Unrequited Outlook

Day Four.

Not much on paper really. Looking at it now I think “Yup… only four days, 96 hours.” But four days has contained a lot. Already I’m feeling better, but you never know, all this could turn on me. My decrease in caffeine to two cups of green tea a day has gone without pain or discomfort. As week one going into full tilt I’m finding what’s easy and what’s not.

Yesterday was my first big shopping spree at Whole Foods. One thing people often say is that Veganism is hard, very hard, if you do not a. Own your own kitchen and b. Have more money for food. I would agree with a absolutely. Yes, owning a kitchen, being able to pick what to eat and especially what to stock is important. Is Veganism expensive? Yes and no. You have to put more of your money into fruits, vegetables and other foods you may not be used to but you’re also not buying soda or cheese or anything you’ve now eliminated. I bought two boxes of tea, for $15 total. Each had 50 tea bags, which if I’m drinking two cups a day will last me a month. That replaces my $8 Maxwell house at home for my previous two morning cups and all my $2 coffees while at work are gone. Huge savings there. So it’s all relative really.

My first shopping spree was interesting. I shop at Whole Foods from time to time and really love their layout and offerings. Some things get pricey in there but usually I’d buy all my fruit at stop and shop and get to Whole Foods for cereal, rice milk, and things like that. This time I decided to just buy it all from Whole Foods and spend some extra time wandering around to see if there was anything they offered I may not have thought about. I am sincerely bad at food shopping. I have a tough time conceptualizing what to buy for specific meals and how long things will last. I can (and did yesterday before shopping) stare at a vegan cook book and walk away not knowing what to eat. This will have to be a learning process - thinking in terms of meals. Instead, I typically buy a lot of what I know will be eaten over the course of a week, a lot of what will last, and a lot of things I’d like to try. I think I did fairly well; my wife still looked at it all and asked “But what can we make dinner with?” So I have some work to do. As of right now meals are simple - quinoa and vegetables, salads, fruit bowls. I love it, I really do. However, I am keeping in mind the need for a variety of food containing different essential nutrients and also looking into more extravagant ideas to mix things up. Two things I do not have which would seem to make this harder are money and time to cook. As I previously said, you don’t necessarily have to spend more money. Time however is a bit more difficult. Every meal we cook especially for dinner has to contain a few ingredients and be ready in 30 minutes.  So this will be another area I need to get better at and explore.

I also bought all new soap, body wash, toothpaste, and a multivitamin for vegans. Whole Foods gets a big kudos from me for that department. The woman I ask for help from was also a Vegan, extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I think trying out all these different lotions and things made from only organic materials is a great thing. My new body spray is a stingy mint smell that I never would’ve tried if not on my Vegan hunt – and it is awesome.

So, there’s a lot more to do, a lot more to find, a few more pitfalls up ahead I’m sure. So far, so good. Who knows? Maybe I’ll stay vegan, or at least be vegan at home and vegetarian abroad after this? It can only better me I think.

As I was preparing for my 5 week binge on veganism I wrestled with one very important question for myself. Should I drink coffee? Can a vegan drink coffee? The simple answer is yes, plain black coffee is vegan. However, I found many vegans do not drink coffee. While this may be a coincidence, I believe vegans are typically health conscious people. This is one huge dividing factor - vegans really care about everything they consume. So naturally, they not only care about where it comes from, if the products produced any suffering, but also if its really nutritious, healthy, and good all around. Is coffee healthy? Yes and No. One cup of black coffee a day isn’t too bad. But coffee is habit forming and very few people have one small cup of black coffee a day.

More interestingly I discovered that most modern coffee is made in large scale “modified” environments. Basically, coffee is grown in the shade, surrounded by various other plants and trees. Large scale modern operations grown them in less forested areas or out in the open. Apparently this disrupts the migratory patterns of many birds, leading to a decrease in population.

A much deeper and more eloquent write up can be found here:

http://willtaft.com/33/organic-food/bird-friendly-coffee

So, I can’t buy ANY coffee for my five weeks? Remember, I am trying to be as strict as possible.

Luckily, our friends over at the Smithsonian have a Bird Friendly Seal. If a grower meets their requirements, they get a seal. More info can be found at:

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/MigratoryBirds/Coffee/bird_friendly.cfm

So, now I wondered. Do I find the bird seal of approval? Do I give up coffee all together. I am a habitual coffee drinker. I average about 5 cups a day, probably more. Some I drink black, some I drink with milk. Drinking all black coffee or with soy milk wouldn’t be so bad I supposed, but does coffee do much for me anyway? Other than be another habit? So I decided I would drop coffee altogether. However, I know from past experience of trying to decrease my coffee intake that caffeine withdrawal could sabotage everything.I’ve decided to drink tea, only two cups a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, starting with black tea and in two weeks moving to green and by day 35 maybe only one cup a day or none. This whole endeavor really is for the health benefit, and doing with out. So much of veganism is beyond simply not eating animals and boycotts animal products. Its about taking account of what you intake, seeing yourself as an animal that needs a healthy lifestyle (physically, emotionally, morally) and living as best you can by what you believe is logically right and beneficial. Breaking habits is beneficial, choosing not to drink something that might disrupt birds is beneficial, blogging about it all is hopefully benefitcial.

Day one of my veganism was fairly easy. I had a headache in the afternoon but I suspect it was the drop in caffeine that caused it. Otherwise, its a good start.

April 15^th, 2011 was a very special day for me. Ten years before to the day I had chosen to lead a vegetarian lifestyle. I was thirteen at the time and my reasoning was fairly simple. I looked at a picture of a cow, I looked at my plate and I thought “Why?” From there I learned and as I did my reasoning has become more educated, more understanding and hopefully more mature. I have never “slipped” in ten years and I don’t intent to until the day I die. My reasoning for a vegetarian life style today is closest to the philosophical reasoning of Peter Singer. His influential book Animal Liberation, which I only recently read, contained many “ah hah - of course” moments where I found conclusions I had come to spoken of in much more eloquent and scientific terms. The past ten years of living my convictions has helped to show me compassion in a practical, day to day, almost mundane way. I have met great people who have shared my views on animals and have only deepened my life by my meeting them. I have dealt with ignorance, prejudice, out right contempt and misinformed judgment. All of this has helped me on many levels as a human being.

The facts are the facts. Everyone, after learning about the meat industry, will agree that eating meat is bad. Bad for the earth, the economy, and ourselves. But nearly everyone will then say “But…” followed by their love of the taste, the presumed difficulty in changing or simply believing one person doesn’t make a difference. Being a vegetarian is practicing what you preach, following things to their logical conclusions, sticking to them, and growing because of it.

            But vegetarianism has its limits. I eat no meat, nothing with gelatin or animal derived products in them but I do eat eggs and cheese and drink milk, limited, but still included. I am concious of what I buy and try to find out where everything I use comes from. I always viewed Veganism as the truer form of leading a life valuing animal rights but followed vegetarianism out of a convenience. Going out to eat, eating over at someone’s house, traveling etc. are all possible today in most places with a vegetarian diet. I have still had many embarrassing encounters particularly over houses of people I do not know well or people who are out right antagonistic to vegetarians. Veganism seemed too inconvenient. What would I have to do, carry pre made snack packs every time I went out and traveled? Veganism also seemed to be a trickier area. Asking “is this vegetarian?” is simple. Asking “is this Vegan?” not so much. What exactly is vegan? Some vegans don’t agree. Can I eat honey? Can I drink my habitual coffee?

            Last week I watched Super Size Me and quickly got an idea. I watched one man torture himself to prove a point about fast food and our eating habits. So I decided to do my own reverse Super Size Me, going 100 % Vegan and along the way researching and reviewing everything I could. Originally, it was going to be 30 days. But a solid 5 weeks will do fine I think. So for 5 weeks, 35 days, I will live completely 100 % Vegan.

            Here are my rules:

1.      No Animal products or animal derived products

2.      My Wife and I must prepare all meals I eat (The only exception being one Vegan restaurant I must visit during the 5 weeks)

3.      I must do all the food shopping. Buying only organic and Vegan food.

4.      I can only buy/use Vegan products (Soap, shampoo etc.)

Simple enough. Right? Hopefully….

I plan to keep you updated here as much as possible, all the ups and downs, weight loss/gain, discoveries and failures. We’ll see what 5 weeks of a vegan life style teaches me.

Hello,

This is my first post. Nothing exciting here, mainly testing everything. Dipping my feet in the water, if you will. Hopefully this tumblr will expand, perhaps it will get organized. Maybe it will gain sentience and we can start an odd father - son relationship replete with baseball references and awkward talks.

Who knows?

I’m notoriously bad at keeping consistent, and maybe this blog will help rain (Wrong word?) myself in with regard to that. My daily journals spanning six years are spotted at best, so let see what I put onto the internet to stand forever in another data point among the scrap heap of never ending, never decaying internet trash.