part time vegan

These days I am a part time vegan, I am aware that saying I am a part time vegan sounds a bit odd and probably even makes some people question my commitment to a change in my lifestyle but this isn't about getting acceptance from others. Over the years I have made a lot of changes in my life and I think how I got here and why this works well for me and my family is an interesting story that may make you think about what is the best way for you to make long term changes in your life, should you wish to make changes.

A few years ago I was introduced to the idea of being a part time vegetarian for environmental reasons and we thought that sounded like a good way to start eating less meat. Both my husband and I had tried to go vegetarian in the past (independently of each other) and found after time that we weren't feeling our best so we went back to eating meat again. It seemed that eating a well balanced vegetarian diet would take more time to plan out than either of us had so as my husband says we were non practicing vegetarians.

When we decided to give part time vegetarianism a try we decided to aim for no more than 7 meals a week that included meat. This may sound like a lot, but if you think about it a lot of people eat meat with all 3 meals every day and that is approximately 21 meals a week. Since we had a newborn at the time this part time vegetarian diet made balancing our diet a little easier on us. Over time we tended to eat less and less meat, but we never gave up meat completely.

About 2 years passed with our part time vegetarian diet I began playing with some vegan recipes due to my ongoing issues with dairy and our son's upcoming birthday where we would have a few vegan and non-dairy friends in attendance. I didn't want these kids to not be able to enjoy the cupcakes or to have to bring their own meals to the party. I found that vegan baking wasn't all that difficult and no one knew the food was vegan if I didn't tell them. My cookies, cupcakes, muffins, and even pancakes were just as good as the traditional diary versions I made.

Over the next few months I ended up being very happy that I had begun learning to bake and even cook and eat vegan friendly meals because my diary issues really started to flare up again. This time I had already done much of the homework to make the transition easier, previously when my diary issues flared up badly I really didn't know what I was doing and had a difficult time eating dairy-free. I do still eat a little bit of dairy here and there, but when I do have a little dairy I often end up feeling really sick after wards.

I have been very happy taking my dietary changes slowly and have found that easing into these changes has made it much easier and I also feel much healthier than in my previous attempt at a vegetarian diet and a dairy-free diet. Now I am a part time vegan and really don't feel deprived. I still have to try making a vegan cheesecake and tiramisu, as those are two very dairy heavy deserts that my husband and I both love.