30 Days of Vegan (Day 1)

And today was day one...

I woke up, quite tired, after only a few hours of sleep. Monday mornings have never been my forte. What was strange, though, was that I also had an air of excitement about today. Not quite "kid on Christmas morning" .. but more .. "something is really changing."

My alarm had gone off, and I'd stumbled my way to the kitchen.. like I do every morning. But instead of my standard bowl of cereal, I went for an old staple.. my breakfast burrito. It consists of a whole wheat tortilla, a banana, and organic peanut butter.. with a drizzle of honey. It's yummy. And it's filling. This morning, that's all I was going for.

I arrived to work, where my coworker.. who is going vegetarian for 30 days.. did not seem to share my enthusiasm for the day. :P He told me he had skipped breakfast, and he had no idea what to eat for lunch. I found myself listing all sorts of foods he could eat, finding it bizarre that he was having any difficulty. I guess being a vegetarian for 2 years, makes being one, seem like a piece of cake.

He ended up having a salad and a baked potato... because he said he didn't know what else to eat. Poor kid. He'll figure it out.

The day was smooth sailing from there.
Snack: banana
Lunch: veggie pizza (no cheese), a nectarine, and some pistachios.

Then dinner..
I'd been having a really weird craving for a couple days, for sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard. Normally, you'd put that on some sort of hot dog or sausage. Instead, we grilled some yellow and green peppers, put them on a vegan bun, then topped it off with mustard and sauerkraut. It was sooooo good.

Lastly, and just moments ago, I pulled out the ol' soy milk. It had probably been a decade since I'd last tried any. You know, way back.. Probably in high school when I thought soy would make me magically skinny. ;)

Surprisingly, this time around, it was better than I had remembered or anticipated. Kind of had a slight vanilla pudding taste (and this was not the vanilla flavor). Definitely NOT like dairy; especially the 1% organic that I'm used to. But it will suffice for my chai tea.

So, I'm ending the day strong. I don't feel deprived. I literally didn't notice one thing "missing" today. If anything, I feel healthier already.. "Cleaner" is the best way to describe it.

Perhaps it's an aspect of having to pay such close attention to what you eat, but it feels good to be so 'aware' of what I'm consuming. Mindless eating is no longer an option; and I like it that way.