30 Day Vegan Challenge: 9 days left! What happens next?

Last week was one crazy week - and I'm not even talking about just for me! There was the Boston Marathon bombing and everything that followed it to identify the suspects and get them in custody. Then there was the extreme flooding in Lisle, Lombard, Naperville and surrounding areas. For me personally, Monday was the start of me working as the interim staffing manager of my office, a step up from staffing coordinator. I will be in this position for approximately six weeks. It's been non-stop busy at work, I typically get in to the office around 7:45 AM and leave at 5:30 PM. I love being kept busy and the days have  been very productive and are going by fast. However, the last thing I usually feel like doing after 9 hours on the computer is coming home to sit on my computer and blog.

So, let's recap a few things. Vegan life is still going well, with the exception of some pretty intense cheese cravings lately. I can pretty much find satisfying substitutions for cheese with most of my meals - for example, if I want cheese on my tacos, guacamole squashes that craving for me. Salsa is a good substitute too. I loved the creamy tofu mixture that replaced ricotta cheese in my vegan lasagna. But pizza has been tough to stop thinking about lately. In the past, Friday nights usually consisted of what I called my "Friday night meal" - a plain cheese or veggie and cheese frozen pizza with a bottle of moscato wine. This past Friday, I especially missed that. After work on Friday, I went to visit my Aunt Debbie, who is still in the recovery stages from a surgery she had a couple weeks ago. My aunt has been a vegetarian pretty much her entire life, so we of course talked a lot about vegetarian and vegan living. I was excited to see she had a few books and pamphlets out on her table for me to borrow. While most of the cook books are vegetarian, it will be easy to modify most of the recipes to be vegan!

My aunt lives 5 minutes from my parents, so I stopped by to see them next. I hadn't planned on staying there for most of the night, but I had nothing going on this Friday, so I stayed there til 10 PM or so. My only dilemma was dinner - what to eat? I tried to think of some restaurants nearby that I could get a vegan dish from. I knew there was a Thai takeout place nearby, but I also know that my favorite dish - pad Thai - contains fish sauce and eggs. I hopped on to Google for a few minutes to see if I could get this modified. After reading information and comments on a few sites, I read that most restaurants could leave out fish sauce if requested for dishes like pad Thai and pad see ew. However, I also read that many restaurants have their pad Thai sauce pre-mixed, but pad see ew you can always modify to be vegan. I decided to order the pad see ew for something different. It's a dish with fat, wide noodles and broccoli. You can order it with meat, I got tofu. The dish was very tasty, but I got totally gypped on the broccoli! I love broccoli tops, and there were NONE to be found in this dish. There were three broccoli stalks, and that was it. I wasn't starving, so I ate half my dish and saved the rest for the next day. When heating up my leftovers, I also sauteed some broccoli tops and added those in. Much, much better!

On Saturday, I had to work my second job from 11 AM to 7 PM...yuck. I really haven't minded my second job much, usually my shifts are just four hours at a time and it's nice to have the extra money to pay down some bills or go shopping with. I know I have to work these shifts now and again though - just how it goes. I work at a grocery store that I worked at in high school and on breaks from college. Even then, I thought it was interesting to see what people by and some different products out there. I was more than stoked when a customer came through my line and bought these:

What?! Vegan ice cream sandwiches?! YES! I asked her where she found them and made sure to go buy some after my shift. I wanted to get vanilla, but they were all sold out. Chocolate sounded like just as good an option, though - and they were only $2.90 with my discount, so if I didn't like them, it's no big loss. Well, this was $2.90 well spent. They are amazing! Actually tastes way better than an ice cream sandwich, the "ice cream" in these was way creamier. I've also been using Tofutti's "Better Than Cream Cheese" on my whole wheat bagel thins each morning with peanut butter, and I love it. Tofutti rocks!

Once I got home, I wanted to go out somewhere for dinner. I've spent pretty much the entire week indoors, and even though it still was not nice outside, I wanted to get out. Dan and I looked up some veg friendly restaurants in the area. We decided to go get Mexican food at Pepe's. I was able to order a vegetarian taco dinner - beans, green peppers and onion soft shell tacos with lettuce, tomatoes, and guacamole. These usually come with cheese and sour cream, but I ordered it without those. I've never liked sour cream, so didn't miss anything there. The guacamole was a satisfying replacement for my cheese craving.

Dan and I are making the oven baked tacos we made during my first week of being vegan tonight. Guess we're taco crazy! These are a little different from what I had last night, though. I bought the stand and stuff tacos today - excited to use them, should make the job much easier this time around! My grocery trip was an easy one today. I plan on making my usual black bean burgers for lunch for the week, so I just need some more pita halves to stuff those in to.

I feel like I'm not being very motivating to others with the food I've been eating lately - for example, my black bean burgers for lunch every day during the work week. I'm just not tired of them, and it's easy to prep my whole lunch for the week on Sunday. It's pretty much how I've always been with food. From grade school to the middle of high school, I ate turkey sandwiches every. single. day. Then it switched over to peanut butter and jelly. 2009 - 2011 in the 9-5 working world saw me eating highly processed, high sodium Lean Cuisines every day. At least I've moved onto something more tasty, wholesome, and healthy! Trust me that there is plenty of variety out there for vegan meals. I've just found a few favorites and have been sticking with those for now. Having said that, there is a new dish I want to try this week: chickpea sweet potato burgers. I also have that big stack of cook books from my aunt to look through, and a whole vegan Pinterest board that I've been adding to pretty regularly.

Many of you may be wondering what I'm going to do about my diet once these 30 days are up. Am I going to run out and order a big cheeseburger and a side of fries? No. Am I going to pick up a big bag of friend chicken? No. Am I going to pick up one of my favorite thin crust, veggie covered cheese pizzas? Yes, I am, and I am OK with that, because it's a once in awhile thing. Other than that, I want to keep making many of the recipes I have so far, as well as try new ones. I am going to remain vegan about 80% of the time. The rest of the time, I'll be vegetarian. I just feel too good NOT to stay this way. The tiredness and lack of energy I often felt have completely vanished since going vegan. It is hard to not feel hypocritical about not sticking with vegan 100% of the time, still, I know I am making good choices here and have changed tremendously. I've told many that I feel I have completely reset my taste buds. I notice the flavors in food much more than before. I do not desire greasy food. Even my sweet tooth has calmed down - in the past 21 days, the only sweets I've had were one vegan chocolate chip cookie and a vegan brownie. I really feel that some foods are like a drug. If you are trying to eat healthier, you have probably noticed this. You literally have to detox from some foods - whether it's fast food or something processed. I know darn well that if I were to have some fast food, it would send me into a crazy, downward spiral where I start to crave more fast food and more "bad" foods. You just have to be patient with yourself and focus on improving just a few things at a time. If you take on too much, you're going to be overwhelmed, feel deprived, and fail. Healthy eating has been a long journey for me and it is still a journey now - I am not a "perfect" eater by any means. But you know what? I don't want to be. I'll again share one of my favorite quotes: "It's not about perfection, it's about moderation."

That gives me the perfect segue into my next topic here: moderation. Look, I fully realize that the whole world is never going to be vegan. And I also fully realize that we cannot eliminate some use of animals and animal products in our day to day living. I just learned today that hooves and bones are used in binding glue for books, and most of our roads and buildings contain animal products in curing concrete. However, EVERYONE has the power to help make an impact on factory farming and the cruelty animals experience. We all have limited resources and time, and avoiding all products from factory farms may seem like too big of a change. As with any healthy eating, you need to take small steps. You could eliminate meat from certain meals or on certain days. As you get used to eating less meat and find alternatives you enjoy, it might become easier to eliminate meat altogether. As I've said before, just a year ago I said I would never be a vegetarian or vegan. Just a year ago, I thought vegans were crazy. Don't doubt yourself and what you are capable of, and don't be afraid to try new things. I strongly believe everyone could be a vegan at least three days out of the week, then greatly cut back on their meat and dairy consumption on other days.

Anyone want to challenge themselves on that next month? You really have nothing to lose except for a few pounds! I'd love to put a Facebook group together for anyone who wants to try it. I'm not even asking you to be vegan every day - just three days a week! Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or private message me on Facebook with any questions or concerns you have. I've really loved the questions and feedback I've gotten either through comments here or through private messages.

No matter how you decide to live your life, just live it well!