For The Love of Bacon – A post by a non preachy, aspiring, maybe, vegan

As my fellow Scooters Jess and Meri can attest to, my love affair with bacon has been a deep and complex and downright torrid at times (Maple Bacon Donuts).

Maple Bacon Donut

There were mixed reviews on the Maple Bacon Donuts, but I was a huge fan.

It’s also coming to a close. *cue sad violin music*

I know. I KNOW. No more bacon? Why would I do such a thing? What is this world coming to? This world, or at least my world, is coming to some realizations regarding my relationship with food.

I’m going vegan, baby. Maybe.

Yeah, I said vegan. And no matter what people tell you, vegan bacon, or any bacon that isn’t actual bacon, ain’t bacon at all.

I’ve toyed with vegetarianism before, both in high school and about a year ago. But my previous attempts at vegetarianism (or pescatarianism… or flexetarianism… or veganism) were also specifically geared toward weight loss. I didn’t want to hear about the cute and fluffy animals and their feelings (and if you don’t, I don’t judge you and I promise, I’m not going to go there, so you can keep reading) and I didn’t care about the health benefits of plant based eating. I just wanted to be skinny. So, I would start eliminating foods that I thought were making me fat (meat) while continuing to eat foods that were actually making me fat (Little Debbie).

While I found that a vegetarian diet could be both satisfying and (sometimes) healthy, there was always some part of my brain saying ‘but we NEED meat!’.

Okay, technically, what my brain was saying was ‘Get thee to Five Guys, wench!’ My brain is kind of a jerk.

But, a few weeks ago, my brain and I sat down and watched a couple of documentaries on Netflix. Hungry for Change was enlightening with regard to the food and diet industries, but very fact based. The information isn’t Earth-shattering but there is a lot of it. It was a good documentary, and worth watching, but don’t expect to be blown away. Still, there was a lot of data so my brain was plenty busy processing the idea of eating a plant based diet, when I turned on the next one.

Vegucated, for me, was much more captivating. A documentary by a vegan, asking three non vegans to go vegan for six weeks and see how it goes (that’s a loose summary, at best). I won’t go into detail. If you want to watch it, it’s on Netflix instant. And maybe not everyone will take from it what I did, which is totally cool. But since my brain was so busy processing the previous facts and figures, that just left me to watch Vegucated. Well, me and my heart.

While being rather moderate in terms of footage and facts about factory farming, the part that I’ve always avoided looking at was there, and by the middle of the film, I was bawling my eyes out about baby chickens while my teenage daughter gave me the ‘seriously, Mom’ side eye.  (She cried too, she’s more like me than she cares to admit).

Vegucated = InstaVegan!

Okay, no. Not exactly. I didn’t go to the kitchen after watching the flick and immediately start flinging cheese and salami into the trash. Heck, I might have even flung some into my mouth.

But I did start thinking. And over the next few weeks, I kept thinking.

Could I be vegan, if I wanted to? Did I want to be? Was this yet another ‘diet’ idea that I would obsess on for a few minutes and then shove to the back of the pile with the rest?

I talked to people, both pro-vegan and pro-bacon, and tried to decide if this was something I wanted to pursue.

And I talked to Meri, who knows me well, and knows my propensity to jump into things without thinking. (Chick Mer is very wise, yo).

So, am I vegan? No. Not yet. And maybe not ever. I’m not sure yet.

What am I? Right now, I’m just a person trying to do my best at eating what I feel is healthy for me and working at making my body its strongest. Oh, and I’m a pescatarian.

I’ve completely eliminated cow’s milk dairy from my diet. This has been a long time coming since dairy exacerbates a medical condition that I have (I pretended it didn’t because I really like cheese). And I’ve eliminated meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc). I’m still eating eggs (which we’re starting to get from local folks that are nice to their chickens) and fish (which I don’t have a lot of warm squishy feelings about).

So what do I eat? Just about everything else I can fit in my face. Lots of nuts and seeds, almond  and coconut milk, grains, soy (not a lot). Oh and a lot of these…

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Organic fruits and veggies, which I get through a local delivery service.

And I may have had an Oreo, which is totally vegan. Don’t judge.

I’m still learning. I’m learning what I love (vegan chocolate peanut butter bars from Whole Foods – shut up, nutritional yeast) and what I don’t love (beets, it doesn’t matter what color or what I do with them, they taste like dirt). I’m paying attention to my body and how it feels (today, it feels amazing). And I’m taking my time to decide if this is the lifestyle I want, one that I can sustain.

So for now, I’m a non-preachy, aspiring, maybe someday vegan. Who kind of misses bacon.

<3 Bec

P.S. C25K is not dead, I swear. I just haven’t run in a couple weeks. But I’ve been doing plenty of walking and I’ll get back to it.

What is your diet mentality? Tell us about it! And feel free to spam us with recipes! 

10 thoughts on “For The Love of Bacon – A post by a non preachy, aspiring, maybe, vegan

  1. I do love bacon, but I don’t ever crave it so it’s rare that I eat it. My diet mentality is everything in moderation, but I’m really bad at it! I’ve had a really awful week of eating, and so tomorrow I’m back on the horse. 🙂

    Good luck with the (maybe) veganism!

    • I like that mentality!! I aim for moderation, too. Sometimes, it works. Other times, I find myself moderately eating a box of cookies 🙂

  2. I gave up red meat, pork and poultry nearly two years ago, initially as a 30-day “test” and within a couple weeks the idea of eating meat felt icky so I’ve stuck with it. I do eat dairy and eggs, and up until recently I was doing it all wrong with lots of carbs and heavily processed meat substitutes, and I gained weight. In recent months I’ve geared my diet around more veggies, and have implemented a weekly meal plan that helps me stick with that. I use Pinterest and cooking magazines to build my plan each week and have discovered tons of recipes that are easy and delicious.

    • I’ve so been there! My previous attempts were always veggie burgers and soy chicken. Now, those are things I eat very occasionally, but for the most part, I’m focusing on whole foods/clean eating. And seriously, Pinterest is an absolute goldmine of recipes!!

  3. I chose to go meat-free about 2 years ago, initially for 30 days and haven’t had a desire to eat red meat, pork or poultry since. Up until recently I used a lot of carbs and processed meat substitutes, which led to gaining weight. I now focus more on the veggies, and use Pinterest and cooking magazines to help build a weekly meal plan. I still have carbs and turn to those easy meat subs for convenience, but they aren’t a primary part of my diet anymore. I’ve considered vegan-ism, but it’s not for me at this point. Good luck!

  4. I couldn’t go vegan – I know this now, for reasons that have nothing to do with meat and everything to do with cheese and dairy. I could maybe go semi-vegetarian. I think that, for me, as a lactose intolerant person (who is the mother in a household of lactose intolerant people), the fact that we’ve recently (about 3 years ago) started using lactose free cow’s milk and learned that OMG IT IS DELICIOUS AND LIGHTER THAN REGULAR MILK MMMM has made it a non-negotiable in our grocery list. That said, it’s not like we drink it all day every day.

    Personally, we’re aiming to kick processed foods out of our diets. That’s huge, given the food industry’s propensity for throwing 500 chemicals on everything ever, and I think it’s a pretty large undertaking. However, I live in Austin, where the corporate offices of Whole Foods are, and where there are at least 3 Farmer’s Markets. I think we’ll be fine. 😉

    All that said, I applaud this maybe-veganism. You got this, and if this ends up not being the ideal situation, you’ll figure out what it needs to be and go for it. I know that much. 🙂 <3

    • Farmer’s markets are so awesome! It makes this whole process affordable, which as much as I wish it wasn’t a factor, it is. I’m definitely eating primarily ‘clean’, so unprocessed. You’ll be just fine and so will I. Because we’re pretty awesome 🙂

  5. My food approach is everything in moderation. I don’t deny myself something that I want. If I want bacon, damn it, I’ll have bacon. But I’ll have a piece and then see if I want more. I go with the intuitive mindful eating approach. xo

    • I love that approach! Can you have an extra slice for me? LOL. I think it’s less important WHAT we do in regards to food and more important the WE feel comfortable with our choices. S’all good!

  6. Pingback: Throwing Down | Scoot A Doot

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