Day 1: A Bumpy Start

I woke up feeling pretty awesome. I picked out a special smoothie recipe to start off this vegan adventure on the right foot – rasperries, blueberries, kale, cucumbers, almond milk and bananas. I snapped a photo of my colorful blender to add to this post and in an attempt to keep myself on track (no one benefits from photos of cheesy fries). “I can do this!” I thought as I pushed the button on the blender… and that’s when I realized this was going to be harder than I thought.

Since my Vitamix is in the Vitamix hospital until later this week, I needed to use an old blender which I quickly learned was broken. I tried a couple of times to make some progress on the frozen bananas but as I started to smell something burning, I opted to throw these ingredients in a Ziploc and see what I could eat that didn’t require a functional blender. NOTHING. I looked in my fridge to find a lot of things I couldn’t eat – eggs, egg whites, milk, yogurt, kefir, etc. I made some tea before venturing down the road in search of something vegan.

I was able to score a Mean Green Acai Bowl from Liquiteria, which despite being the color of manure, was delicious and 100% vegan approved.

As I walked back down the road to my house, I was disappointed that my first vegan meal was a little complicated. It was at that moment that I was passed by a funeral procession. “Well that’s a sign…” I thought, as I quickly remembered why I was embarking on this animal-less diet. Unfortunately, that was quickly followed by a little anxiety because as we all know, eating one vegan breakfast doesn’t erase the years of non-vegan eating and I didn’t want to be the reason for a procession any time soon. But then in a pile of decaying leaves, I saw some crocuses popping up. Sure, they’re probably going to die because it is still February in New England, but the botanist in me was excited to see some color so I stopped to take a picture.

In case you’re wondering, I successfully made it through the rest of the day by having half of a vegan teriyaki burrito for lunch thanks to my amazing husband who is going to end up trying significantly more crazy food than he ever anticipated. In between PT and my evening class (yes, I’m almost done with grad school!), I enjoyed a delicious Spicy Sabzi salad from Sweetgreen for dinner. More veggie tales to come!