Oh, hey, I know you. Yeah. I haven't been around much lately. In my defense, I've been kind of busy, and not had much of substance to say (as if my posts were these witty, substantive bits of wisdom that you just can't live without). Turns out August kind of blows when you work @ a University.
Regardless, I'm back. Ish. I've been writing a lot on my baby maker blog, but that's all hormones and sadness and pity parties. Let's keep it light here, shall we?
Let's get down to the meat (or seitan or tofu or whatever you prefer) of things. Being a vegan kind of kicks ass. But before I sing the praises of all things veggie, let's have a few confessions, shall we?
1) I'm an all or nothing kind of gal, which has made every attempt to switch to veganism a failure. I've transitioned this time from being a lacto/ovo/pesco kind of gal, which has made it much easier than from my times as a near carnivore on Atkins'. Normally when I eff up, and eat a cheeseburger or an entire cow, I am kind of over the whole thing, this time my eff ups have been a bit less dramatic, and I feel much readier to rebound.
2) Hence, the confession. I would say I'm primarily vegan for health reasons, and I'm more concerned with staying away from dairy than meat or eggs, though I try really hard to avoid those as well. I really do not want to be eating animals, but when I have to start getting into political conversations about my food choices I just kind of freak out and give up. Doing it for health is almost has hard, but I don't have people try so hard to actively convince me that I'm wrong. Anyway, I've really buggered the whole vegan thing a couple of times this past week, and feel like putting my dirty laundry out for everyone to see.
*Occasionally I eat things with eggs in them, mostly out of sheer laziness, but occasionally in rebellion against tofu.
*I don't check candy labels for things like gelatin, or red dye 40 or whatever the hell. So, i probably eat more insects and horse bones than any good vegan should.
*Last Saturday, the husby had the most delicious smelling empanada at the farmer's market. So I had a bite, or two. It was filled with burger. And I loved it.
*Also last Saturday, we went to all you can eat sushi, and I had both shrimp and crab.
*The most greivous sin, in my eyes, came yesterday, when in the midst of a Clomid-enhanced freakout I decided to order an old standby at Beto's (or Rancheritos, dammit), and got a breakfast burrito, without cheese. I willingly chose to eat eggs, which kind of sent me into a panic attack later, but crime of all crimes, there was a big-ass wad of cheese in the middle of that burrito, and I stared it down, and took a huge effing bite. And it was good. Really damn good. I quickly realized that I was going to get really sick if I continued eating it, so I followed the husband's suggestion and just peeled the giant wad of cheese out and ate the rest.
So. In spite of all my vegan missteps, I really REALLY love being vegan. Even though I eat way more candy than I should, I feel like I eat much healthier food, and I feel like the food I eat is much more flavorful. It's made me think a lot about why we even eat meat at all. I mean, I get the craving for the occasional piece of flesh, and I truly miss the meltiness of cheese, but beyond that, I've realized how much FLAVOR we miss when we use those things.
Try going to a normal restaurant and ordering something without dairy in it. Options without meat are gaining some popularity (though it's still really blowing my mind as to how MUCH meat we consume), but we put cheese on everyeffingthing. And we put A LOT of cheese on things. Not even good cheese either (and this girl LOVES good cheese. Oh, how I miss it), but like, pseudo-cheese. Chock full of fat and animal hormones, and chemicals. And for what? For a little extra flavor in our over-processed, white flour, greasy-ass simulacrum(b) of a meal?
There are so many amazing flavors in the world that go completely untasted because we coat things in meat and cheese and fat. Believe it or not, people, vegetables have flavor, and they taste GOOD, as do whole grains. We spend so much of our time acclimating our tastebuds to things that never appear in nature that we dull our senses from the ability to experience food as just that FOOD.
I'm not trying to convert anyone (though if you're eating meat and dairy, you should REALLY steer (ha! steer! beef!) clear of hormonally/genetically treated products. I'm pretty sure I'm suffering the consequences of a lifetime full of 'em. Plus, you're killing poor, sweet, defenseless little animals...) but mine eyes have seen the glory of the tasting of the veggies, and I thought maybe I could persuade a few of you to eat more of 'em.
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