30 Days In - Last Day

A key aspect of a journey is not returning the same way you left.  Today is the last day of this little experiment of mine.  I'm not sure if I'm any different or what will be different in my life going forward.  I already have a yogurt packed for breakfast tomorrow.  Let's see how that goes.

In 3-dimensional space.  A journey that brings you home again doesn't really have a point.  Your position does not change.  However, in 4-dimensional space (time being the 4th dimensional), even a trip that brings you back to the same spatial coordinates can be a worth-while journey because you've traveled in time as well.

I didn't really know how to start this last entry so I tried two different ways.  This journey wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.  I didn't really feel any low lows of a new diet.  I ate boring meals over and over again.  I don't think things are all that different.  The one thing this journey has done for me is it has given me the desire to go on different journeys and to try new experiments.  Stay tuned on my other blog for the next (not)exciting adventure.  For those wondering if I lost any weight (which was not a part of this at all for me)... 2 lbs.  Peace out.

29 Days In - Entitlement

I feel entitled that I should be able to sit in silence and read when that's what I want to do and at the same time, I feel entitled that if I should be done reading, that I should be allowed to play music as loud as I want with the bass from the sub-woofer shaking the walls and vibrating the floor boards so that I can feel it resonating through my chest.

We live in a culture that feels entitled.  There's no way around it. There are many different stats out there about how much land it takes to be a vegan vs. being a vegetarian vs. being a meat eater.  And there can be debate what the actual ratio numbers actually are.  I'm not here to debate those values.  I wanted to document the interesting thing that happened in my head when I found out how much I was "saving" the world in my measly short month of being a "vegan".  I asked in an entitled manner if that meant that I could take longer showers.  Or does that mean I can buy a Hummer and just idle it in the driveway?  My initial thought was that it wasn't fair.  That other people were taking my share of the earth and that I needed to mark my territory by using up my share in another manner if it wasn't through eating meat.  It's such a silly thought and the beginning of the end for all of us.

I've been reading more lately since I re-discovered the public library earlier this week.  I've already read two books this week.  The second book was The Opposite of Loneliness where the titular essay in the book says that there's no good word for the opposite of loneliness. That love or community don't really work perfectly but it's the feeling she wants around her all the time and something she wants for the world.  The opposite of entitlement is gratitude.  Sorry this is late for Canadian and US Thanksgiving.  Sitting down and writing has been harder than anticipated.  Peace out.

24 Days In - Frustration

What is frustration?  Frustration to me is not being able to do what I want.  I have to admit that I've really dropped the ball on this blog.  Whenever I thought I should write in here, I just really wanted to write in my regular poetry blog instead and I'd end up writing in neither.  In some ways, this blog is a temporary thing.  It is really only designed to be written in November.  It would be a little silly writing here more than once come December.  I have some ideas for my next challenge but will probably write about it in my go to poetry blog instead.  That one has more legs and I'm much more comfortable introducing my thoughts with a poem.  At least that's what I think at the moment.  I haven't written in that blog for a while either.

So.  An update on my month so far: It's been pretty easy.  I've been able to go to the gym with my regular frequency.  I do feel a little weaker now at the gym but I think that has more to do with my increased running and decrease in weight lifting that had started back in July.  There are foods I miss.  I miss cheese the most.  It's crazy how pervasive cheese is and how it ties so many flavours together.  One thing I learned from this experience is that I can go with less... and that there are good carrots and there are not so good carrots.

I might be embracing the hipster life a little too much.  Today I started reading By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart.  Help me!  Peace out.

5 Days In - the conundrum of choice

So a long time ago, there used to exist these places called video rental stores.  I remember walking around them with friends for too long, trying to pick out a movie to rent.  We'd narrow down the list to 2 or 3 and then pull the trigger on one of them.  We spent all this time looking for the right movie because we were indecisive and also because in those days, you watched the movie you rented.

It's different now with the existence of Netflix.  I can watch a movie and get bored with it and just change to another movie, and then another movie.  I'm watching a movie right now as I write this.  I have so many movies on "My List" but find that I have nothing to watch.  We are just swimming in choices these days.  We have so much choice.  Up here in Canada, we complain that our Netflix catalog is small but there are so many things I want to watch and will never be able to find the time.

Being vegan now is like I've lost the choice of what I can eat.  I feel like there are so many foods in the market/restaurants that are no longer for me.  They are not allowed.  It's strange... and yet I still have so many options.  I'm going to enter the world of infinity now.  It's like there's an infinite amount of options for food people can eat and yet there are so many foods I can't eat, but that still leaves me with an infinite variety of food I can eat.  K. I'm rambling.

I bought veggie chili, a roll and a couscous salad for lunch.

Peace out.

3 Days In - Rhythm

Some people find keeping rhythm really hard.  They just don't feel it.  I'm one of those people.  I can maybe try to keep one rhythm but will have a hard time switching to another.   I'm 10% into the month.  Crazy right?  3 days = 10%.  Not bad for progress, but I'm totally out of rhythm.  I don't know if it's because of the time change or if it's because I've almost completely changed my diet.

So far I've been eating lentils, rice, nuts, carrots, celery, kale, and chips.  I'm gonna buy lunch tomorrow and see what new flavours I can introduce to my diet.  Peace out.

Motive #5 - Health

This one is obvious.  I decided no pictures.  Lol.  I hope no one was actually expecting before pictures.  My last official Friday weigh in on October 30th had me at 147.8 lbs.  I'll use that as a metric.

WHO released the Meat is Death story earlier this week.  The timing was weird and fortunate.  I'm tired.  My last meat was chinese bbq and my last dairy was a No Name yogurt. I'll see you guys (the food) soon in a month.  Peace out.

Motive #4 - Simplicity

Tonight I moved all my stuff from the 2nd story to the basement.  I didn't even bother counting how many trips that took.  Every year I move up and then later that year, I move down... don't ask.  Last time I moved up, I did 70 trips.  Crazy.  Bringing stuff up the stairs is harder.  I'm sure I did it in less trips going down cause I was able to carry more per trip.  There's nothing like moving all your stuff to make you wish that you had less stuff.  Also, every time I make this move, I tell myself that I'm going to get organized and throw stuff away.  I might actually do it this time.  November is going to be a busy month of torture.

During the summer, I read "the life-changing magic of tidying up; the japanese art of decluttering and organizing" by Marie Kondo.  I really liked the book and wanted to declutter and throw things away/give to charity.  We just have too much stuff and in addition, I suffer from the ailment of not being able to throw stuff away.  I also watched a documentary called Tiny House on Netflix when I was on vacation in September.  I think I can live in 200 sqft.  I almost kinda do now.  I feel like I've got a strange attraction to simplicity/minimalism.  I also like the idea of a tiny house minimizing our global footprints.  In a strange way, I think becoming part time vegetarian in the long term would also help reduce my global footprint.  I don't want to get on a soap box cause I like my steaks but I also realize how much land it takes to raise cattle.

Right now nothing feels simple about being vegan.  I feel like it requires so much planning and thinking ahead, but when I when I was more naive, I thought vegan diets were simpler.  I'm imagining my first week in November just eating raw food.  Maybe when I get sick of eating carrots and celery, I'll look into making some real food that actually needs to be heated.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my pre-vegan diet shirtless before pics.  Peace out.