Vegan experiment

I stopped eating meat as an experiment. I passed up ham and pepperoni pizza, hamburgers, and fried chicken for crab cakes and cheese quesadillas. I thought I'd last a day or so - a week at most. That was a little over 2 years ago. With the exception of fish & seafood, I don't eat meat. I don't consider myself a "vegetarian" because of the connotations that that classification carries. Generally speaking, vegetarians feel that meat is bad for you or cruel to animals or something like that. I just have realized that my preference for the way meat is cooked (fried, slathered with gravy) is not the healthiest for me. And despite that, I do eat fried fish.

Last week, Oprah had an episode about being a vegan. Her staff went vegan for a week, they changed the menu in the cafeteria, the changed their diets at home to see what it was all about. Now this was something I've never considered - life without ice cream and cheese? No meat is one thing, but no deviled eggs either? Watching the show with my 9-year old, we chatted about how that would be impossible - then we decided we would try it to see how we would do.

We started today. We're going to give it two days. I am allowing myself creamer for my coffee because, really, giving up every animal product is enough. She had dried cereal for breakfast and is having rice & beans for lunch (thanks to a friend who dropped some off the other day). I think that's what I'm going to have for lunch, too. And I'm looking at this website - 21-Day Vegan Kickstart (http://www.pcrm.org/kickstartHome) - that another mentioned a few weeks ago for some guidance.

mmmmm - celery sticks :-)