Oooohhhh, You’re A Veeegan? Dealing With Stereotypes
By admin
Happy Friday! We’ve made it through another week. Hopefully it went smoothly.
I am so excited that it’s Friday! Dan and I are going out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Our actual anniversary isn’t until Tuesday but since I’ll be out of town next weekend we decided to celebrate tonight. We’ve got a special date planned, so check back tomorrow for the details!
I wish we had more of this… our cake topper. It was A-MA-ZING even after being frozen for an entire year. I’m a bit sad we didn’t save some for this year. Dark chocolate cake, with coconut icing and dark chocolate ganache. Oh yea baby!
I will say this though, I think it’s safe to say I will not be eating vegan tonight! A girl has to let her hair down from time to time, right?
But tonight hasn’t happened yet, but I did have something interested happen already today.
Oh You’re A Crazy Vegan…
Zoe is the biggest fruit eating, brussel sprout loving, almond obsessed dog I know!
Source
I went grocery shopping like I do every Friday. Because I had some videos and such to do after boot camp, I got a late start and decided to go to a different grocery store closer to my house.
While I was checking out the lady ringing my up made the observation that I didn’t have much meat in my cart. Uhh, okay. I’ve never had someone actually critique my groceries before.
I casually said it was because I was vegan. The eggs and lunch meat were for my husband.
From there I thought we had moved on… I just wanted to get home, it was lunch time!
But she had other plans, she then noticed my large supply of canned pumpkin and cartons of oatmeal and asked what I planned on doing. I replied I was going to experiment with a few pumpkin cookie recipes.
From there it went something like this:
Lady: Oh that sounds like fun, you know I just got the recipe for Cheesecake Factory’s pumpkin cheesecake. It looks amazing, would you like it?
Me: I am sure it is delicious, but no thanks, I don’t eat cheesecake.
Lady: What? Why?
Me: Because, I am vegan?
Lady: That’s silly, you don’t eat cheese? You probably don’t get the nutrients you need either. I love my meat, you know we’re suppose to meat meat. I don’t eat red meat though, only chicken and because of that I take iron supplements… you have to take iron pills too.
Me: Actually, I am a nutrition consultant, I pay careful attention to my diet to make sure I am getting everything I need from a balanced diet. And no, I stay away from cheese and other animal products.
Lady: At least you ‘think’ you stay away from them, I bet you get served vegan and you just don’t think to ask.
Me: (getting annoyed at this point), yummm… yea. Maybe.
I just wanted to give up at the point and decided to let her win. I could tell the line building up was getting as equally annoyed as I was. I guess I should have just accepted her cheesecake recipe?
Cracks me up! Source
Why Argue? And Why Do I Have To Be “A” Anything?
When people find out I am a vegan they are always surprised. They try to challenge me about my eating habits and choice of life. For crying out loud, even my own family has had a few things to say to me.
You know people that cut out gluten aren’t called “anti-glutens”, people that eat a high protein diet aren’t referred to as “carnivores”, so why is it that we have to be classified and stereotyped? It’s just as much my fault though. Perhaps I should just tell people I eat a plant based diet?
Maybe they won’t think I am a crazy, incense smoking, granola eating hippie?
Isn’t that the stereotype after all?
I guess we all stereotyped in some way?
The Choice For Veganism
I don’t think I ever told you why I decided to stay vegan. I know I explained back in March that I was going to do a 90 day challenge (inspired by Forks Over Knives) to see how eating a plant based diet would affect me. But I don’t remember if I ever explained the decision to continue it as a part of my ongoing lifestyle.
The 90 days based by pretty quickly and to be hones it was easy. Literally, I watched the movie with Dan and the next day we made the change. No transition period, I was committed within 24 hours.
At first, the food wasn’t good but with practice I learned how to transform our favorite meaty meals to yummy planty meals. I started to feel great about food. For the past decade I have been fighting my relationship with food. I had good times and bad times.
Eating vegan I realized, I had no bad times. I felt wonderful about food. When I was hungry, I ate. When I was full, I stopped. This was something I hadn’t had in years, and I loved it. To be honest this was my major contributor to staying this way.
I eat more now than ever, but I feel great about it. I have energy, my running times have never been better, I have leaned out a little, and I really do love the food.
The BEST chocolate chip cookies EVER!
So that’s it… I do it for myself. Not out of guilt because of the meat packaging processes, or because Hollywood starts says it’s the way to go… I do it because I like the way I feel. I am being selfish!
So that’s that. But like I mentioned tonight, I am going to let my hair down and enjoy some seafood with my amazing husband (who has been so supportive this whole time, and continues to be awesome).
Have a great night, this girl is off to enjoy some new granola before getting ready for the evening!