How do you know if someone’s a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. And I’m about to.

I’ve always thought to myself: someday, I’ll switch to vegan…but not today. I’m not ready. And then I started watching Netflix. I watched this, and this and this. And slowly, the reasons to eat meat and meat products began disappearing one by one until all I was left with was: “Man, I sure love bacon.” And I do. But I love this guy more. And I love this planet more. And, slowly but surely, I’m learning to love myself more than I love eating meat and cheese and eggs.

I haven’t been eating a lot of meat for the last year, so that’s not a huge deal. But if you could truly understand just how much I love cheese, you’d understand how big a deal this is is for me. But, as a seasoned vegan of seven days, I’m proud to say, my resolve is still strong. The reasons are plentiful. Here are Nourishing Camie’s Top 10 Reasons to Vegan…ok, that was actually PETA’s top 10 reasons, but they have more staff than I do and why reinvent the wheel? In a nutshell:

1. Better for me
2. Better for the planet
3. Way better for the animals
4. Peter Dinklage is a vegan and he’s pretty awesome. Also, I like saying Peter Dinklage.

Besides the obvious, this change has had a few ripple effects that were  unexpected, including bringing Kettlekins and I closer together as he’s doing much of the cooking (love him!) and we’re having fun discovering new foods and recipes together. Here are some other great things Week One has brought:

1. A local Facebook group with a tonne of info and support
2. A super fabulous vegan meal at The Coop in Calgary
3. Feeling pretty darn proud of myself and my commitment to compassion
4. A really fun family dinner with some experimentation with vegan recipes and products like cheeze.
5. Apparently, going vegan saves more than 100 animals per year. So, I saved two animals this week. Yay me!
6. A throwback to our hunter-gatherer roots in Costco as we hunted for vegan products and gathered agave syrup (see point 6 in next list). A word of advice: try not to yell “I can eat this!” too loudly. It attracts the attention of the other hunter/gatherers.
7. Two awesome new cookbooks from Oh She Glows

But it hasn’t all been kittens and rainbows during Week One I have experienced:

1. Headaches (caffeine withdrawal as, let’s face it, cream is the best part of coffee)
2. Weird BMs (I won’t get into detail…you’re welcome)
3. Running around to 10 different stores to find ingredients (this might be an exaggeration).
4. A way-too-kale-heavy breakfast hash that taught me that kale is vile…so vile
5. I failed to plan a dinner and ended up eating a plain salad and french fries one night because it’s all the restaurant had.
6. Sugar isn’t vegan, who knew?
7. Carpal tunnel syndrome flare-up from chopping. So. Much. Chopping.

Overall, one week in, I’m feeling pretty good about things. It feels right. Loving the learning process and all the colours and textures and flavours of whole and healthy foods. I invite you to give it a try – even if it’s just one meal a week. It all makes a difference.

Love and light,
Camie

P.S. Peter Dinklage