Simply Truth Organic Plain Soymilk, which has actually tasted good.

On a side note, to further articulate the vegan challenges I'm facing, I'm going to bring up what I encountered just to get vegan chocolate chips.  The back story is that I'm going to a potluck dinner on Saturday and offered to take an Indian dish as well as a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies with me.  I found this cookie recipe online (http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Vegan-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies) and thought it would be somewhat easy to attempt.  I spent the last twenty minutes calling three different local grocery stores and after multiple transfers at each one, the end response was always the same, "No, we do not carry dairy free chocolate chips."  I know of a smaller grocery store downtown that probably will, but it's a half hour drive and I find it ridiculous to have to go through such lengths for one grocery item.  This town I'm living in (very much in the South) is hardly vegetarian friendly (which I've been for 18 years) and it is definitely even less vegan friendly.  I'll get the chocolate chips from the grocery story 30 minutes away, but this is hardly a realistic way to live life.

I know I'm being negative but from the short experience I've had so far, this two week experiment is going to definitely test me.  Sigh.  

Day 1

7:25am - I decided to try going vegan again.  I made it a week last year and then stopped because I missed my Coffee Mate French Vanilla cream so bad, and had to have it.  The substitute soy  brand that I bought (I think it was a Silk product) was terrible and just didn't cut it.  Since my last attempt at going vegan, I've seen and read more about the health benefits of an all plant based diet, as well as what goes on in factory farming, so here I am trying to go vegan again so my diet matches my principles.  This time I bought a new creamer, a So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer with a French Vanilla flavor.  It's not as bad as the one I tried last year but it's still not great either.  I don't want coffee to be the pitfall again of me not sticking to this new way of eating so I'm hoping to finally come across something that tastes better and doesn't take away the joy of drinking my morning coffee.  As for the milk in my cereal, I used Simply Truth Organic Lite Soy Milk and thought it was pretty good.  The taste was so close to the skim milk that I usually have, switching to this particular brand of soy milk will not be difficult.

My breakfast

I should probably have waited to blog about this at the end of the day after I actually made it through one whole day!..lol...but I'm taking baby steps and making it through breakfast, the hardest meal b/c of my love of my old creamer, is a big deal, so I couldn't hold off on writing about it.  

Now let's see how lunch goes....