Happy January 3rd, everyone! After all the running around to the airport, from the airport, to my apartment, and then off to feeding myself and class, I finally have a spare minute to write about the VegNews challenge.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m trying the ’31 Changes in 31 Days’ guide in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of VegNews magazine. One of the first steps is going vegan and living a vegan lifestyle: that is, not consuming anything that comes from or is made of animals. Obviously, that means no meat, but it also means things like: milk chocolate, honey, cheese, and buying any products like leather or silk. Ha, as if I have money to buy things made of leather or silk right now, but that’s beside the point.
Luckily, most of this stuff is pretty easy for me since I’m already a vegetarian and don’t drink milk (makes me phlegm-y, I know you wanted to know that.) Some of the other things will be a little harder… cheese! Honey!
To keep things clear, here are my rules for the VegNews challenge:
- Everything I eat/consume must be vegan. If I don’t know what’s in it, I’ll either ask or (if I’m buying clothes or cleaning products, and the labels don’t specify) not buy it. Luckily, there are a lot of animal-friendly cleaning products out there, so I’m not too concerned.
- I will record everything I eat/consume on this blog. This is for accountability to both you and me. I know if I don’t do this, I will justify something like getting an omelet when out with friends, or indulging in some cheese pizza while out, or maybe even having some milk chocolate. This blog will keep me honest.
- Discuss my successes and failures here. Let’s be honest, while I’m going to try to follow this challenge 100%, I might actually fall off the wagon. I might not check to see if the beer I’m drinking is Barnivore approved. But I’m going for the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time, try to do it right. If I fail 20% of the time, that’s okay and I don’t have to beat myself up about it.
I’m not going to make too many “rules” for myself (other than to follow the challenge), but one thing I do want to get clear is that I will still wear my shoes. “What does wearing your shoes have anything to do with being vegan?” Well, some people (I don’t know any, but I’m sure they’re out there) would say that my sneakers and boots wouldn’t be vegan (which they’re not) because they have leather and/or suede. While true, some people would also argue that I get different shoes to truly be “vegan.” Well, I’m poor. So until I’m not poor, I’m not doing that. Just wanted to get that off the table!
I’ll get more into “why veganism”, “what is veganism”, “what are the pros and cons of veganism” later, but for a brief overview, read summaries of The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. It’s AWESOME.
And for those of you concerned about my health: Don’t worry. I’ll discuss how I’m feeling on this blog, IF it becomes an issue, but I’m pretty certain it won’t. I take care of myself pretty darn well, all things considered. And, to appease my Mom (who’s following this blog- hey Mom!), the student Health Center is a 10 min. walk away and they take “day-of” walk-in appointments if I’m feeling down/sick.
Okay, so down to today’s challenge: Day One: Go vegan! According to VegNews, this just means I stop buying animal products. I went grocery shopping yesterday and, since I knew I would be doing this, I didn’t buy any animal products (basically, I just didn’t buy cheese.) Hooray! This might be one of my easiest new year’s resolutions ever 
Today’s noshing:
Breakfast: Toast and soy milk (Silk, Original) – I woke up really late so breakfast was more like brunch…
Lunch: green drank! (celery, spinach, carrots, cucumber, ground flax seed, mixed berries (frozen from Costco), strawberries, orange juice)
Dinner: Sukhi’s Spinach and Tofu Naanwich – I wanted something quick and I wanted to eat this before it died a moldy death. Just noticed it’s made in a facility that processes milk… don’t know if this is a fail or not… oops!
No exercise today because I woke up so late (slept poorly because of the travel/flight), plus I had class and I had to unpack my suitcases, but tomorrow I have plans to either go to the gym for a class or just for a regular work out. We’ll see!
Tomorrow’s “change”: Eat something nourishing. Until tomorrow!
Hiya! Regarding the shoes issue…
I have a hard time with that one. My main reason for interest in a vegan diet (I haven’t committed 100% yet) is health related. So the leather part isn’t as much of an issue for me. I think it is a good thing to be conscious of though.
My problem with the issue arrises when I consider the environment. While I want to be kind to living things I also want to take care of the earth and throwing away my clothes, cleaning products, makeup and already purchased food simply to buy all new seems ethically irresponsible to me. I am personally passionate about chemical toxins in things that come in contact with my body but I made a commitment to use everything I already have and buy green the next time I run out. Both moral grounds are covered
I am inspired to try the challenge in the near future and I’m excited to hear how it goes!!
Brittany, thanks so much for bringing that point up! A couple months ago, I started to be really cognizant of the make up brushes I was using… I realized some of my brushes actually used animal fur in them and I was totally disgusted. I did in fact need 2 new brushes that had fallen apart, and I went to the mall intending to replace all my brushes… but wow! When I saw the price… I just had to take a step back. For now, my plan is to use the animal fur brushes until they fall apart/get gross, then replace my collection slowly with animal fur-free brushes. But, like you, I just couldn’t justify throwing away perfectly good brushes right now because of this.
As for shoes and clothes… like you, I’m not comfortable with throwing out perfectly good shoes if they happen to have animal products in them. I think a good post to focus on next maybe would be stylish vegan shoes– I feel like this is a good topic and, eventually, we all have to replace our shoes, so might as well go vegan if they’re reasonably priced and of good quality.
As for myself, and as for the environment, I’m like you. I want to keep my stuff until it needs replaced, then try to dispose of it in the most environmentally friendly way I can (usually donations, if the clothes aren’t shabby or beyond repair.) When I replace them, I plan on replacing them with the most environmentally-friendly products that are out there. Slowly but surely, I think I will eventually achieve an environmentally-friendly home!
Thanks for sharing your opinion– I think most people feel the same way but, like us, they don’t really want to throw away perfectly good stuff. Good point!
been reading your updates and it’s interesting because I basically started a vegan diet myself on Jan 1, but have had a few slips here and there. I am really trying to figure out if i actually feel any different though!
Yeah, to be honest I don’t feel a whole lot different… maybe a little lighter (though our crappy school scale doesn’t reflect that), and I think the cold I had was a lot milder than the plague that was going around my school… but other than that, I feel average/good/normal. I was a vegetarian before though, so I’m not sure if that had something to do with it… good luck on your journey! How long do you think you’ll try and stay vegan?