My Vegan Month: Days 1 & 2

A few weeks ago I decided that for the month of January I would adopt a vegan diet, and so it begins. That means not eating any animal products. Being vegan can mean different things to different people, and I am not going to go too strict. I will not be throwing out any of my shoes that may have leather on them or anything like that. I will, however, be making a valiant effort to avoid consuming animal products for the month. There are many reasons why I am doing this, but mainly it is an experiment for me to see what it is like to be vegan. As a nutritionist, I feel that I should understand different dietary patterns and what better way than to adopt them for a while. So I start with my vegan month.

Day 1-
I started yesterday with breakfast, which was also my first close call. I went out to a cafe with some friends and ordered oatmeal- almost forgetting to have it made with soymilk. It was delicious though, flavored with maple syrup, nuts, and dried fruit.



After breakfast it was time for groceries. It is a lot easier in a way to go grocery shopping because there are fewer items to choose from, but also more difficult because it requires ingredient labels to be read very carefully. For dinner I made a stir fry of vegetables and tofu with peanut sauce (I had one vegetable from each color group- makes me proud).


Then it was baking time- I found a recipe for vegan pumpkin pie brownies and adjusted it just a little. They turned out pretty good. A good cure for my chocolate craving.

Day 2-
I had oatmeal again this morning after my walk around the Capital and the market, but at home and with pistachios and agave nectar this time. For lunch I had leftover stir fry. Then the dinner dilemma. It can be difficult to find restaurants that are vegan friendly, but luckily DC has a decent number of options. We opted for Mediterranean tonight, which was a great choice. Now I am not 100% sure that everything was vegan, but I decided that I would use my best judgement. I got a falafel sandwich on flatbread with hummus and a spicy vegetable relish. All which are normally vegan. It was very good.

Overall, this has been a good start to my vegan month and 2011. I am excited to share the rest of my experiences this month with you all.