How a Cheese Lover Became Vegan

Well, it wasn't easy.  So, if you've heard about the deaths and sickness related to food poison, the hormones and antibiotics given to animals, the animal abuse, the impact raising animals for food has on the environment or how going vegan can help you shed a few, then know that it's not a piece of vegan cake going from a cheese lover to a vegan.

My decision to go vegetarian was somewhat rash.  One day I woke up and said that this would be the last day I ever eat meat again.  I wasn't really sure at the time if I meant it and I wasn't really sure why I was doing it, but it's been five years now and I've stuck to my word.  I was the worst vegetarian because I wasn't a huge fan of vegetables.  I substituted where meat used to be on the menu for cheese and pasta.  Of course I gained weight.  A lot.  Being that this wasn't too long after I had graduated from college, I already had a few extra pounds to get rid of.

Okay, so the vegetarianism wasn't off to a good start.  Neither was my health.  I was taking Protonix to keep my GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) under control.  Otherwise, I was in so much pain I would just cry.  I started looking for help.  What I found was some detox program where I was eating the most disgusting things.  Perhaps they wouldn't have been so disgusting if I had had the first clue about tofu.  Anyway, I think I did lose a couple of pounds but I was miserable.  Around this same time my sister had joined Weight Watchers and she was losing weight like crazy.  It inspired me to do something about my diet.  I started cutting down.  I joined a gym.  Weight did start to come off but not enough.  Of course, it's never enough, right?  Besides the fact that I was still on Protonix, a medicine that should only be taking for 3 months and I was on it now for 3 years.

I got my first full-time teaching job and moved to Virginia (from Vermont).  I was getting really fed up with the GERD.  I found out about a colon cleanse that was supposed to make you lose weight, help with stomach problems, and just be the solution to everything.  I found out where and who was doing them and made an appointment.  She was a naturopathic doctor.  She went through all the same courses and training as an M.D. but she also went through additional courses on natural healing.  I told her my problem and she instructed me on the digestive system and told me that most medical problems are related to an allergy or intolerance of some sort.  I was going to have to stop eating corn, peanuts, bananas, black beans, dairy, eggs, soy, gluten, sugar and tomatoes.  As an experiment, try going to the grocery store and finding food that doesn't have any of those things in it.  I did this for a week.  Then I was supposed to introduce one food at a time back in my diet for one day, then wait 3 days, meaning go back to not eating any of those things again) to see what the reaction would be.  That means this would last about another month.  I only lasted about another 6 days.  I did discover that I have a minor intolerance to bananas and black beans.  I also felt a whole lot better after doing this.  In fact, I went off Protonix and never touched it again.  Thank goodness!  I would still get indigestion occasionally, but not like I was before.

The first vegan I met was in Costa Rica.  At the time I was an omnivore.  She was in the same language program I was.  She was a flaky little thing.  I didn't understand her choice to be vegan at all.  I did understand that it must have something to do with compassion for animals though.  I asked her to take care of the stray kittens I had been feeding because I was leaving earlier than her.  She refused.  My respect for her diminished completely.  She was doing this dumb diet and didn't even care about the helpless kittens living on the streets of Costa Rica.

The next vegan I got to know is now my fiancé.  I was vegetarian this time so my respect for vegans was much higher.  But my love for cheese was even greater.  I gave him the classic line, "I couldn't be vegan because I love cheese too much."  This is a line that I have heard a lot since I became a vegan.  Sometimes instead of cheese it's ice cream or something, but same idea.

To keep a long story short my fiancé is a great cook and he won me over with the delicious food he would make.  I figured as long as I could still eat really tasty food, I'd be alright.  I was alright for about 6 months.  Then I fell off the wagon and started ordering pizza and eating other stuff with dairy in it, but it was mainly that hot melted mozzarella that won me back.  Unfortunately, once the mozzarella was back, so was the GERD.  I just didn't feel as good.

At the beginning of the new year (2011) I decided to go back to being a good vegan again.  As I said before, it's not always easy.  I still want cheese, but I feel so much better without it and I know that I'm not getting all that extra stuff they give cows that I really don't want/need in my body.  There are also some good products out there that have helped me stay vegan.  Daiya makes a decent "cheese" that actually melts like real cheese.  So Delicious makes the best soy ice cream.  Butter Pecan is my favorite.  Whole grain milk has substituted real milk for my cold cereal.  Almond milk is good in oatmeal.  Soy milk is great for baking.  If you are a sweets lover like me, cookies, brownies, cake, fudge, pie, tarts, etc., can all be made vegan and are delicious!  If it's the meat-like stuff that you crave then Lite Life, Gardein and Tofurky make some really awesome faux meats.  If you're out traveling and looking for places to eat out that have vegan-friendly meals, www.happycow.org is a great website for that.

Now you may not have a fiancé who's an awesome cook, but if you're thinking about being vegan then you have to know that making homemade food comes with the territory, unless you live somewhere like Tuscon, AZ, where vegan restaurants are aplenty.  You can make delicious foods too.  There are some wonderful cookbooks out there: Veganomincon, Viva Vegan, Party Vegan, The New Vegan, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, The Indian Vegan Kitchen, Babycakes, Refresh and 1,000 Vegan Recipes (my personal favorite).

Here's to hoping I can stay on the vegan wagon!