Day 30: Hey I made it, I'm the world's greatest

Now I wish I would have used R Kelly lyrics for all of my post titles...

I am a mountain. I am a tall tree.

Well, here we are... Cheesemas Eve. Just kidding (I think). We've made it 30 full days without ever intentionally eating animal products. I say "intentionally" because we have found out after the fact that a few random things we've eaten (like popcorn or breakfast bars) "may contain milk," but for the most part, we've done everything in our power to avoid anything that wasn't wholly vegan. I'll be the first to admit that it really wasn't so bad. In fact, we learned a ton along the way, we became much more aware about what we put into our bodies, and we ended up physically feeling better. Here's a breakdown of what we've learned:

People are absolutely insane when it comes to food.
I knew our endeavor would be met with skepticism, questions, and a good amount of jokes on our behalf, but what I didn't expect was how actively unsupportive some people would be. I guess I've never cared what other people eat, so I didn't think anyone would care about what we eat. I was wrong. Even if you're only talking about what you eat, some people will instantly feel threatened and judged, so they turn into a cornered raccoon and come at you with a vengeance. Don't believe me? Check out how many people instantly lost their minds when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently posted an article about the increasing popularity of vegan diets. The insanity most definitely displays itself on both sides of the coin, but it's pretty incredible how mad some meat-eaters will get at the mere mention of the word "vegan." You guys know you're arguing about the things that other people chew, right? Let's save the passion for more important arguments... like whether or not there will ever be a Super Bowl at Lambeau Field. (It WILL happen, so save your breath, because I'm right.)

A vegan diet helps you lose* weight.
Sometimes I want to [lovingly] strangle Scott until he falls into eternal sleep, because after I spent a month busting my butt preparing two vegan meals every day for us, he lost 20lbs and *I lost exactly 0. I've told this to a few people and they're surprised on both accounts. They're amazed at how he shed weight so quickly, and they're also baffled at how a diet without meat or dairy (my two former loves) didn't lead to a slim-down for me. To that I reply: well, Scott does a good amount of manual labor on the job and he's been working out for 30 minutes a day the past week or two, while I have a desk job and have spent all of my "gym time" googling recipes, cooking, and blogging. Regardless of the reason or outcome, I've noticed how much happier Scott is since he lost the weight, and to me that's more than worth whatever weight I could have dropped myself. (Ugh, we're just too cute, aren't we?)

I feel better.
No, all my hair hasn't fallen out, I don't spontaneously faint, and haven't experienced sudden organ failure. Quite the contrary... I said this early on, but being vegan has almost entirely eliminated the sluggishness from my life. Do I still get tired? Of course. But it doesn't come with that "I desperately want to hibernate" feeling that I used to be so accustom to. I won't claim to have an abundance of energy, but I do feel much more even throughout the day; no more constant peaks and crashes. I should also mention that I went from about 20 Starbucks visits a month to 2. I drank a lot more green tea which gave me plenty of energy and saved me a whole lot of cash.
Additionally, I haven't been congested even once since the day we started the diet. This is huge, considering I used to spend 75% of my time ready to take a power drill to my sinuses. I'm told the lack of inflammation has a lot to do with dairy, so I'd like to dedicate this ladyjam to my former love... cheese.



Now to answer the two most frequently asked questions:

1. Will you keep blogging? - Yes. Just a whole lot less. Trying to blog for 30 consecutive days proved to be an insurmountable challenge. It was too much for me and there are probably posts where that came across loud and clear to readers. Rather than posting something I'm not happy with just for the sake of doing it, I'll be posting whenever I feel compelled to. Future posts certainly won't be as vegan-focused, but luckily I was blessed with the ability to extrapolate on even the most mundane of subjects, so you won't have to struggle through life without my obnoxious ramblings. (You can go celebrate in the streets now.)
2. Are you going to stay vegan? - I don't have a yes or no answer to this. What I do know for sure is that we're going to make vegan choices whenever we can. Neither of us are all that intimated by the prospect of staying vegan forever, but we also know that setting our goals too high can be a recipe for disaster. Instead, I've come up with my own diet plan and I think it's pretty damn genius if I do say so myself. Here's what we will be doing from here on out: vegan at home, vegetarian otherwise. We don't need meat and it was alarmingly easy to ditch it this month, so deciding to eliminate it long-term was a fairly obvious choice. As for the rest, the point of my VAHVO plan (god I hope that catches on) is that we already prepare at least 85% of our meals at home, so It would keep us mainly vegan, but we also aren't limited when we go out to eat or dine at someone's home. I'm sure there are vegans out there who see this as a cop out, but even one vegan meal a month is an improvement from the way we used to be eating, so VAHVO would be an insanely huge step in the right direction. Judge me if you want... I won't be able to hear you over my chants of "viva la VAHVO" anyway.

I could ramble on about what I've learned over the past month, but I'd rather take this final paragraph to thank you. If you're reading this, please know that I'm mentally koala-hugging you and I'll never let go. I started this blog as a way to prove to a select few friends and family members that I'm not cheating on my diet, but it turned into something much more powerful. Somehow I ended up with 4,000 pageviews and an overwhelming amount of encouragement. I can't tell you how much it meant to me when I started getting Facebook messages from people I had lost touch with years ago, just because they wanted to say "love the blog" or "keep it up." I resist corniness with congress-level stubbornness (LOLz P0LITICAL JOKEz), but I do want you all to know how much your support has meant to me. When I wanted to dive face-first into a vat of Parmesan, I thought of breaking the news to you in a post and decided to eat my weight in hummus instead. You really are the best, so give yourself a few dozen vegan points and a pat on the back, you majestic bundles of love.

Talk to you soon, world wide web.