In case you don’t know, June = Vegan Month. During June, Allison and I are our challenging ourselves (and anyone else who wants to join us) to stick to a vegan diet for one month. You might remember that I’ve done a shorter version of the challenge before. Here is my recap from my 2weeks in 2009, and here is the recap from the 2weeks this February.
I don’t think that I will ever eat a 100% vegan or vegetarian diet in the long-run. I believe that humans did evolve to eat some animal products, and that I personally feel more healthy when I include them in my lifestyle. However, I also believe that –
- Eating many vegan meals each week contributes to a healthy diet.
- Vegan cooking and baking can be fun and satisfying.
- Veganism is kind to our planet and can be a great way to conserve energy.
- The current industrialized dairy and meat industries are immoral (even though in theory consuming meat and dairy is not) and the best way to vote is with my wallet.
During June, we will not be consuming any animal products. That includes red meat and pork (which I don’t eat anyways); fish and fowl; milk, yogurt, or eggs; and any products that include lactose or whey. Allison and I decided that we WILL continue to consume conventional alcoholic beverages, even though we are aware that they are not all 100% vegan. I also most likely WILL continue to eat honey, while I feel some modicum of discomfort about eating other animal products, honey is one for which I am guilt-free, and it seems silly to avoid it.
During Vegan Month you can expect to see –
- new recipes, and new spins on some old recipes
- some guest posts
- and lots of new product reviews
I hope you enjoy reading about our challenge, and I’d love it if you decided to join us! Advice, cheerleading, questions, complaints…….
Eating Chalk 
I will totally cheer you on for this! After the vegan year, I was happy to go back to my flexitarian ways, but definitely rely WAY less on yogurt, cheese, and eggs now. I love your reasons for taking on this challenge — you seem motivated by global awareness and health. Can’t wait to see how it goes!
Woot woot! 🙂 I just posted too! Another interesting thing I just found out – MOST liquor is vegan! (not liqueurs though!) And – diet coke is vegan! What a great day! Looks like I just need to avoid beer, which I totally do anyway!
here goes nothing sister 🙂
Yay for you! I’m not vegan, though I was for a few weeks in high school. Not because I actually cared about the planet, of course, but because it was one in a long string of unnecessary diet plans. Now I’m an “accidental vegan” about 4/5s of the time, I’d say, partially because meat is a pain to cook and mostly because of lactose intolerance/whey allergy (not sure which I have–it’s safest to just avoid dairy altogether). Actually, I haven’t eaten anything with animal byproducts all day: oatmeal made with soymilk, topped with raisins and PB for breakfast, an apple for snack, and pan-fried tofu, bell peppers and hummus on rye for lunch. The veganism was unintentional, though…I don’t think I’ll keep it up for the entire month like you!
Gimme an E, gimme an M, gimme an I – L – Y!
Gimme a V, gimme an E, gimme a G – A – N!
Yea Emily! Go vegan!!
(Is that what you meant?)
Good Luck and I hope you have fun! I’m looking forward to seeing the progress and recipes!!!!
I’m not brave enough to join you but I’ll be following your Vegan month with interest 🙂
Allijag, most beer is vegan: http://www.barnivore.com/beer
Good luck, Emily & Allison!
Thanks for the info!