Savages: Part 2
It’s been over three months since I decided – or rather, was persuaded to stop consuming animals. A lot has changed in that time and I’m happy to say that it hasn’t been as tough as I was expecting it to be. I haven’t been able to cut all animal products and bi-products out of my diet entirely. But I feel that I’ve taken some giant steps forward and am proud of myself and my family for that.
I was pleasantly surprised to find there’s an abundance of products out there for veggies and vegans and they’re actually very accessible. A Sobey’s opened up across the street right around the time I stopped consuming animals. They carry a wide selection of natural foods and meat alternatives. As a matter of fact, each isle has it’s own ‘natural’ section. I recommend you check them out if you can’t find everything you need at your local grocery store.
As far as products go. We’ve sample quite a few – some are great… some just plain bad. Wrong, even! Yves has a great line of ground beef alternatives. We’ve used them for everything from pasta to tacos. Deanna makes a mean chicken quesadilla. She swapped the chicken for Yves ground beef and it’s just awesome!
Even eating out hasn’t been overly difficult. Licks has a great line of veggie meals in their Nature menu. Their burger is amazing! Actually, that’s all I’ve managed to try. They also offer veggie chili, sheppard’s pie, lasagna and veggie wrap. Speaking of lasagna – try using the Yves ground beef for lasagna. Sooooo good! One thing I’ve really enjoyed about making the switch has been the variety of new things I’ve tried over the past few months. Some things that I never would have thought I would eat – let alone enjoy.
Milk was also something I wanted to cut out of my diet. We tried a couple different brands of soy milk. After finding one we all liked – we stuck with it. Then, just a few days ago, we all really started to dislike it. It didn’t happen slowly either. I went from not enjoying it to almost forcing it down within about two days. Not sure what that was all about, but we decided to go back to drinking 1% milk. If soy milk wasn’t so expensive (almost double the price of regular milk) and tasted a bit better, we could probably deal with it. If you haven’t tried it before – think left-over milk from cereal.
Milk, eggs, fish and the occasional chicken are pretty much the only non-veg/soy products we have in our diet right now. This might change, but I doubt it. I think what we’ve done is a drastic enough and I’m happy with the changes we’ve made.
Lastly and most importantly – you feel great when not consuming meat! Seriously – I haven’t felt over-full or bloated after eating a meal in months. Definitely noticed a huge change in this department.
If you’re thinking of going veg – do it! It’s really not as hard as you think.