Monday, April 12, 2010

Transitioning to Vegan

Hello all. Some of you who know me on Facebook or in person may be aware that I've been focusing a lot on animal rights issues, baking vegan treats, and talking about a vegan diet in general. I have decided that I am transitioning to a vegan diet and lifestyle mainly for animal rights reasons but also for health and world sustainability/green reasons. For me, it feels like the right thing to do!


It's been a gradual process but I am making a lot of progress. I've gone from eating meat or fish about twice a day to eating meat/poultry about once per week and fish a few times a week. I remember a while back when someone mentioned the idea of just eating meat once per day I thought, wow, that would be so hard. But really, it has just become easier and easier. I've also transitioned slowly from drinking lots of milk at home, almost two gallons per week between me and my boyfriend, to about a half gallon of raw organic milk per week. In fact, yesterday when my boyfriend who is loving all of the new milk choices grabbed almond, coconut, hemp, and cow/s milk at the store and I asked him to put one of them back he chose to put back the cow's milk! I knew we were really making progress then. The final frontier will be the half and half in my coffee and sea food for sure.

It's a progression because it's about not only saying good bye to all of the things you are used to eating but learning to prepare new things in new ways.. and with our busy schedules that takes time. I'm also just learning about all of the restaurants and stores in the area that offer vegan choices and it's going to now take a little bit of time to swap out the places that don't have those choices. However, the more I educate myself I find that I am not really sacrificing much but rather refocusing on a whole new culinary world of delicious, healthy food!

In addition, I have decided that the culinary career I am pursuing will be vegan. So, I am currently seeking out vegan chefs in the area that will allow me to assist them so that I can learn the ropes. I am also experimenting at home with cooking vegan dishes and baking with vegan ingredients.

Where will this leave Yummy Happy Rainbow? I am not sure yet. In an attempt to simplify my life I have not been taking pictures and posting about everything that I eat. One of the reasons I quit my full-time job almost 2 months ago was to reduce stress. I'd be stupid to swap that stress out with the stress of trying to create some great blog.. even if my handful of readers want that. There is also not much of a reason for me to document my vegan finds and progress when there are a ton of resources out there for anyone interested in those kinds of things. So, I am taking a break from the blog for now until I decide what I want to do with it. Once I kick off some sort of vegan career I may start a new blog then.

Thanks everyone!!

-Alexis

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