It looks normal...

It looks normal doesn't it? Vegetable, Starch, main portion. This meal is vegan. It was eaten pre-challenge. I've found in my year-plus living with my wife that the main challenge or issue I have with vegetarian/vegan cooking is the foreign-ness of the elements of the meals and how they're put together. The picture above looks more like regular meals. Somehow that, the normal American meal set-up, makes eating vegetarian/vegan easier for me.

I hope that the challenge isn't too taxing. It's almost scary to think about changing my diet. Food is such a big part of socializing and culture and it's daunting to think about changing that. Growing up I think I had no willpower whatsoever. I'm not sure how much willpower I have now. Will I be able to give up all meat? How will that affect things like Thanksgiving and Christmas? Will I be able to go without? Will I be able to cope with being even more blacksheep among my family? I think I'll hold on to something the Vegan Burnout said to me. "Of course it's easy to go get a cheeseburger from McDonald's I want to do that from time to time. My principles keep me going."

Food Bucket List

If you've read my previous post, then you know about the 21-day challenge. If you don't know about it, go read my other post. It's only right down there. I digress. In efforts to prepare for the challenge, I'm trying to make a food bucket list. I'm also trying to load up on as much of the foods I won't be able to have during the challenge. To that end I had a bacon cheeseburger with mayo today. It was delicious and gross at the same time. Thus far I've only been able to think of a few things to put on the food bucket list. I have to have wings at least once. I want to have some breakfast foods. I also want my grandma to make me an egg in a cup. It's this thing I used to have at her house all the time as a kid. The big question is what am I missing from my list.

It's not that I won't be able to eat what I want after the 21 days are up or that I'll be forced into something. I guess I think that perhaps I'd like to stop eating meat, at least try. I tried to do that for awhile, but I didn't give it the old college try. I should have tried harder to follow through on it.

Now is my chance to give it a real, honest try. For an introduction into one reason behind giving up at least red meat go here. I'll say now that I think there are too many assumptions as part of that article to really "debunk" anything. From a pro-environmental perspective eating local is a great idea, especially when you want to continue eating meat. Go here for a local, small-business grocery store selling local meat. Support local business and local farmers.

Challenge and update...

So, I have been challenged by a coworker. My wife (her blog is here ) sent out an email to me and a number of our friends and family informing us about this challenge sponsored by the PCRM. I mentioned it to folks at work, which is how I got challenged. So I will be setting out to complete this challenge with flying colors. I can't not beat it.

Update: Check out Shannon's blog linked above. I think we'll like to each other's blog entries. Hopefully it won't cause any strife in our house. The first two months of married life has been very smooth.

Update 2: If you know me, you know that I watch a ton of TV. Right now I'm watching some damn commercial about this super-duper, compact, crazy cell wallet thingy for people who are tired of carrying around a big purse. Don't buy this thing - just take some crap out of your huge hand bag. WTF!