Next month will mark the one year anniversary of my vegetarian life! It was last year on Earth Day that I decided that I would embrace life as a vegetarian. I told myself that I could no longer eat meat and I never looked back. It was not hard at all. I suppose it is harder to keep a promise to another person than to yourself. When you make a commitment to yourself, it's harder to cheat because you will always know it! I didn't want to disappoint myself. I had made a life changing decision and I wanted to be proud of myself...and I am.Now I am ready to take my commitment to the next step and go vegan! This might be a much harder challenge. Giving up meat was not too bad because I
have always enjoyed veggies and I actually loved eating them. I had like to eat meat too, but I knew I wouldn't go into withdrawal or anything if I didn't have any. I still eat some seafood occasionally and still enjoy sushi from time to time (usually on date night with the hubby, we love Japanese). But now, all that will be over! And now there is a whole list of things that I will not be able to have that just might have me in withdrawal and detox!!
I did some research to see what kinds of things I will have to leave out and I was a little surprised at what I discovered. Along with the obvious things like meat, seafood and dairy, there are some not so obvious items that I'm sure most people would not think of. Such as:
cochineal- a red food dye made from insects
lecithin- made from animal tissue used in dressings
gelatin- made from boiled animal skin
marshmallows- made with gelatin
whey- made from dairy
honey- what I have discovered is essentially bee throw up
beer- because they use animal products in the production process
sugar- can be made from bone char (who would of thought!)
So I have this little list of things to avoid. But something tells me that it's going to get a whole lot bigger. As I sit here typing, I am enjoying my favorite Starbucks coffee. Will I still be able to drink this? Do they make this with Soy? And what about chocolate? Are there kinds I will still be able to eat (I'm guessing milk chocolate is out)? I've heard that chocolate has a small percentage of spiders that get inside while manufacturing...I guess that might rule out chocolate! Chocolate and coffee are my two favorite things! If I can still have them, then I know I will survive.
Well, I have decided to take this as a process and make small changes along the way. I was reading an article this morning that gave me such inspiration and a good way to look at the process. It said to transition one category at a time and when you run out of categories, you have become vegan! Well, here I go, wish me luck!! :)
