Veganuary Thoughts

All righty.  So, it’s now February.  If you participated in Veganuary, I hope you feel successful!  If you had some slip ups, that’s okay.  You’re doing great!  I know it’s hard to feel successful after a slip up, believe me.  But the important thing to remember is to keep going.  Persistence creates the habit.

My version of Veganuary inspired me to continue the decision to go plant based through the month of February.  As I participated in this month, I discovered a few things about myself.  I might repeat a few things from previous posts, so please bear with me.

Plant based eating is expensive if you purchase prepackaged, highly processed foods.

This one is kind of a no-brainer.  Prices per ounce on whole food ingredients when they’re fresh, frozen, or canned is significantly cheaper than the overly processed, prepackaged foods.  Not only are they cheaper, you also pay for your sodium intake as a lot of those products up the salt content to make it more “flavorful.”

It’s up to the individual consumer what compromises are to be made because if you’re like me and appreciate convenience, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying these products.

One of my favorite things about purchasing fresh, whole ingredients is being able to take the time and make them taste good with my personal preferences.  I might not like the way a macaroni and “cheese” tastes out of a box, but if I can recreate a facsimile of it with whole ingredients, then I’d much rather do that.

I think going forward, my goal will be to definitely stick to more whole foods as much as I can.  I rediscovered a love of lentils, and my adorable mother (who went a little upset when I told her I wasn’t eating dairy anymore) went through her cookbooks and recipe collections to find me recipes to help out in a way she knew how.

Making mistakes during a goal is not the end of a goal.  It’s the middle of your progress.

Over the course of the month, I did end up eating some dairy products, if by accident or on purpose, but I never once felt bad about it.  It’s incredibly important to keep a positive mindset when trying to change a part of your life, because negativity is so easy to fall back into.

I used to be on Instagram, and I followed a fitness person there, which was a different thing for me as I’m not into fitness at all, but she had a day where she discussed what she ate over the weekend.  She mentioned that she’d gone to a party for a friend’s birthday and made the choice to eat a cupcake.  It was her reaction to eating it that stuck with me, because it wasn’t a positive experience for her.  She took it as a slip up, a poor choice.

I’m not saying there aren’t bad choices, because I don’t need to eat macaroni and cheese all the time, but I do.  I know, what is it with me and macaroni and cheese?  Well, I couldn’t tell you, hah. The point is don’t get caught up on the days you don’t meet your goals.  It’s all in how you react to the situation.

I decided I wasn’t giving up dairy and eggs, but I was choosing not to eat them any more.  The difference in those statements is one is a loss, and the other is exactly what I said, a choice.  Losing makes it harder to accept, choosing is a step forward.  The times I ate dairy — at a friend’s birthday party, as part of my partner’s Taco Bell, or inadvertently in a batch of hash browns at a restaurant — didn’t mean I’d completely failed myself.  It meant I could just keep going the next day toward the goal I set out to achieve.

People will always have their own opinion on what you’re eating.  It’s up to you to ignore it and do what works best for you.

I think the biggest problem I have with veganism is how judgmental some of the community is.  For something that seems so wholesome and inviting for everyone, there’s quite a few people who make little comments to those around them that just doesn’t make it a friendly environment.  It’s an important thing to me to remember that not everyone has the privilege I do to go plant based, whether for family reasons, for religious reasons, or whatever.  It’s not my place to judge someone for how much plastic they use, or how much “insert generic criticism” happens.

We don’t know everyone’s story.  We only know our own.  It’s up to us to make sure we continue to improve the goodness in the world not by aggressively going after those not like us, but by making changes in ourselves first so that maybe others see it and feel inspired.

I don’t know.  I’m not an expert.  This is all just a ramble, really, while I watch Forensic Files on Netflix.  I was going to include a recipe in this blog post, but it’s really long, so I’m going to link to one of my favorite YouTube channels instead.

Pick Up Limes is a channel run by Sadia.  She is an actual dietitian who happens to be plant based, and her channel is incredible.  The amount of work she puts into her videos is impressive.  She gives reasons for why foods work the way they do, and she provides recipes and printable pdf sheets on her blog to help you on your food journey.  I love her professionalism and her ability to make learning about food interesting.

I hope you’re well, and I wish you well on your food way.