VEGtastic Eve- Linsea

It's the eve before our 60 day vegan challenge begins and all I'm thinking about is all the chicken I won't be eating.

Recently I saw a film entitled A Peaceable Kingdom (2009). The film made a convincing argument for a number of things but what I took away from it was the desire to make more conscious choices about the food I eat.

I am also inspired by a project that a former Circus/Acting teacher had me do a few years ago. He called it a "self-expansion project." We were asked to change some aspect of our life for a period of time and see what we could learn about ourselves and our bodies. I want to see which of the claims to be or not to be vegan hold true for me. So I decided to go vegan for 60 days. 30 days didn't seem long enough and 90 days seemed like a long shot. Luckily, my friend and co-worker Jesse agreed to join me on this "voyage" for support. We work together and hang together so it will be nice to not be the only pseudo-vegan in the room.

I was an "ovo-lacto vegetarian" for years and haven't ever been that big of a meat-eater, so I am not that concerned with the absence of animal flesh in my diet. I believe the hardest part will be figuring out what I can eat amongst all of the things you would never think twice about.

When I mentioned that I would be attempting a vegan diet for 60 days I got various reactions. The first came from several of my lovely co-workers who said, "Oh God! Is this going to be like the time you gave up coffee and turned into a raging bitch?" Other reactions ranged somewhere between supportive and skeptical.

Luckily Jesse and I work in a health environment and have a fantastic support system there. It will be interesting to see how we manage with being vegan at home seeing as how both of our significant others will continue to be...well, non-vegan. I am excited and nervous for tomorrow and the 59 days that follow. I hope to learn something about my body, my beliefs and self-control.

I hope to use this blog as an additional support system. I hope it emulates that of a vegans anonymous in that I would love feedback, support and constructive criticism.

Thank you for coming along with Jess and I on this VEGtastic Voyage!

(Allow me to preface this series of blogs with the fact that I am NOT a "blogger," and NOT a great writer. I will try to avoid spelling errors but I promise you there will be some pretty bad grammar. Fortunately, those skills are not crucial to this experience. Thank you.)