Gum.

I've started chewing gum. A lot. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

On the plus side, it's extremely satisfying after eating, and keeps me from eating more, even after I am full.

On the suck side, gum is full of aspartame and artificial flavors.

Jumpstart?

The carnevegan diet has not been supported by others, and I have failed for the past 5 days (I haven't even been thinking about it), but I think I will continue. That is all. Starting tomorrow.

Oatmeal? !!!

I would just like to point out how extremely productive I have been these last few days. Did stats assignment twice, applied for two internships, posted for ENVS, am writing a paper for economic development, hung posters, went for A GLORIOUS walk through the Riverview forest and down the waterfront. Met some urban ducks. They aren't afraid of anything.

For breakfast, I had a bowl of oatmeal with nut butter, jam and soy milk. Paired it with some grapes and cantaloupe, and washed it down with good ol' Yerba Mate.

It's been a while since I've eaten oatmeal. My understanding of the mucilaginous cereal is that it is generally thick, hot, and too much for me to eat. No so, at the Bon. I slurped (a horrid verb) it down much too fast, and I was glad my oatmeal had jam and nut butter in it, because it would have tasted like a warm bowl of nothing otherwise. I couldn't taste the good oatmeal-y flavor, which is one of the aspects of oatmeal I actually enjoy.

I don't know if I will be eating oatmeal in the Bon again, but if I do, I'm certain I will be adding jam and nut butter again.

Lunchtime:

Oooops...forgot that feta is most def not vegan. This is an interesting project, because while I probably know just as much as any vegan on this campus about what is and is not vegan, I keep messing up anyway. It's just this mindset that comes to me when I have so many options, and I forget to even acknowledge veganism. The grilled cheese last night was a choice I made, but today, when I was consciously trying to avoid dairy and eggs, I STILL couldn't do it.


And dinner...chili and salad, with vegan carrot cake with "cheesecake" topping. I'm so skeptical of vegan desserts. In my mind they are generally less healthy than desserts made with wholesome eggs and butter...but the Bon just does such a good job with them. It's hard to resist. HOWEVER, if I can resist the normal desserts, I can most definitely expand that to the vegan ones too. Grab an apple and slather it with nut butter, will ya?

Grilled Cheese.

Today I made a grilled cheese like I've never made before.

I made that childishly ideal grilled cheese that I always dreamt of, but could never have as a child because we never had things like white bread, or presliced cheddar.

It wasn't very good. There's a reason small children prefer grilled cheese more than adults do. White bread and processed cheddar are quite bland. Quite bland indeed. Of course, I did add tomato to it, and used both cheddar and swiss cheese, but the sandwich was still quite bland.

Bland, and yet, undeniably satisfying. Maybe it's because I rarely consume such things, but watch people eat them all the time. Maybe it's because I have been reducing dairy intake (though you'd hardly know it from reading this...). Whatever the reason, there was a bunch of white bread in the freezer, presliced cheese and tomatoes in the fridge, and it was dinner time.

Tomorrow I am going to try to truly eat all carnevegan. The weekend might be harder, because my parents are visiting, and I'm not sure I will be given options as to what I eat. Monday will be the official start day, I think!

Failing.

Failing in so many ways.

If college has taught me anything, it is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE anything done on the computer. Sometimes even this will not save one from utter catastrophe.

I spent my day in the library, for a total of 12 hours working (on and off...) on a statistics assignment due the next day.

For a while it seemed hopeless that I would ever understand the correct usage of the "confidence interval for the mean" formula.

For dinner I had pizza, salad, and cookies. Not vegan. In any way. But the Trail Room has limited options. That's not to say there weren't vegan options though.

After a brief study sesh with other stats students, I felt more confident in my abilities.

At 2:30 a.m. I saved the excel document, multiple times, uploaded the file to Webdisk, closed excel, and opened the Webdisk file to find THE ENTIRE ASSIGNMENT GONE.

I proceeded to stare blankly at the walls of my room and then rapidly search through my entire computer to make sure I wasn't missing anything. And then I went back to staring for a good 30 minutes.

Finally, I flopped onto my bed, completely exhausted and nothing to show for it.

In addition, I now have no assignment to turn in, and nothing to study for the midterm on Monday, because this was the only assignment of the unit.

I remain exceedingly grateful that the loss of homework is the most extreme problem I face in my life, and that I am privileged enough to have such a problem.

Mocha madness...

So today was interesting. I have really never purposely tried to consume a vegan diet, which is a bit uncouth of me, I suppose, considering the amount of anti-vegan contention I spew from my mouth. Of course, this is the carnevegan diet, not just plain ol' vegan.

I didn't completely follow this diet yet, but I'm easing into it, certainly. This morning I ate no eggs, avoided the yogurt and cottage cheese, but I did put a bit of milk into my coffee. I ate a sandwich with grilled veggies, turkey, lettuce and tomato, leftover from Powershift, half for lunch and half for dinner. I also had some potato-leek soup and orange. Then, THEN, I went to Starbucks, unfortunately, to meet an adviser for the Study Abroad program I'm looking at. I was feeling pretty good about the food I had consumed all day, and feeling rather indulgent, I went in for a tall mocha. Totally forgot about my carneveganism. That will change with time, certainly, but for now, I will be accidentally consuming an extra 300 calories, on occasion, which is better than accidentally consuming an extra 300 calories a night!

I'd also like to stress that this change in diet is for experimental reasons only, and to reduce the ridiculous midnight sugar feasts that take place in college. It may be a few days to a week before I officially start, but I will certainly record the day when it comes. I'm not sure I will give up putting milk in coffee and tea, though I will certainly give up lattes, cappuccinos and mochas. Yerba mate and milk is just too much of a staple in my Bon experience.

Carnivegan

Experiment coming up:

Going to be vegan for a month. Sort of. Vegan plus meat. As far as I know, this kind of diet has rarely been done, because typical are typically vegan for animal cruelty reasons. The closest fad diet to this one would probably be the "Paleo" diet, but the Paleo diet is much more meat-oriented, since filling foods like potatoes, bread, and other grains are off limits.

I am generally not a fan of meat. I don't love bacon, I rarely consume red meats, and I don't really like the taste of chicken or turkey. However, I am of the belief that our bodies, as they have evolved to this point in time, are reliant on animal products. We are indeed omnivores. But sometimes people, and Americans in particular, forget that this means we need lots of fruits and vegetables too.

As an American, I feel extremely lucky to have the option to choose to stop eating cheese and milk, because I can afford to be so choosy. If, at any point in the next month, I am in a situation that demands that I respect cultural or social norms by consuming cheese or milk, I certainly will.

Being vegan for health reasons makes no sense to me. Does eating a bunch of soy and not receiving many nutrients from animal products really sound healthy? No. However, what if occasional portions of meat were added to such a diet?

1. Overall fat and sodium intake would be greatly reduced, since much of this comes from cheese, butter, milk, yogurt, ice cream, etc...
   
2. Soy would not be as heavily relied upon. It is usually grown in a monoculture, just like corn, so it makes no sense to snub corn, yet consume huge levels of tofu, tempeh, and all those other bland soy products.
   
3. Sugar and baked goods intake would also be reduced (at least for me), because I don't care how good vegan muffins, cookies, cakes, pies and other desserts may be-they just aren't the same without butter.
4. Most importantly, nutrients like iron and B12 would be maintained without the use of supplements.