Giving up coffee was something I never thought I’d do.  I loved everything about it – the sound of the beans grinding, the smells emanating from the kitchen while it brewed, the warm feeling of the mug in my hands, and the taste of those first heavenly sips.  Better than all of that was the feeling that it gave me – as if I were being catapulted into the day.  I went from groggy and heavy to levitating off the kitchen floor, dancing and singing in a matter of 20 minutes.  (I’m glad that coffee drinking Cadry wasn’t with me on those first few days without caffeine, I don’t think I could have tolerated her enthusiasm.  Of course, if I’ve learned anything from Dr. Who, I know that having both of us there would have caused some kind of time rift in the continuum, but that’s neither here nor there.)

With a lift from coffee in the morning, I was a professional skier sliding up and over a ramp – nothing but wind in my face and a feeling I could get it all done in no time at all.  Despite this devotion, I’d kept my intake on the lower end.  I’d have a mug and a half in the morning.  In the afternoons, I’d often have a cup of caffeinated tea.  Maybe once a week I’d pick up coffee at a coffee shop.  I stopped drinking caffeine by three or four.  I never drank soda.

It wasn’t always that way.  In my life I hardly remember a time when I wasn’t taking in caffeine.  As a kid I was a fan of bubbly cola.  As a teenager I drank 5 or 6 cans a day.  By the time I got to college, I’d wake up with soda and fall asleep with soda.  Once I was out in the working world, I’d noticed a creep in my pant size and moved to diet soda instead.  I drank that for a year or so, and then decided to drop it because of the aspartame.  At that point, I said goodbye to soda and hello to coffee.  So why give it up now?

For me, there were a couple of reasons.  First, I wasn’t sleeping as restfully as I’d like.  I’d fall asleep okay, but then around 3 or 4 a.m. I’d wake up feeling stressed with an active mind.  I wanted to sleep more deeply and peacefully.  Second, I wondered what an uncaffeinated life would be like.  (One caveat: the occasional square of dark chocolate that I enjoy got the okay to stay.  The amount of caffeine is relatively small by comparison.)  Would I feel different?  The same?  More clear?  It was worth finding out.  Plus, I could always go back to drinking coffee, either in the amounts I’d grown accustomed or as an occasional treat.  There was no harm in doing a little experiment to find out what a life without caffeine would be like.

My last hurrah was on December 26th when I shared a soy misto with my husband as we drove back from holiday festivities.  On December 27th, I began the weaning process.  That day I filled my coffee mug halfway.  The next day, a little less.  I drank it in dwindling amounts until I swapped out coffee for caffeinated tea and did the same with that for a couple of days.  I hoped that by gradually decreasing the amount of caffeine I was drinking, I would tamper caffeine withdrawal headaches down the line.  During the period that I was weaning myself from caffeine, I simultaneously started the new habits that I wanted to replace my old behavior.  With those half cups of tea, I’d bring in a tall glass of cucumber and lemon water, or I’d make fresh juice of celery, cucumber, carrot, and apple.

After a week of weaning myself from caffeine, I started my morning with just a freshly made juice.  Instead of the noise of a coffee grinder breaking the morning silence, it was the sounds of fruits and vegetables being crushed into liquid.  On cold mornings, I reached for Rooibos tea (actually tisane), which is naturally free of caffeine and has a sweet, full flavor without sugar.  Unlike coffee, Rooibos is low in tannins, which can inhibit iron absorption.  Another plus for caffeine-free Rooibos is that it contains calcium, whereas caffeine leaches calcium from the bones.

To keep my dedication up, I sought out websites and books about giving up caffeine, like Kris Carr’s Crazy, Sexy Diet, which I read last year.  I haven’t done her cleanse, but I like some of the ideas she has for incorporating juices and smoothies into one’s diet.  She’s a big proponent of green juices, which I love too.  But if a person is having troubles getting over the caffeine hump, she suggests orange juice for its natural sugar boost.  Another idea was to start the morning with water with lemon and a dash of cayenne.  My husband tried a sip and seemed less than enthused about the taste some might describe as dirty water that burns the throat on the way down, but I actually felt like it helped.

As for withdrawal symptoms, during the days that I was weaning myself from coffee, I didn’t get a headache until the evenings.  Once I quit altogether, I had them pretty much all day.  That lasted for a few days.

After that, there were some mornings when I woke up and thought, “Man, I’d like a cup of coffee.”  On those days, I’d tell myself that first I had to get up and make tea, juice, or have a smoothie.  If, after that, I still wanted coffee, I could have it.  Wouldn’t you know, I never needed it.  My biggest surprise has been how easy it was to give it up.  Since I had so many attachments to it, I thought the process of not continuing to drink it would be impossible.  After being free of caffeine for a month, here are the benefits I’ve noticed:

1.  I wake up hungry.  I’ve always been a person who doesn’t want to have breakfast first thing in the morning.  I needed to wait until about 10 am to actually feel like eating.  Now I wake up ready to eat something substantial.  Caffeine is an appetite suppressant, but I hadn’t realized the effect it was having on my desire for a morning meal.

2.  I’ll be brief here, but let’s just say that my stomach is happier.  It didn’t like having an acidic beverage dropped on it first thing in the morning.

3.  I’m sleeping deeper, and most nights I sleep all through the night.

4.  Outside of rare baking and sweets-making, the only time I was using agave syrup was in coffee.  Now that I’m not drinking it, that’s less money and empty calories on agave syrup.

5.  My energy is more even.  I’m not doing cartwheels on the rooftop in the morning, but I am working out at 9 pm.  I don’t spend all of my energy as soon as I wake up.  Plus, I feel like my mind is calmer.

6. When I travel, I won’t have to worry about when/where I’m going to get coffee.  If I’m at a hotel and the coffee is less than spectacular (which it generally is) or in a country where tea is the drink de rigueur, I don’t have to start the day with a search for a coffee shop.  A couple of years ago I was going on a weekend trip to see my friend, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, in the Bay area.  If you follow her podcast, you know that she’s a major tea drinker, and in fact, she doesn’t even own a coffee pot.  That is to say, she didn’t used to own a coffee pot…  We were going to be working on a project at her home, and I knew there wouldn’t be time to go out and pick up coffee while I was there.  I didn’t want to have a fuzzy mind and headache, and so before the trip I purchased a small coffee pot, filters, and ground coffee.  Packing my little carry-on with a variety of coffee accoutrement felt silly but imperative.  I knew I’d have a much happier trip.  Anyway, I left the coffee pot with Colleen, and she still has it for her coffee-loving guests.  A nice perk of not depending on coffee to start the day is that it frees my time for more sightseeing and more space in my suitcase for important things like boots.

If you’re considering dropping coffee, cutting back, or even just doing a 30 day experiment, here are my tips:

1.  Wean yourself.  It probably didn’t cut back on the amount of headaches that I had, but it gave me time to get used to the idea.  Getting by on a half a cup of coffee bolstered my confidence that I could get by on none at all.

2.  During the weaning process, start practicing new habits – juicing, smoothie-making, drinking caffeine-free herbal tea, or starting the morning with cucumber/lemon water.

3.  Consider dropping coffee on a week you already feel crummy or are taking pain killers.  If you’re a woman, this could be the week of your period, or it could be a week that you’re starting a new exercise regimen or are sick.  If you don’t feel good anyway, might as well pile it on at once and get it over with.

In the end, do I think I’ll never have another cup of coffee again?  No.  However, I like the idea of it being a special occasion treat.  Maybe I’d have a cup on a weekend out of town or a girls’ day shopping trip.  It would be something I enjoy as a conscious, deliberate choice instead of as a habit.

First off, no one wants to eat something whose first and most notable title is “Nutritional.”  This is a descriptor that is never used as a compliment.  “Mmm, those oat groats look awfully nutritional.  Give me another helping!”  Instead people conjure up the smells of their parents downing Geritol or that unhappy sight when a spoonful of cough syrup was heading mouthward.

Next up, Yeast.  I don’t want to be indelicate here, but when people hear yeast, they think bread… and infections.  Nutritional yeast flakes aren’t generally going into loaves of bread, and so that leaves only infections.  Ask someone if you’d like to top their spaghetti or popcorn in yeast and expect strange looks at best, sudden dinner cancellations at worst.

Finally, Flakes.  Okay, there are snowflakes, which to some people could be a positive thing, but with yeast flakes being yellow, I don’t know that it’s a huge selling point.  No, the major thing we think of with the term flakes is dandruff.  It puts one to the mind of cheesy (okay, kind of appropriate) commercials from the 1980’s that were sandwiched between ads about ring around the collar and Calgon, take me away.  These commercials involved colorful sweaters and concerns over how to shampoo your scalp back to health.

So where does that leave us?  Geritol Infection Dandruff.  These are not selling points.  What’s a nutritional yeast-loving person to do?  Well, lots of people re-name it “nooch”, and I’ve gone that route a time or two.  It’s cute.  It sounds pleasant enough.  But you know what the problem is?  Eventually you’re going to mention nooch to someone who isn’t vegan or vegan-curious, and they’re going to say, “What’s nooch?”  And then you’re left saying, “Nutritional Yeast Flakes,” which means zero to them, and which takes you back to the first problem and that is that nutritional yeast flakes is a terrible name for something so incredibly delicious.

If you’re anything like me, maybe you’ve tried to skirt the issue by describing its origins instead.  Friends, if there’s one thing worse than calling it Nutritional Yeast Flakes, it’s describing its origins.  “It’s this non-active yeast that grows on molasses.”  Can I tell you how wholly unappealing that sounds?  Non-active yeast growing on molasses?  It’s still past what most people can imagine in terms of their own ideas of, say, farming, and it doesn’t do anything to help the case for our friend, nooch.

I’d say we have two choices.  Here’s the first; find an agreeable nickname that is liked by all parties.  I’d like to throw the following options into the hat:

Could I offer you some Cheesy Sprinkles for your popcorn?

1.  Cheesy Sprinkles – What’s the first thing people tell you when you say you’re vegan?  Right, that they don’t eat much meat.  And second?  That they could never give up cheese.  (Occasionally, the order is reversed.)  So we know that people like cheese and cheesy (especially if Mr. T is involved).  And sprinkles remind people of cakes and cookies and birthdays, and those are very pleasurable things, indeed.

2.  Droplets of Sunshine – We have sunshine, which let’s all agree, is awesome.  Then we have droplets, which are reminiscent of a spring rain and daffodils and skipping in puddles– again good things.

3.  Popcorn Topping – It’s not the most flowery name ever, but it’s quick and to the point, and I don’t think people will question it too much.  (If you’ve read the ingredients in conventional popcorn topping, you’ll likely agree.)  “Hey, do you want some popcorn topping?”  This sounds innocuous enough.

Outside of heavy renaming, I’d say our other option is to just give it to those who don’t question the name.  To them, it doesn’t need a name at all.  All they need to know is that it’s the addictive stuff in the stoneware jar that’s delivered by spoon to their kitty treat plate.  Who needs words when an insistent meow will bring you this?

Calcium?  I choose kale without fail.

Fiber, flavonoids, omega-threes,

Potassium, antioxidants – all of these,

For other veggies, I will chop and sauté,

For kale, I’ll massage till its cares are away,

Into a smoothie, a salad, and side,

Its nutrient properties are bona fide.

With a cashew dressing or squeezed with citrus,

Kale, I could never ever forget this.

Whether purple, dinosaur, or lacinato,

To the store to get it – I’ve just got to.

And once I’ve swallowed its vitamins – k, a, and c,

I’ll absorb all its iron (unless I enjoy it with tea).

I just finished reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  At the beginning of the non-fiction book, the reader learns that while Rubin is not unhappy, she thinks that she could be happier.  By trying out different ideas, theories, and belief systems around happiness she strives to find what makes her day-to-day better and what makes her appreciate the moment of now.  She plots goals and resolutions for each month of the year, devises a chart to track her progress, and pushes herself outside of her own comfort zone.  During the course of the book, she also began a blog about her happiness project and now has a sister site for people who want to develop their own.  It’s an interesting idea, and who couldn’t use more happiness?

There were a few take-aways from the book that I liked.  One theme that she kept coming back to was the idea to “Be Gretchen.”  For example, if someone really likes the song stylings of Rick Astley, why not embrace it?  She claims that people can get so caught up in the idea of what they feel they’re supposed to be or supposed to enjoy, they miss out on fully giving into what will actually inspire them.  (It reminded me of something I heard about Netflix a while back.  I don’t know if it’s true; I think my Google is broken.  Anyway, the story goes that when people are putting movies into their queue they pick a combination of high-minded films and popcorn movies.  The movies people choose to watch now are mostly the latter, and the high-minded films are continually pushed to the back of the queue to watch at a later date.  People think they should watch those “better” films, but what they really want to see is something more fun.)

A touchstone Rubin suggests is remembering what you enjoyed as a child and revisiting it.  For myself, I loved mail, acting out my own cooking shows in the kitchen, taking dance classes, and writing a magazine that I mailed out to other kids called, “Pen Pals International.”  (The “international” part was a bit of a stretch since outside of a few strangers around the country, the main readers were my best friend and my cousin, Susie.)  I realized that Rubin’s idea tracked since I still love mail, and I’m still writing and acting out cooking shows in my kitchen by way of this blog.  As for the dance classes, Rubin’s reminder is getting my wheels turning about looking for one in my area.

She talked about how buying something we desire can seem like it will bring happiness, but most of the time, that happiness is short-lived.  For a bit of time the attained object is something new and exciting, but that feeling is quickly absorbed and that thing becomes just a part of “everyday normal.”  One thing that bucks that trend is buying something that brings repeated, everyday happiness, like getting a gadget or plaything like a bike or boat that brings happiness every time a person uses it.  She pointed to her own experience making daily smoothies in a high speed blender.  I’ve noticed it for myself with the camera I received for Christmas, my juicer, and dresses that perk me up whenever I wear them.  It’s interesting to consider as we add to our wish lists if those things will be treasured, clutter, or just objects in the background in a few months’ time.  (That’s a reason I’ve been loving the library this past year.  I can buy books all day long, but for the most part after I read them, I don’t need to look them over again.  It’s such a savings of space and money to check them out of the library, enjoy them for a couple of weeks, and then pass them on to another library-goer.)

Another idea she points to is that things are more fun and more appreciated when they’re a novelty.  For example, when birthdays and holidays come around they’re exciting and special because they only come once a year.  When the figs are ripe in the grocery store, or persimmons, or cherries, delicata squash, watermelon, or asparagus it feels more exciting because we know those fruits and vegetables won’t be here for long.  I savor every cherry, because it will be a long time before they’re back again.  Or when you go away on vacation it feels like a fun novelty to sleep in a hotel room in a different city with amenities that are different than in your own home.  Then when you come home again, it’s wonderful to be in your own space, cuddling your companion animals in your own bed with loads of greens in the refrigerator.  It’s like that cliché – absence makes the heart grow fonder.

(Segue to cooking blog section of this post…)  I suppose that’s what makes the weekend so special.  I need work and order, and of course, money too.  But when the weekend comes and I can lounge in bed reading a book, checking email, sipping on a cup of coffee made just the way I like it, it feels so fabulously indulgent.  Then when breakfast time is quickly becoming lunchtime, I can pull out the weekends-only waffle maker, slice bananas, and spoon peanut butter for topping.  Lately I’ve been using the recipe for Chelsea Waffles from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch.  Isa calls for a combination of all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and cornmeal.  I’ve used just whole wheat pastry flour and cornmeal, and that’s worked fine as well.  I had to add a little bit more liquid to the batter for easier spreading, and they taste “healthier” than the original but they’re still good.  (They’d be especially good that way as a start to a savory waffle.)  She also uses barley malt syrup in the recipe, and I never have that.  So I just use agave syrup instead.  Also, I’ve found that my waffle maker doesn’t require non-stick spray or any extra oil, and so I put the batter on without adding any of that.

One thing that I love about waffles is that they freeze so well.  When I make the recipe for waffles, I make the whole batch, even though there’s only two of us eating them.  Then I take the remaining waffles, put them in Pyrex, and save them in the freezer for another day.  When a random Monday or Wednesday comes and I’m wishing I could have a little taste of the weekend, I put a couple of waffles into the toaster, and they come up just as crispy and delicious (if not more so) than they were when they were just made.  It feels like a little weekday treat.

Anyway, the Happiness Project returns to the library today, and while it was here, I enjoyed considering new ways to grow happiness and make more of every moment.  You know what they say, take time to stop and smell the waffles.

I’d love to know: What brought you happiness as a child that still makes you happy today?  Or what activity did you used to enjoy that you’d like to revisit?

Does this look "vegan-y" to you?

I’m very lucky in that where I live we have a wonderful natural grocery store with lots of vegan options.  Organic produce abounds.  There’s an enviable bulk section, including bulk spices, a deli with several vegan sandwiches, and a case of baked goods with many that are free of animal products.  I don’t often purchase a cinnamon roll or cookie from their bakery, but when there’s a special occasion, party, or cinnamon related-emergency, it’s convenient to have a place to go to fulfill these needs.

So I was surprised recently when I noticed a decline in the amount of labeled vegan offerings in the bakery.  Upon closer examination, I noticed that while the listed ingredients remained the same, the “vegan” designation on many of the items had disappeared.  At first, I thought it was a fluke, but then the signs stayed that way.  Then I noticed at the store’s second location, “vegan” was omitted there as well.  Wondering if they’d switched to a non-vegan non-dairy margarine or a non-vegan egg replacer, I shot them an email.  Here’s what I heard back:

Thanks for your question. Yes, the cinnamon rolls are still vegan. I’m not sure why the Vegan label was dropped. It may have simply been an accidental omission when making new signs.

As a side note: I do know in the past, particularly with cookies, applying the vegan label tended to diminish the sales. When we put the same cookie out with the same ingredients, only not listed as “vegan”, we tended to sell more. This is why we stopped labeling our cookies as vegan. I guess when it comes to sweets, some people really want their butter. There are also some people who aren’t familiar with the term and it scares them off because they think it must mean healthy and thereby not as good.

After getting the email, I felt conflicted.  On the one hand, I’m glad that people are eating more foods that are vegan.  I’m glad for a decrease in the consumption of animal-based foods, however that happens.  On the other hand, I was disappointed that the people buying the cookies were never put in the position to have their presumptions about “vegan food” changed.  The bakery case and baked good containers already list the ingredients on top, but it makes me wish that underneath the cookies and pastries that there was a little note like one might leave at the bottom of a May Basket.  After the person had eaten and enjoyed the baked good it would say, “Hey, what you just finished eating was deliciously vegan.  It was made with plant-based ingredients.”  Or perhaps there could be a guy whispering in the background like those old coffee commercials.  “These people don’t know that the cookies they’re eating are completely plant based…”  Then afterward we could get a crew to film their reactions.  It would be golden.

In the email I was told, “This is why we stopped labeling our cookies as vegan. I guess when it comes to sweets, some people really want their butter.”  But really, those sweets didn’t have butter in them.  People bought them and presumably liked them when they didn’t know there wasn’t any butter in them.  So what that tells me is that people just think that they want their butter.  It’s not really about the flavor, it’s about the idea of the flavor.

Silly humans, cows milk is for calves.

And when you think about it, it’s kind of funny that as a society we’ve all bought into the idea that for something to be delicious, an animal product has to be involved.  When you break it down, it doesn’t sound that appetizing.  Eggs drop out of chickens from the same hole as their feces.  It’s a product of their menstrual cycle.  It sounds kind of silly when you think of it like that to say, “Oh, my gosh, this just popped out of a chicken’s butt!  We have to put it in our cupcakes.  Only then will they be delicious!”  If someone wanted to add a human’s lactation fluid into baked goods, it would sound like a publicity stunt.  But it’s just as strange when you think about it to say, “Hey, we impregnated this cow, and she gave birth.  Instead of having her baby drink that milk, let’s take the baby, churn the milk, and spread it on our pancakes.  It will be fantastic.”  These things only seem normal, because as a society we generally don’t question our day-to-day behavior.  It’s just the way we do things.  But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way or optimum way.

Mouth-watering cherry pie with a dollop of coconut milk-based ice cream

People eat vegan foods all the time.  They eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.  They’re just everyday, ordinary foods.  Hopefully as more people become aware of the word “vegan,” what it means, and that vegan food can be healthy or not, and indulgent or not their perceptions around the word will change.  Sure, sometimes making vegan baked goods means using slightly different ingredients than animal product-based goods, but so what?

I’ve had the pleasure of feeding more kids lately, and you know, children can be really wonderful examples of this.  People always say that kids are so picky, and of course, they can be.  But when a child gets a cookie, he or she rarely asks, “Now, what are the ingredients in this cookie, so that I can decide ahead of time if or if not I will like it?”  So when the same quality can be achieved without animal products, why cause the harm then?  Why not choose the peaceful option?

Okay, so maybe you don’t live in a town with an escalator in your natural foods store.  Maybe the healthy food is instead relegated to a tiny, darkly lit area near the pharmacy.  Perhaps the only plant-based dish you can find in your neighborhood restaurant is steamed vegetables over a baked potato and the closest fully-vegan restaurant is a day’s drive away (or more).  By showing grocery store managers, restaurateurs, and local businesses that there’s a demand for compassionate offerings, we can make our towns and our world more vegan-friendly by doing something basic… asking!

1.  While most grocery stores in most towns have those true vegan staples – fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and beans – sometimes it’s fun to try the newest specialty food.  Sure, we expect to find big cities with large natural food stores to have everything one can imagine – from high-end raw sauerkraut and oatmeal-based cheeses to sprouted chickpeas and coconut milk ice cream.  In smaller towns, sometimes the pickings are a bit slimmer on those items that are new to the market or outside of traditional norms.  But think about it, stores are businesses.  They’re based on supply and demand.  If they can eek ahead of the competition by offering something that will get you and potentially other shoppers too to visit their store instead of another local competitor, it’s in their interests to do it.

If you’ll call them up, meet with their manager in person, or use their website to make a request, you’re pretty much handing them the way to appeal to you, the consumer.  (In this case, quite literally a consumer… of high-end sauerkraut, if you’re lucky.)  So if there’s something you’ve heard about in VegNews or read about in the blogosphere, if there’s something that you’ve noticed in cookbooks, or enjoyed in a larger city, by all means ask for it!  The worst that can happen is that they’ll say no, and if that happens, you’re exactly where you are now… ordering specialties online!

Last summer I moved to a smaller city, but I still wanted to enjoy some favorite specialty foods.  Without much luck, I asked my local co-op if they were interested in carrying them.  They declined, and so then I contacted one of the chain grocery stores instead.  Within a couple of weeks I received an email from them letting me know that my requested items – We Can’t Say It’s Cheese and Coconut Bliss ice cream – were in stock.  So if there’s something you want, ask, and if at first you get a no, try again somewhere else.  Help them to help themselves get your business!

2.  Ask restaurants that you visit to carry more vegan items, and then at the businesses that already carry vegan items, ask them to clearly mark them on the menu with a symbol or a letter “V.”  It’s so much easier and more relaxing to sit down with a menu and quickly find what’s vegan.  Plus, it gives the consumer more confidence that the staff knows what vegan means and won’t bring you a plate of unhappy surprises.

At a favorite Indian restaurant after I emailed them about putting V’s on their menu, they emailed me and let me know that they were going to do it.  I don’t know if I was the only person who contacted them about it, or if they already had plans in the works.  But at my next dinner there when I talked to the owner about it, he said that people were pleased to see the V’s on the menu.  Even better, there were more vegan options than I had realized.  I didn’t have to get burnt out on the same menu items again and again, because there were more appetizers and entrees that unbeknownst to me were vegan too.

Again, this is a win/win for businesses.  I (and other vegans and people with dairy and/or egg allergies) am more apt to visit a restaurant that clearly marks which items are vegan, and that means more business for them.

3.  Ask your library to carry a particular vegan cookbook or books about veganism.  I’m blessed in that my local library is kind of amazing, with a whole section of vegan cookbooks.  They have books for cookies, cupcakes, raw food, ethnic cuisines, low fat, All American…  Sure, I have a large cookbook collection of my own, but sometimes it’s fun to give a new-to-me cookbook a test run first.  I’ve had books that for whatever reason (and usually not based on the recipes themselves), didn’t excite me.  The recipes didn’t get the wheels turning and my hands itching to cook.  Sometimes you don’t know until you sit down with the cookbook, crack it open, and look for the first dish to make.  If the due date arrives and nothing has been made, it’s probably not “the one.”  If the due date arrives and I’m still burning through my copy (hopefully not literally), maybe it’s time to purchase it at a local bookstore.

In addition to cookbooks, there are books on veganism popping up all the time, and when you ask your library to carry them, not only does that make them available for you to read, it also means that the ethics and health aspects of veganism are made publically available to people who might not otherwise be exposed to them.  It’s a win/win.

I recently asked my library to carry Kris Carr’s newest book, Crazy, Sexy Diet.  Kris is such an inspiring person, and her film was so moving, I was excited to read it for myself.  I have a hard time justifying buying more books on nutrition at this point.  I have a lot of them, and I’m not in the market to lose weight.  (I’m totally happy where I’m at.)  But I love reading books about nutrition and veganism in general, and within a matter of a week or two the book was at the library waiting for me.  (By the time the due date came, I was sad to see it go.  It’s an inspiring one to have around.)

4.  When your office is calling out for pizza or having a work party, ask your boss if a cheeseless pizza could be on the order.  If there’s a coffee shop in your office building, ask them to carry soy or rice milk.  The point of the office party is supposed to be a treat to the employees, and so why not ask that you be considered too?  Plus, if you’re hitting the coffee shop with any regularity (or would if they carried non-dairy milk), it’s in their interests to think of you and their other vegan, lactose intolerant, or health conscious customers.

My husband used to work at an office where the staff had to work Saturdays on occasion or work late into the nights.  To keep morale up, food was often ordered from local restaurants as a perk for the employees.  When my husband was placing the order, of course, plenty of vegan items were on the list.  When he wasn’t, his request for at least one option meant that he was fed and that his co-workers were introduced to veganism in a way that can be most compelling – via delicious food.  Before long so many non-vegans were scooping up slices of cheeseless pizza, they had to order multiples.  (I always say there are three stages in vegan pizza.  First ridicule.  “What?  That’s not even pizza.  They call that bruschetta.”  Two, curiosity.  “Huh, that actually looks kind of good.”  Three, sadness.  Because they ate all of your cheeseless pizza, and there’s nothing left for you.)

5.  When traveling, consider staying at B&B’s, even if they’re not entirely vegan.  At larger hotels, that “continental breakfast” is often not the most inspired of breakfasts, especially for plant-based eaters.  So by visiting smaller home-based businesses, people are more likely to accommodate vegans in a delectable and satisfying manner.

When I’m checking B&B’s in the town I’m going to visit, I send a quick email to the proprietor asking if they can accommodate vegan diets.  I offer to send recipes, and most of the time, they’re happy to do it.  Plus, every time I’ve tried it, the food has been really good.  In my experience, most people who go into running a bed and breakfast are pretty decent cooks.  Despite some preconceptions many people have, making mouth-watering plant based food isn’t any more difficult than making any other kind of food.  (Not to mention that they’re probably serving a lot of so-called “vegan food” anyway by way of oatmeal, many types of bagels, peanut butter toast, fruit plates, and breakfast potatoes.)  If you’re in an area that’s not particularly vegan-friendly, most owners will provide a packed lunch as well for an additional cost.

This is one of the meals we enjoyed at the Cotswold pub.

When my husband and I traveled to England a couple of years ago, I contacted Wendy at the Old School B&B in the Cotswolds.  She’d never hosted vegans before, but with the use of the internet found some recipes in no time.  She made beautiful breakfasts of stuffed tomatoes, fruit and nut oatmeal, and a hearty rice dish.  In the afternoon we were greeted with tea and cake.  Wendy seemed excited for a new challenge and a new story.  What’s more, she even called the chef at the local pub to get his gears turning on meal ideas for us when we visited his watering hole.  It made the trip more personable and more fun as we got to talk with Wendy and the chef about a favorite topic for all of us… food!

What are some of the ways that you’ve made your town more vegan-friendly?

This is my second post in a series about how going vegan changed my life.  First, it made my heart grow three sizes.  As for the next thing it did…

The amount of produce that I eat has grown three sizes as well.  It’s spilling out from its once-roomy vegetable drawers to fill up the rest of the refrigerator.  Now my freezer is full of dried goods, and my cupboards are packed with spices.  While it may seem counterintuitive, going vegan changed my life by making my diet more varied and more colorful than ever before.

It’s something that even my best friend noticed.  You should know, she is not vegetarian.  She eats animals, dairy, and eggs.  So when she told me that I eat a wider variety of food than anyone she knows (and I’d wager that everyone else she knows eats animals and animal-products), it stuck out to me.  That, I think, is a thing that can surprise people about a plant-based diet.  Something that seems to be about limits, can actually be really expansive.  Humans are creatures of habit.  We tend to gravitate towards the same items at the grocery store, the same restaurants, and even the same menu items at those restaurants, but when choosing a plant-based diet, the game changes.  The things that were once the go-to items now must be reconsidered.

Of course, even non-vegetarians eat “vegan food” every day.  They just don’t call it that.  They call it bean burritos, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bruschetta, pasta with marinara, french fries, crudites, saag aloo, hummus and pita, falafel, almonds, bananas, cherries, tomato soup, toast with jelly, chips and guacamole or salsa…  Still, when people go vegan, they often notice foods that they’ve ignored before – like leeks, fennel, daikon, persimmons…   That’s why a shift to a vegan diet often brings about a new interest, passion, and education in food.  Reading about the healthfulness of a plant-based diet, getting new cookbooks, learning how to cook unfamiliar foods (even if it’s something as basic as making beans from scratch or cooking dried lentils or barley), and venturing outside of simple staples like broccoli florets and baby carrots means people often find more excitement and adventure in their diets than ever before.

That said, when people first go vegan, sometimes they want to recreate their current diets with vegetarian counterparts.  They might replace dairy-based cheese for Daiya or chicken’s breast for Gardein.  For new vegans, these foods can help with the transition.  We are creatures of habit.  We crave salt, sugar, fat, and texture.  We crave what is familiar.  So in those first few months when someone is used to their Standard American Diet, it’s not uncommon that a person would reach for Morningstar Riblets or something of that ilk.  However, most of the vegans I know don’t stick to those convenience items or even gravitate towards them very often after the transition-period.  One, they’re more expensive.  Two, they can’t compete health-wise with non-processed fruits, vegetables, beans, etcetera, and three, tastes change.

When I first went vegetarian, I was used to the taste and texture of meat.  Like many people, when I stopped eating meat, it wasn’t because I didn’t like it.  I even remember joking before I went vegetarian that if there were people who could call themselves vegetarian and eat fish, I was going to be a vegetarian and have a steak every now and again.  However, the more I opened my heart to the lives and deaths of the animals who suffer for it, and the more I read about the healthfulness of a plant-based diet and the disease-promoting aspects of a diet based in animal products, the less important my learned habits and old preferences became.  I can have plenty of other things for lunch.  Cows, ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, and fish only get one life.

So what do I buy?  I get a lot of fresh produce, and I like to get it as we need it.  That means that my husband or I go to the grocery store almost daily.  The produce that we buy varies, depending on what’s available and in season.  Obviously, people can go vegan and just hit the grocery store once a week and stock up.  That’s just not my preference.  So if I had to write out a grocery list for a week for the two of us (taking into account that we already have things like spices and seasonings on hand), it would look something like this:

As for dining out, I eat out less often than I did before I went vegetarian, and now when I do go out I visit different restaurants.  I’d almost always prefer to make something at home, exactly the way that I like it with lots of fresh, organic ingredients and minimal amounts of oil and salt.  It’s cheaper at home and it tastes better.  When I do go out, my preference is to eat at vegan restaurants.  It means simpler ordering and more options.  Everyone can eat there – both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.  Best of all, it’s a relief to look through a menu and see only life-giving foods and not life-taking foods. Of course, that’s not always a possibility.  My second choice of restaurants are vegetarian restaurants, and third would be vegan-friendly restaurants, which are often ethnic restaurants (e.g. Indian, Ethiopian, Thai, Chinese, Mexican).

One more unexpected turn in eating all of this beautiful, colorful food is that I take more pictures of my breakfasts, lunches, and dinners than I ever did before.  This, my friends, is not uncommon.  (I had to smile when I went with a new-vegan a few months ago to Real Food Daily and watched her clicking away as each order came to the table.)  So be warned.  Plant based food is not only delicious, but also attractive.  You may want to invest in a new camera.

Doctors say that having an enlarged heart is not a good thing.  And while a plant-based diet is a very heart healthy one, going vegan has made my heart grow…

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!

Okay, so I was hardly a Grinch before I went vegan, but I will say that since I adopted a wholly plant-based diet and said sayonara to silk, leather, and wool, my heart has grown at least three sizes.  (Have I gained the strength of ten grinches plus two?  Well, at least 9.)  When people find out that I’m vegan, they have all sorts of ideas about why I chose this lifestyle.  An acquaintance recently inferred that I went vegan because I lived in California.  While the restaurants and grocery stores in California certainly make it an enviable place for a vegan to live, when I trace my steps back to that initial compassion, it goes much further than my first 91201 address.

I went vegan because of a compassion that has always lived in me.  It’s an extension of who I’ve always been.  Just as all of us hate to see others in pain, just as all of us hate to see suffering – going vegan and eschewing foods that are entrenched in the pain of others was a return to my deeper, more authentic self.  The ways that we mistreat animals and/or become numb to their suffering are learned.  I abhor violence, especially against those who are powerless.  (Even movies with violence towards the disempowered are too much for me.)  At its most basic, that is veganism – it’s a way of removing myself from that violence and that suffering.

Since I adopted a plant-based diet, I feel a deep sense of awe around animals.  I appreciate them so much more now.  I recently spent six months living in a cabin on a river, and I was able to watch eagles soar, titmouse and cardinals gather seed at the bird feeder, ducks and geese swim in the river, and deer frolic with their families.

From my living room window, I got a peek into their lives, their unimaginable beauty, and the ease at which they do things I can only imagine.  The eagles did victory laps around the river.  The ducks traveled in packs, and the titmouse moved like little animated characters – hopping so quickly in the snow they almost seemed robotic.  The deer carefully watched each other, aware of who was moving and who was staying, who noticed a sound that made them uneasy.  I was an outsider witnessing their lives, and it made me feel like I was one small part of this puzzle that is our world.  To see their beauty, how they live their lives and how humans are so seemingly insignificant within those lives, was such a gift.

One day I heard a thud at my window, I went outside and saw a tiny goldfinch laying on her back with her feet stuck straight up in the air.  I was instantly worried that she’d died.  I went to her, gently turned her onto her belly, and stared at her intently, willing her to move.  She quivered.  She shook.  She twitched.  I petted her as gently as I could manage – just one finger on her tiny body.  I stayed with her for a couple of hours outside.  As time progressed, she was able to fly  – at first just a short distance, then further, then further, until she went to a tree.  Those quiet moments with her – a bird I nicknamed Tiny – were so precious to me.  Obviously, I could have and would have cared about Tiny, even if I hadn’t been vegetarian.  But somehow, choosing a diet of non-violence makes me feel an interconnectedness that I didn’t know before.

That is why visiting animal sanctuaries like Farm Sanctuary in Orland, California is such a profound experience.  Spending time with animals who have suffered at the hands of humans and who have then come to forgive and trust again is an honor.  To sit with them and know the pain they experienced while they currently live in a place of beauty, a place without fear, feels like there is some justice in this world.

I stood next to a steer named Mario – so tall, so commanding in presence.  I felt his gentleness with me, his yearning to be loved as he nudged into me to pet him, much like a dog would nuzzle against an arm, and I felt a deep humbleness to be so small next to him.

Mario’s mother was a dairy cow.  He was born at a dairy farm but left on top of a stack of corpses, because he had an injured leg.  Also, male calves are worthless to the dairy industry, because they cannot be impregnated and then used for their milk.  Mario, who weighed only 45 pounds, was left to die until the driver of the rendering truck, who was there to pick up the bodies of other animals, found him and took him to Farm Sanctuary.  To have suffered so much and then come through the other side to a place of beauty, a place of peace gives Mario a quiet grace about him, an almost palpable soulfulness.  That soulfulness is apparent again and again at Farm Sanctuary.  To be near the animals there and glean a moment of that quiet strength, to be uncluttered enough to witness it, is a blessing.

Just as the Grinch thought that if he took away the trappings of Christmas he could end the holiday for the WhoVians, the television-viewer learns that he had it all wrong.  For the citizens of Whoville, the holiday was about the togetherness and the spirit of the season.  In life, when we look at veganism it might seem like there is so much to lose – hamburgers, hot dogs, Grandma’s casserole…  But what there is to gain at its most simple, at its most basic, is what we all want anyway.  We all want to live our values.  We all want to feel that we are making a difference.  For me, kindness to animals (and what could be kinder than not eating them?), doing what I can to reduce suffering is a way for me to make a difference and live my values everyday.  The beginning of compassion is “compass.”  It’s the way I find my direction.

Read more about marvelous Mario at Farm Sanctuary’s website or check out Gene Baur’s book Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food.

Here we are again – one week before Thanksgiving.  As the plans form and the invitations are doled out, now seemed like an opportune time to repost My Wish for the Turkeys.  As always, I’m thinking of them this season…

Growing up, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday…  except for Christmas.  The leaves were a crisp orange, and the fireplace was getting its trial run.  I woke up to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, flipped through the biggest newspaper of the year and imagined the toys in my near future.  In the house, there was an almost palpable buzz of energy as the final touches were made in preparation of the arrival of family.  A wish-enthusiast and a meat eater at the time, after the turkey had been carved, I was eager to make a wish with the “wishbone.”

It’s interesting how perceptions change.  Now Thanksgiving is a holiday whose looming presence fills me more with dread than gleeful anticipation.  As the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving whir by, up go the pictures of happy turkeys all a-smile on grocery store signs while 46 million are getting killed in the U.S. for the winter holidays alone.  (250 to 300 million turkeys are killed yearly in the United States, where they are not protected under most states’ anti-cruelty laws and are exempt from the federal Humane Slaughter Act.)  In the same stores where there are plentiful varieties of fruits and vegetables, nuts and grains, there are lines and lines of bodies of turkeys, most of whom spent their entire lives on factory farms.

With the upcoming holiday on my mind, I got together with my friend, Julia, last week to talk turkey.  Julia has been a regular volunteer at Animal Acres Sanctuary for many years, and she’s the most enthusiastic turkey fan that I know.  Making her way in from an unusually cold Southern California evening, Julia was wearing a button featuring one of her favorite turkeys who ever walked the lawn of Animal Acres.  On the button it said, “Friend, Not Food.”

Julia relaxes with Sophie in the barn at Animal Acres Sanctuary.

A vegetarian (now vegan) of 17 years, Julia was won over by turkeys on her first visit to an Animal Acres event.

“Being an animal lover,” she said, “I knew that I would love the cows, pigs, sheep, and goats.  I always thought pigs were cute, and the sheep and goats are so easy to bond with.  So I was prepared for that.  The birds were not on my mind.  When I took my first visit to the bird area, I was surprised when the volunteer told me I could come inside and pet the turkeys.  They were especially mellow and people-friendly that day, and I had this moment with one of them where I was petting her and she was obviously enjoying it.  She started to close her eyes and doze off a little bit.  I had no idea you could interact with a bird like that.  It was really sweet.  I liked all of the animals at the sanctuary, but the turkeys surprised me because they were so friendly and comfortable with me.  I never expected to be able to interact with them and get to know their personalities.”

Julia was recently featured as the activist of the month for the sanctuary because of her help rescuing some baby turkeys.

The baby turkeys snuggle together in their new home for a nap. Because conventional turkeys are bred to grow bigger and more quickly than they would naturally, they are slaughtered when they are only 14 to 18 weeks old. If these turkeys hadn't been rescued, their lives would have been nearly half over.

“I was asked to meet someone in Santa Barbara to receive the turkeys who had been rescued and then drive them to Animal Acres.  It was a group of 12 babies, about 6 weeks old.  They were chirping in my car the whole time, making baby bird noises.  Once I arrived at the sanctuary and set them up in their barn, they were pretty vocal for the first hour or so but then settled down.  I spent the next two or three hours with them in the barn as they explored their new place.  They were extremely curious but slightly scared and would always stick together.  They were pretty afraid of me the first day, but I went up every weekend after that for the next few weeks.”

“How did you win them over?” I wondered.

“I brought them treats,” Julia said with a smile.  “Lettuce is what they love more than anything else.  The number one rule when interacting with turkeys is to make yourself as small as possible.  I decided to lie down completely and they got really comfortable with me.  That’s the cutest thing about them is that I can tell they’re afraid of people to some extent but they’re extremely curious.  They have an inner fight with their curiosity and fear, but their curiosity always wins in the end.  They want to know what you’re about.  They go after shoelaces, play with hair.  They love anything shiny if you have a nice camera lens.”

“The cutest moment,” she said, “was when I was lying on the ground and getting a little sleepy.  I closed my eyes for a bit and when I opened my eyes again, I had three of them sitting on me, roosting on various parts of my body. They’re very warm.  They’re so little, just handfuls.  One was snuggled up and let me pet her, essentially the way you would sit at home on the couch with your cat.  They were hanging out with me for quite a while.”

“How did they react while you petted them?” I asked.

“When you sit with them and they’re comfortable, they’ll make cooing noises.  It’s incredibly soothing.  Sometimes they fall asleep when I pet them, and sometimes they make me want to take a nap.”

Turkeys in factory farms spend their lives in sheds with thousands of other turkeys, unable to perform any of their natural behaviors.

The lives they’ll live at the sanctuary couldn’t be more different from the lives they would have lived at a factory farm, where the birds live their short lives (about five months) in sheds with thousands of others.  Because they are crowded in and unable to display any of their natural behaviors, it is standard procedure to cut off parts of the birds’ beaks, toes, and snoods on the males without any pain relievers.  (The snood is the flap of skin under the chin.)   Turkeys are bred, drugged, and genetically manipulated to grow as big as possible in as short of time as possible.

Baby turkeys on farms have the upper 1/3 to 1/2 portion of their beaks seared off to avoid injuries caused by overcrowding.

I said to Julia, “Some people justify the way we treat turkeys, because they claim turkeys aren’t very intelligent.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that,” Julia said.  “I was told by an acquaintance once that turkeys are kind of dumb.  I told her that the reason turkeys have the reputation of being dumb is because they’re very friendly and curious, and they were sort of known as the prey who would walk up to the hunter’s gun.  They would come up and say ‘hi.’  They want to know what the hunters are about, and so they get shot.  So people decided turkeys were stupid.”

Why do we love and protect one and disregard the other?

Julia continued, “We have this hierarchy of animals.  Humans are the most intelligent, and then dogs and dolphins are at the top.  Well, first of all, how do you define intelligence?  Humans usually judge in terms of trainability.  Why do we say intelligence matters so much?  We say it matters the most, because that way we always win.  There are animals who can do things we can’t.  Birds can fly.  Dolphins and bats use echo-sonar.  Dogs and cats have an amazing sense of smell.  We can’t compete with that.  So we use intelligence as we define it and use that as an excuse for what we do to animals.”

“Is that why it’s important to you to be an advocate for them?” I asked.

“I care about all animals and want them to live happy lives.  I think the animals people eat need our help the most, and out of those animals, the birds more than any others.  People easily relate to mammals.  Cows with their big brown eyes…  Pigs are trainable and touted as intelligent.  How many times do you hear people say they don’t eat red meat, only white meat?  I think we need to provide help to those who need it the most, and chickens and turkeys are seen as dumb birds nobody cares about at all.”

“Check out United Poultry Concerns’ More Than A Meal,” Julia said.  “Karen Davis, the founder of UPC, is one of my animal rights heroes.  She has been into animal rights issues for a long time.  Someone cautioned her when she started that if you want to engage people in animal issues, you have to promote the cute and fuzzy animals.  She said if that’s how people think, the birds need our help most of all.”

After the Civil War, Abe Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the aims of healing the wounds of the nation and as a means to restore “peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.”  As we learn more about the curious and beautiful turkeys, we can choose to create peace and harmony in our own lives by choosing foods for which no one had to suffer.  We can do this while we still enjoy what makes Thanksgiving truly special and that is gratitude, togetherness, and thankfulness.  We can still page through the newspaper, flip on the Macy’s Day Parade and watch the floats make their way down Times Square.  We can still hold our families close, if not in person then in our hearts.

And when it comes time to make a wish, we can forsake the turkey’s bones in lieu of a wish for the turkeys.  May others become aware of the gentle spirit of these birds, to the horrors that they live and die in slaughterhouses, and the reminder that when it comes to killing, nothing is neat, tidy, or nice.  There is no such thing as “humane” slaughter.  All animals want to live.  Let’s be thankful for our abundance, and enjoy the abundance of plant foods that we have available to us.  Let’s be thankful for the turkeys and honor their lives, and not their deaths, this holiday.

*Factory farming photos provided by Farm Sanctuary, where you can adopt a turkey this season.  Find a sanctuary in your area to get to know these animals for yourself.