Out to Eat

01/11/2014--So this new eating lifestyle is going pretty well. I have made the transition over the period of about two weeks of getting rid of foods that contain animals or animal byproducts (and by getting rid of, I mean "eating") and have replaced them with plant based foods. And it's going okay. I've been surprised by how little I miss the foods of my old life. I don't miss meat at all; I only miss cheese occasionally and I've been enjoying the new foods and flavors that I've been trying.  I won't say that I don't miss creamer in my coffee because that would be a really big lie. I do miss it. I really, really miss it. And I am on quest to find something that will be an adequate if not perfect, replacement. But for now, I'm dealing. And even more than dealing; I'm enjoying the experience as a whole. As long as I am at home.

At home I am in control. I decide what. I decide how. I decide when. You get the idea. There are no big suprises at home. But today we got a call that I've been dreading because I didn't know how to handle it. Friends called and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner with them. "No!" I shouted when I listened to the voicemail. "I'm not ready. I'll have to tell them, and then they'll know that I'm a freak. We don't know them well enough yet, for them to have this kind of information about me."  It went on like this. Finally, we (I) decided that if they asked where we wanted to eat, we would give options of places that we knew had vegan friendly menus. If they offered suggestions, I would just deal. This was going to be my life from now on, I might as well get started today.

Fortunately, they were very open to a place we suggested and all went well. My new eating choices even showed up in the conversation very naturally and they didn't judge openly. And if they judged later when they got home, at least I'll never know. And I was feeling so good after my initial victory that we stopped at Starbucks on the way home and I ordered my first soy cappuccino.  And it was good.