Our Veganish Diet

Pestopizza

I’ve written about going vegan for a week, eating Tofurky and my excitement for vegan breakfast options at The Coffee Shop and Uprooted Kitchen. But we’re also not completely/strictly vegan. So I thought I’d share a post on what the heck we eat.

Our motivation for choosing food comes primarily out of concern for the treatment of animals but also for the health of the environment and ourselves. Deciding what to eat is a deeply personal choice and also one that has become very political! My thoughts here only reflect the way Chris and I eat and how we arrived at our current diet.

Before being veganish since about November of last year we were vegetarian and ate dairy, eggs, and fish. My thinking was that I felt OK eating dairy and eggs because the animal does not have to be killed to obtain the food product. And I didn’t feel as much compassion towards a fish as for other animals although we did always try to buy seafood that had been sustainably fished (such asMSC certified and according to Seafood Watch). We tried to buy organic milk and yogurt and cage free eggs.

Then a talk by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, the Compassionate Cook as she calls herself, really opened our eyes to how dairy cows, their calves, are treated as well as laying hens. Later we saw the movie Vegucated which had footage of what I would consider extreme and unnecessarily cruel farm practices that are standard at industrial farms, including those used for dairy cows and laying hens. I had to close my eyes through most of it but the sounds were still very disturbing. For me this immediately brings a question to my mind: If I can’t stand to watch where my food comes from, can I justify eating it?

Muffins

Armed with this information we felt we had to seriously evaluate whether we wanted to be part of the “demand” for these food products and support the practices that create them. We decided that we want to lessen our demand as much as possible. So since February our diet has been what I would call veganish. Here’s how it works right now:

In our home. We eat exclusively* vegan at home. We do not buy any animal food products at the store (with the exception of honey, which will still eat and strict vegans do not). This means we have no animal food products in the house and since we take our lunches and cook dinner at home we eat vegan all week. When we have people over for a meal we cook vegan. *The exception would be if someone brought a non-vegan (vegetarian) dish to our house, then we'd go vegetarian.

At someone else’s house. Our diet is veganish because we do make exceptions. If we go to someone else’s house for a meal and there is no vegan option we will fall back to being vegetarian. Our family and friends have been very accommodating of our eating habits so many times there is a vegan option for us but I never want to inconvenience someone who has so kindly prepared a meal for us.

At restaurants. Vegetarian options at restaurants today are plentiful. Full-meal vegan options with protein are less common. (Veggie burgers are common on menus but they usually contain eggs.) If we’re at a restaurant picked by family or friends we’ll find the best vegan option or just go vegetarian and not worry about it. If Chris and I pick the restaurant we’ll either pick one that has great vegan options (such as Uprooted Kitchen, The Coffee Shop, 24 Carrots, or Green) or we’ll purposefully pick a place where we plan to eat vegetarian, mostly for pizza or ice cream, which happens infrequently. 

Travelling. If we can find a great vegan place to eat while we travel we’ll definitely go but for the most part I plan to be only vegetarian. I’ll look first for a good vegan option on menus but if I don’t find one I’ll go vegetarian. I still love cheese, Greek yogurt and ice cream so traveling is usually when I’ll let myself indulge. 

Veganmac

Rside

As you can see, our diet is flexible (except for the “no meat” part). Sometimes this makes me feel like a hypocrite, which bothers me. I don’t approve of farm practices yet I’m not strict enough with myself to completely eliminate dairy and eggs from my diet. Still, at this point it’s a level of hypocrisy that I will accept for now. We’ve essentially cut down our demand for animal food products to near zero and I’m a big believer that you "vote with your dollars". We eat significantly less animal food products than the average American so I feel good about that.

Overall I've been so amazed at how easy it is to eat vegan. I really don't miss putting milk, yogurt and eggs into my grocery cart. When I do eat dairy products or non-vegan baked goods on occasion I enjoy them but I don't crave them (although sometimes I did when we first started being veganish). It seems that the only two things I've not found great vegan alternatives for is a cheese pizza (vegan cheese does not cut it) and Greek yogurt. But in the grand scheme of everything we caneat I think it's great there are only two things I miss.

I'm able to find everything I need at Trader Joe’s or a regular grocery store. We make occasional trips to Whole Foods or Sprouts but it’s more of a treat than to get anything we’re missing from our diet. And while I do still enjoy a great piece of pizza or a scoop of ice cream on occasion I never feel depraved or hungry as a result of our current diet, maybe because I do make occasional exceptions to eat these things. I also feel amazing and more healthy than I did when we just only eating vegetarian. This surprised me because I didn’t think that the switch from vegetarian to veganish would be significant. I haven’t lost any weight but feel lighter. And I definitely have plenty of energy to keep up with yoga, spinning and running. Overall I have a general feeling of being very healthy and I think that has a lot to do with my diet (and of course being active).

If I really wanted to I could cut out the exceptions that I make at other people’s houses, restaurants, and when travelling. I’m not there yet but I could see that in the future. For now, veganish will do.

(All photos are vegan foods.)

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9 responses to “Our Veganish Diet”

  1. Ali Avatar
    Ali

    Thanks for this post – very interesting! My husband and I recently switched to a vegetarian diet, and I’m trying to incorporate vegan meals more and more. I’m curious – how did becoming “veganish” affect your grocery bills? Do you see any significant difference?

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      HI Ali! I don’t keep close track of individual grocery bills but I know we’re still sticking to our allotted grocery budget each month so we’re definitely not going over (from the purchase of vegan alternatives and almond milk, which is more pricey) and now I’m curious if it’s gone down significantly. I don’t think so but I’ll have to run the numbers. I think incorporating some vegan meals is great! I’m surprised at how easy and tasty they can be!

      Reply
  2. Ciara Avatar
    Ciara

    Well I am very glad that I have not gotten around to posting a selection of traditional Bristish Cadbury’s chocolate!

    Hi Kelsey 🙂 I thought I should stop by to say hi seeing as my letter posting skills are shocking.

    You are much further ahead with your transition to veganism than we are. After a solid month we start to crave cheese and eggs. I am pretty happy with eggs though. We get ours from a colleague who has rescued battery hens mixed in with some fancy breeds. He says the rescue ones are very affectionate and love to cuddle. When we run low there is a great selection of free range, cruelty free, RSPA licensed eggs available. Even compassionate farming certified ones.
    We still try though. Dinner tonight was chickpea picatta and pasta. Vegan 🙂

    Reply
    1. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Hey pen pal!! Haha, well I could not resist such a nice gift from a friend. That would definitely fall under the exception rule. What a great source for eggs! Eggs do seem to be the one animal product that can be obtained in a completely humane way but lately the taste and texture of eggs has put me off! But Chris has been thinking about buying them because he still enjoys them. They are so lovely in baked goods too, mmm. My mom has a flock of hens in Austin and gives away eggs to the neighbors; they are such cute animals!

      Reply
  3. Kristy Avatar
    Kristy

    That pizza looks yummy! Do you guys use supplements in your diet? How long have you both been meat-free?

    I followed a vegan diet for awhile back. My challenges were preparing meals for the family (kids have limited palates), ensuring that I was receiving proper balanced nutrition (iron/B12), avoiding processed foods and soy overload, and the extra costs for vegan products (like butter substitute) and all the specialty ingredients and spices that are usually in vegan recipes. Do/did you experience any challenges besides the initial cravings for vegetarian-fare?

    I try to do meatless meals at least a couple times/week. After watching Food Inc., we never shopped for meat at a grocery store again. We do farmers market when possible or straight from farm for animal products (meat, eggs). The rest of the time we shop at a local butcher who can tell us where all of the meat comes from. I think it is so so important that we know where our food comes from and that people have the opportunity to visit these places. Society has become so disconnected. A century ago, we were mostly an agrarian society. People had to raise their own livestock if they wanted to eat animal products and consumption of these products was far less since there wasn’t industrial processing like there is today. The heath benefits alone of cutting back on animal products is immense not to mention the ethical component. I know you have mentioned having a family in the future. I do wonder if you plan on passing on your food values to your future child(ren)?

    Reply
    1. Kristy Avatar
      Kristy

      Kristy, I like your approach to eating animal foods. In fact, a PhD student at ASU was just sharing with me some results of a life cycle analysis he just conducted (a study of environmental impacts of systems, products, etc., usually focused on CO2 emissions or energy/resource utilization) comparing vegan meat replacements (i.e., Tofurkey) with meat. He found that while vegan meats are less ‘impactful’ than conventional meats, it’s quite possible that eating meat coming from a truly free-range/grass-fed animal could make even less of an impact than the vegan meat equivalent. If you think of the processing required to make a vegan meat product, as well as the resources required to package it all up in plastic and cardboard, it makes sense.

      In the end, based on studies like this, I think it’s a very responsible step to take to purchase responsibly produced meat that you often find at farmers’ markets or from small-time producers. And, if you couple that with a generally lowered meat intake (which is often necessary given these meat sources can be much more expensive), you’ve made a big leap in lowering your impact on the environment.

      Reply
    2. Kelsey Avatar
      Kelsey

      Hi Kristy – We’ve been meat free for about 4 years now. Before that we both ate meat rarely so I’d say I’ve been semi-vegetarian for 10+ years although only a really healthy one (eating good, balanced meals) since I started living with Chris. We do take a daily supplement that includes iron and B12. The points you bring up about extra processing and cost in vegan products is so true! It’s something I try to be conscious of at the market when considering things like lentils or processed vegan meat products – lentils win out for cost and ingredients! Probably overall nutrition too. I also try to think about the amount of soy we eat. We drink almond milk (really love it), use the butter substitute and vegan cream cheese and then also sometimes buy tofu, vegan meat products, and vegan yogurt (soy, coconut, or almond). Getting a CSA share each week has also helped us to eat a diet that is primarily veggies, grains, and beans/legumes and less tofu and vegan meats.

      I know that we will want to raise our family vegetarian and maybe even vegan – ? I’m thinking it will probably be some modified veganish version of what we have now. I’m very glad to have Chris as a nutrition resource so I think he’ll plan to read up on child nutrition so that we can evaluate what will be best for any kiddos. I also don’t want to be overbearing and restrictive about food. Maybe we wouldn’t serve meat in the house but if they wanted to try it we’d find a place to get humanely raised meat – ? What I most hope to impart is being mindful of what we eat and acknowledging that food comes from the earth and can also come from animals. I can tell you are very conscious of that in your family and I know your boys will carry that with them as they grow older; I think that is really great!

      Reply
  4. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    This is a great post. My husband and I have very similar eating habits, though he falls closer to the ‘vegetarian’ side of the spectrum than I do. For awhile, I felt bad calling myself a vegan, while occasionally eating vegetarian. But I got over it 🙂 I don’t think it has to be black and white. I eat a mostly vegan diet, so I consider myself a vegan. When I was pregnant, and everything sounded revolting except cheese pizza, I ate it! We have similar feelings regarding traveling and social meals/potlucks. Most of our close friends know our preferences and provide vegan options for us, but this isn’t always the case.

    I would like to raise our daughter (who is just now getting into solid foods!) primarily vegan as well, with the same exceptions that we follow now (travel, etc.) I think it’s wonderful when people are committed to lowering their impact, and I’m a firm believer in doing what you can, even if you can’t be an extreme vegan 🙂

    Reply
  5. Kristy Avatar
    Kristy

    Kelsey and Chris – Thanks for sharing more about your diet and some interesting research findings related to environmental impacts of meat v. vegan substitutes. Kelsey, I really like your last comments about being mindful of what we eat and acknowledging that food can come from the earth and from animals.

    I think a large part of the problem with consuming animal products is really the industrial processing (treatment of animals, poor quality feed/livestock, hormones/antibiotics/preservatives), excess consumption, and WASTE. If you go to somewhere like Denny’s the standard breakfast is 3 eggs and 4 sausage links or bacon. Chris, you’re right about more ethical meat sources being more expensive. Consequently, this does limit the amount of animal products we consume but we are happy for the quality of the food, the health benefits of organic/moderate consumption, and to support the local economy. We’re more likely to make pancakes where we only have to use one egg than having scrambled eggs. Same with things like chicken. We’ll use one breast piece for a family meal and make pasta or stir fry with lots of veggies as filler, whereas most omni-households would have one portion of meat per person. We also don’t let things go to waste. My husband grew up in the country and fishing and hunting was a big part of his upbringing. It was never for sport though, they would always eat anything they hunted. Being from the city, I didn’t know many hunters so initially I was uneasy about it. However, now it is something that I have come to see as being a big component to our family’s connection to the food we eat. I find it more ethical than those who simply eat meat from the grocery store but who could never kill an animal themselves. When we have a turkey at Thanksgiving, it truly is free-range, and there are zero degrees of separation between us and the food on our table. We’re also very honest with our boys (mainly the older one, the 1 year old isn’t quite there yet) about animal products and like you guys, plan to educate them on food choices so they can make their own informed decisions on food as they get older.

    Reply

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