Vegetarian Going Vegan

      September 18th, 2011 .. I decided to adopt vegetarian eating habits. Don't get me wrong - I love meat. This is only a temporary challenge to see what I'm capable of doing if I set my mind to it.
There have been plenty of good opportunities to have amazing-tasting meat, but I've stayed true to my vegetarian promise. Now, I'm not INSANE vegetarian. I ate a gummy bear once, which apparently has gelatin. But my whole plan is to not eat big slabs of meat. Or small slabs. Or meat in general.
The gelatin found in Oreos and such? I'm fine with that. That's not my goal.

      Fast forward to January 2nd, 2011 2012. I watched the movie "Forks Over Knives" and I was inspired to live a healthier lifestyle. I wanted to eat smarter for me, and to help motivate my parents. About a month before I even had the idea to watch the movie, they agreed that their new year's resolution would be to become vegetarian. I told them to give themselves a reasonable goal - so three months it is. I've been trying to motivate them and I guess I've been doing pretty well seeing as they haven't eaten any meat all year. My mom even cooked a delicious vegetarian meal last night - cheese enchiladas. Afterward, I wanted to watch "Forks Over Knives" with both of my parents, but only my dad watched it with me. I think my dad would agree with me saying that it was very informational. One of the people who's eating habits were studied was a fireman, so my dad could easily relate to the temptation he had of eating meat in the firehouse. There was also a guy who had lots of every day medical issues and took quite a few pills daily to help him get through the day. One of his medical issues was a post-nasal drip. I've had a post-nasal drip before and cured it with antibiotics, but it came back. And I've had it for almost a year now. After some time of eating a whole foods diet, this guy cured 99% of his medical conditions and no longer needed his medications. And so now, here I am, ready to try to do what this guy did. I'm hoping to rid myself of my post-nasal drip, but even if I don't, I'll still feel accomplished.

      After successfully being a vegetarian for over three months, my new goal is to eat a whole foods diet - so essentially, I will be vegan. This is only going to be a one month challenge since I don't know how long I can handle a life without milk, eggs, cheese, ice cream... all the things I love to eat. If I find that being vegan isn't so bad, maybe I'll try three months so by the time my parents are done being vegetarian, I'll be done being vegan. I would have started today, but I had milk with my cereal. Today I went shopping and got almond milk so I'll still be able to have cereal - my favorite meal ever. So as long as I have cereal as a backup food for when I can't find anything vegan... I think I'll be able to survive this month. However if I have a meal more interesting than cereal, I'll post what it was on this blog. For example, tonight I had a vegan meal of Fattoush (a Lebanese salad) and my dad's version of Succotash. I'll even post recipes if for anyone who wants to try these meals!

Fattoush

Till next time,
Rebecca

P.S.
I didn't really think of the idea of photo-documenting until today (the 4th). I took a picture of the Fattoush just for fun, but I didn't get a picture of the beet salad or the succotash. I'm sure we'll make those dishes again though, so when that time comes, I'll take and upload pictures of those dishes :)