To Cheese or not to Cheese?

Welll...the day after i wrote my first post (because it was at night), i tried to wean myself off milk. Well, it turns out that these Carnation Instant Breakfast thingies have milk in them, so i decided to find something else. Only there was nothing else. So i had a Carnation with soymilk. I could barely finish it , but that's not the point i'm making. THe point is that after that, i considered vegan day #1 blown, and went ahead and had...what was it...something cheesy. and i knwo that wasn't the original plan, have one purely vegan day a week, but i thought for awhile about starting doing it that way- one day a week for a few weeks, then going to two, three, etc., til i was vegan for six or seven days a week. But i'm still not sure if that's wiser than doing the weaning thing, so i think i might do both. You know, one day of no milk, then the next day two, then three, but that seems like it would take way too long. but on the other hand, what's my alternative? Plunging right into the fucker? then i would have more serious and harder to bypass cravings, which would mean a higher possibility of cheating. Oh, hell, i don't know. this is harder than a web page or a few fellow peta members would have me believe. ;)

I guess what i'll do, from tomorrow onward (since it's eleven thiry), is i'll start out the day saying, no milk! and i'll do that as best as i can. But the thing about milk is, is i don't drink it. so should i start out with cheese? I can't start out with cheese, i still have a half a bar of cheddar in the fridge. and i'm not telling my mom i'm going vegan (as in, can you eat my cheese? i'm going vegan.) until i already am. Less possibility of her trying to make me eat dairy if she realizes i've already gone dairy-free right under her nose! And that's good, too, starting out slow, with milk. so i'll go a few days milk-less, maybe a week or two, then i'll start cutting down on cheese. hopefully, by the end of the week, i'll only be eating cheese at one meal a week. Then, i'd like to cut down on my cheese intake from 6 or 7 days to 1 day a week. that i can be satisfied with for now. Next thing on my list will be eggs. But i think i have enough mapped out for now.
Whew. Wish me luck!
Shay

p.s.- what the hell am i gonna do with all those carnations?! My mom just bought be a box! Anybody want some free breakfast drink mixes?

Welcome to my life.

I'm a 22 year old vegetarian unemployed introverted wiccan hippie-wannabe with an addiction to the internet. Whew. ;) This blog will be the story of my transition from Vegetarian to Vegan!!!!!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!! Go meeee!!!!!!!!! Ahem. now that i got that out of my sytem. :) (Oh yeah, i also abuse emoticons.) For information on why I'm going vegan, visit peta2.com, VegForLife.com, or just type the phrase into that lovely little searchbox there. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Now that you know why i'm making this leap, i'm gonna confess something: i'm scared shitless. I don't know if i'll like the food, if i'll miss it, what it'll feel like, the tremendous amount of flak i'll catch from everyone around me, but you know what? I don't care. Because i know i'll be saving cows the torture of being inseminated every two months after they give birth, then being dragged off to slaughter at five years of age, or chickens being kept in cages too small to flap their wings, tilt they too are too worn out and useless to be of service.

Okay, I'm done preaching, i promise. I will start my path down veganhood by cutting out milk. I copy and pasted this blurb to give me an instruction manual:

Wean yourself
Eggs and dairy can be a challenge to eliminate. Present in so many foods and introduced to children at a young age, the addictive nature of high-fat dairy foods can be a difficult one to break
Dairy and eggs can be purged from your diet in phases, beginning with eliminating milk as a beverage and substituting soymilk or rice milk.
As a next step, cut out the cheaper, bulkier cheeses, primarily popular fast food and franchise cheeses, including Cheddar, Monterey jack and American, usually a "processed cheese food" that includes rennet, a product derived from cows' stomachs. To avoid Monsanto's BGH hazard, take away all American-produced cheeses and limit consumption to European goat and sheep cheeses. Now that your cheese plate is so limited, eliminating the final few should be a snap.
Similarly, begin to drop eggs from your diet by simply avoiding eggs as a dish or main ingredient, as in omelets or quiche. Take on avoiding eggs in baked goods and batters as the next step. Substituting Egg Replacer or simply eliminating egg from home recipes is an easy step. At last, baked goods from restaurants and the kitchens of non-vegan friends would be the last vestiges of egg consumption to be purged from your diet.
At the thought of becoming vegetarian or vegan, many people worry about the one or two foods they "can't live without." If you find yourself saying, "I want to stop animal suffering, but I don't know if I can give up ice cream," then don't. Give up other animal products, but permit yourself to eat ice cream while you are in transition.
Often, attachments to "bad" foods fade as the basis of one's diet changes. It may be that you are nearly vegan, but plan to have ice cream this summer. By the time summer comes around, you may have lost your taste for dairy products. When that ice cream cone loses its appeal, the frozen soy and rice treats available at your natural food store may capture your attention.

Blurb over. now you know why and how. So sit back and enjoy the tale.