About being a Vegan...

People respond differently to finding out I'm a vegan. People want to know why or how. I love talking about my lifestyle choices but I don't like fighting. Here are a few of my thoughts about some common statements and questions I often hear.

1. How do you work at a BBQ restaurant?

It's hard. I love the company I work for and I love supporting them. I don't support the menu but I appreciate how much other people love it.

2. Does your husband hate that?

I don't think so... You should ask him. Chris isn't a vegetarian. He loves beef jerky, thanksgiving turkey, and bacon on anything. He isn't a vegan. He loves heavy cream, eggs over easy with white toast, and buttery chocolate croissants. We make it work because we love each other. We are also honest that we secretly wish the other ate more like ourself.

3. What do you eat?

This questions kind of upsets me. I've responded poorly. One time I simply started listing all the ingredients I like to eat. The person stopped me. I eat the same things you do; without the animal product. I probably eat more things than you do because you might not like green things, or berries, or tomatoes, or avocado, or whatever. There is almost no foods I don't eat, besides foods from animals.

4. What do you miss most?

I don't. Besides the stringy hot cheese on pizza that isn't quite replicated in soy cheezes, I don't miss anything. I don't miss contributing to a corrupt food system. I don't miss benefiting from animal cruelty like factory farms. I don't miss worrying all the time that my food had "gone bad" or had salmonella in it.

5. Don't you think it's extreme?

Extreme is a relative word. A year ago I would have told you a vegan diet was extreme. When I started flirting with veganism I wanted to see if it was even possible. Now, I don't think it's extreme at all. I think it's my life and I love my life. I would encourage anyone to try it for a week and see how un-extreme it can be.

6. I couldn't be vegan because I just need more protein than that.

This is a pretty ignorant statement. Whenever someone mentions the lack of protein in my diet I tend to tune out, sorry. You don't understand nutrition if you think humans need grilled chicken breast to have protein. Same thing goes for calcium. I don't fight with people or force education on people.

7. I'm a vegetarian too! I love cheese soup, milkshakes, and pasta with cream sauces.

Vegetarian diets can be great. They can also be terrible. What you eat should ideally nourish your body first and your spirit second. If your diet is leaving your body malnourished then it's not successful. Eating foods that give you a deficiency is a poor choice, even if you don't eat meat.

10. If you have to take supplements than it's not a good diet.

That's simply not true. If the soil wasn't as raped and overworked as it is than I probably wouldn't need to supplement. A vegan diet should be able to give you every nutrient you need, unfortunately we humans have damaged our ecosystem so I fill holes that we have created with supplements.