Always learning...

So, Jillian Michaels, Alicia Silverstone, and the Skinny Bitches would all like me to be a vegan. Although, I think Jillian is a little loser on it, she definitely is all about getting the toxins out of your environment. Since we had a big snowstorm this weekend and I knew I would be housebound, I went to the store and stocked up on a variety of vegetarian and vegan foods to experiment with things.

I learned a few things about this type of lifestyle and myself. First of all, that headache I had last time I wrote was NOT from beer. I am pretty sure I am allergic to soy products as I had one the next day and had eaten a similar processed vegetarian lunch. This was WORLD class migraine level stuff. Rather than actually go to a doctor, I consulted Alicia's forums and found post after post about headaches induced by an allergy to soy in processed vegetarian foods. The next day, no soy and no headache. In my world, problem solved.

The other thing I learned is that vegan cheese is gross. The only slight resemblance to cheese would possibly be in the smell which is sort of cheez whizish. I could tolerate it melted on a vegetarian chili with salsa and a bunch of other stuff on it, but that is about the only venue I could picture myself eating it.

Vegan butter is fine as is the rice milk which is like drinking regular skim milk. The coconut milk yogurts are also tasty which is amazing as I don't like coconut in its regular form. However they are four times the cost of a regular yogurt.

Being dairy free is much more of a pain in the ass than being meat free. However, I am going to continue to be without dairy for another few weeks as I have actually lost three pounds this week without counting any calories at all. So, something is working.

I think at the end of this experiment I will be mostly dairy free but will not turn down the occasional pizza or cheese fry. I am committed to eating dairy from organic farms where they are nice to the cows when I add it back in.