Some time around summer of last year, my daughter, Cambria, and I started eating less meat when she was with me. Based on my general health and budget concerns, first we cut out red meat for a while. Then Cambria made a comment based on a Chick-fil-a ad to the effect of, why would we save cows and not chickens? I really just hadn’t thought much about it, and chicken was more integrated into our diet. She still eats meat when she’s with her dad, but we then cut out buying chicken when we grocery shop, and stopped going out to eat to save money.
I had heard about veganism from various sources by that time, e.g., friends and work, and started to research more online about how and why one would choose to go vegan. The information I found made a lot of sense, and I was already feeling better after giving up meat and finding more room for fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet. At that point, I started considering giving up eggs and dairy, which I did around September of 2012. I loved butter and cheese, so I thought that would be really hard to do, but then I discovered Earth Balance buttery spread and Daiya mozzarella shreds, which are used in American Flatbread vegan pizza, and all was right in the world. Cambria loves the vegan pizza, and her willingness to embrace a vegan diet when she’s with me makes all the difference in my motivation to stick with it, as well as the idea that it is good for us.
We started going to the library quite a bit, so I’ve been checking out vegan cookbooks and learning about all the different options for main dishes that don’t include meat, dairy or eggs, and expanding my knowledge of food in the process, which has kept me interested and excited about the idea.
I jog, so one of the books I checked out and read was Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run. Lately I’ve had to go without driving my car, so I’ve been walk/jogging around 50 miles per week to and from the train station to go to work, so Scott’s Book was encouraging both from a veganism perspective and to help me keep up the motivation to accomplish the mileage that may ultimately lead me to run an ultramarathon, who knows 🙂
After learning that sugar may be processed using animal products, I started buying agave nectar instead and use it in all recipes that call for sugar. It has become a habit for me to read ingredient lists when grocery shopping, and in doing so, have noticed that sugar is included in so many processed foods where it doesn’t seem necessary and/or you wouldn’t intuitively think it would be, e.g., peanut butter, jam and hummus. Our staples are now whole grain flours and breads, Food Should Taste Good chips, Wholly guacamole and salsa, Whole Soy yogurt with nuts, raisins and 365 vegan chocolate chips, Earth Balance peanut butter and 365 jam, brown rice, black beans, and fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. I love the simplicity of the base of our diet, while still allowing for experimentation with items like quinoa, flax seed, and exotic fruits and veggies that I have recently learned about, and there is so much more to learn.
I’m just starting to learn about applying veganism to the rest of my life. Since the basis for my transition was health and budget, with concern for animals honestly secondary, it wasn’t until I started reading more about veganism that concern for animals and the environment came more into focus in my life. Cutting out leather shoes wasn’t difficult, and still in line with my budget consciousness. However, considering I don’t know what half the ingredients in many household products are (which is concerning in itself), it is difficult for me to tell if they are derived from animal products. I’ve given away all my leather handbags and accessories, but I still have a giant leather couch that I sleep on and is a central piece of furniture in my apartment, which I don’t foresee going away any time soon, again due to budget concerns. So, a lot of learning left to do in this area as well, but I do see the benefit of continuing on this path for the health of myself, my daughter, animals and the environment. 
tyannacates 