This past week I decided to try eating a vegan diet all week (no meat or dairy). I was curious how I would feel after cutting out all animal products from my diet. Maybe it was coincidence, but my week of vegan eating also included a terrible head cold that lasted 4 days and ended with the stomach flu.
You know how the last thing you ate before barfing takes on all the responsibility of barfing forevermore? For some of us it might be a bad burrito, for others it’s tequila. But you wake up once the nausea has passed swearing to god/buddha/elvis that you’ll never eat/drink that again!?! I’m kinda doing that with the idea of veganism at the moment.
I know it wasn’t the cause of my cold or my flu (more likely the 30 or so college students I meet with every week) and I’m sure I’ll continue to eat loads of fruits and grains and veggies. But in my desperate pleas to stop all the barfing I found myself promising I’d eat meat again. (Which is kinda ridiculous because I totally cheated on my vegan diet and ate a hardboiled egg in my salad – I’m clearly no vegan)
Sunday, fittingly, was a day of rest, a day of renewed clarity and a day at the beach. We here in the greater Chicagoland area enjoyed a rare glimpse into summer weather with a sunny 85 degree day. It was heaven. I shared it with my sister and friend Wynn and we talked about the summer and how good the sun felt (among other things).
I sat at the beach for 3 hours and left with quite a sunburn, but man did it feel good.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my relationship to food and dieting and to my health. I think I’m ready to do some writing about it here and I’m hoping some conversing with some of you about it through the comments or emails. It isn’t easy, to be real open about this part of my life, but I think I’m ready to do it.
What I can talk about barfing, but I can’t talk about life?
:)
See you tomorrow.
xo
