Vegan and on Vacation #2

I am still exploring this vegan lifestyle, and I have been fairly successful, but not 100%. (I had some cheese on a pizza and it straight jacked me up. My belly reminded me not to do that again!) The cool thing about messing up though, you fix things and you keep it moving. You don’t throw everything away. So I got right back on the vegan lifestyle and haven’t looked back.

I am in Oklahoma right now visiting family. Even before I decided to be a (trial) vegan, I ate pretty healthy. My mom would always ask me what she needed to get from the grocery store because she knows that I have different dietary guidelines. So when I told her that I don’t do meat or animal products, she wasn’t completely shocked, but she didn’t know how to shop for me. I let her know that I would hit the grocery store for my own food…and I did. Trust me when I say that I will NOT go hungry!

Coming home to Oklahoma is a lot different from being in Chicago or visiting California. Chicago has quite a few veggie restaurants and healthy stores with vegan options. And while I was in Cali (the Bay Area), I also found vegan restaurants and grocery stores to accommodate my needs. My friends and family were also pretty cool about my lifestyle. Being in Oklahoma is a little different though. Most of the people out here have not even considered being a vegetarian, let alone vegan.  (They have asked me tons of questions wanting to learn why I am eating like this and what all I can eat. So I have had the opportunity to share a little bit and maybe give a different perspective on food.) The vegan friendly restaurants are not as abundant. And there is one Whole Foods here, which is kinda far out from my mom’s house. But regardless of all that, I have been diligent in my food choices. Being here has allowed me to overcome the challenges of being in a not-as-heath-conscious city, which is pretty great. If I can be successful here, I can do it anywhere. I appreciate the challenge. It hasn’t been bad though. I went to a family friend’s dinner, but I ate beforehand because I knew that I probably would not be able to eat at dinner. Everybody cooks with animal products of some kind here  I had lunch with my mom and had a really understanding server. He switched out the rice in my original order because it was cooked with chicken broth and made sure that my tacos were full of grilled veggies. He was awesome! And for the second restaurant outing, I called ahead to make sure that the place would fix my pizza without meat and cheese. They said “no problem…they get handle special requests all the time.” So that was painless too. All my other meals have been made at home. This really is not as hard as everybody thinks. I am learning firsthand. Don’t be scared to try if you are interested. Your body will thank you from the inside out.