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Pic a Day - 1/25 to 1/31

Mon. Jan 25, blue and gold
Tues. Jan 26, losing time
Wed. Jan 27, weird joke turned to made-up language
Thurs. Jan 28, off-campus lunch with the Crew (all except Maria)
Fri. Jan 29, tasty & healthy snack
Sat. Jan 30, first try at vegan baking (apple-cinnamon sugar cookies)
Sun. Jan 31, chrysanthemum tea, pt. II (Thai Vegan)

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Pic a Day - 1/18 to 1/24

Mon. Jan 18, a little late for red, white, and green
Tues. Jan 19, windows (I)
Wed. Jan 20, clouds (I)
Thurs. Jan 21, windows (II)
Fri. Jan 22, my mom disguising as a teen to go to the basketball game
Sat. Jan 23, Molly, Sonal, Mica (and Nick, to my right)
Sun. Jan 24, clouds (II)

Monday, January 18, 2016

Tomorrow I Declare Myself Vegan

Tomorrow, January 19, 2016, I "officially" become vegan. I say this because I pretty much decided at the beginning of 2016 to make the full transition to veganism, but I still had non-vegan food products in my pantry and freezer that I had just bought. Once I had finished the last of those, I would be able to say that I actually am a vegan.

I have been vegetarian since July 2, 2012, so I have just passed the three-and-a-half-year marker for being meat-free. With every year, I came to a new realization of what really is and isn't veg-friendly. Since you may be curious, here's a rough timeline:

March-April 2011: going vegetarian for the first time
July 2012: going vegetarian anew
January-December 2013: eating vegan two days a week
~2013: finding out cheese has rennet
~2014: learning about lard, gelatin, carmine, shellac, and other animal by-products (I think this period of discovery probably started sometime in 2013 and continued into the following year)
October 2015: finding out refined sugar isn't vegetarian/vegan (learning about bone char)
January 2016: making the switch

In hindsight, it seems that I was always heading toward veganism (or, at least, toward something beyond basic lacto-ovo vegetarianism), and recently, I must admit that I questioned myself a lot about my dietary habits. "Wouldn't it be easier to just go fully vegan," I wondered, "instead of being super-strict vegetarian and having dozens of animal by-products to avoid while holding onto the few that you find 'ethical'?" The other day, one of my teachers curiously asked me why veganism was better than vegetarianism, and I had to stop and think for a moment, but I finally answered, "I didn't think vegetarianism was enough, ethically."

Since my first attempt at veganism flopped and I felt miserable all the time, I am making more of an effort to research on my second go at it. (E.g. I put flax oil in morning smoothies for the omega-3s and just picked up a canister of nutritional yeast to add B12s to my diet. Also, I'll be drinking more almond milk for the calcium and vitamin D, but I'm taking some pills to supplement it.) In one of my Pic a Day posts a few months ago, I said that to be vegan, one has to be good at food alchemy. So I guess I can think of it, from this point forward, as becoming an apprentice in food alchemy.

P.S. When I see this symbol on food, it makes my life complete! And if I ever get a tattoo, I swear that this will be it. (Kidding. Kind of.)


Sunday, January 17, 2016

Pic a Day - 1/11 to 1/17

Mon. Jan 11, que en paz descanse (R.I.P.)
Tues. Jan 12, impending dusk
Wed. Jan 13, little pig nose and fish gills
Thurs. Jan 14, twilight
Fri. Jan 15, snowflakes of morning frost
Sat. Jan 16, Crabcake the guinea pig, Zekrom's brother
Sun. Jan 17, took advantage of this heart-shaped tortilla

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Pic a Day - 1/4 to 1/10

Mon. Jan 4, already an hour behind on my New Year's Resolution schedule
Tues. Jan 5, vegan cheese: an oxymoron
Wed. Jan 6, physics
Thurs. Jan 7, the haunted library
Fri. Jan 8, snow frenzy
Sat. Jan 9, off to the library sale (50 cents a book!)
Sun. Jan 10, post-college interview at Starbucks

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Pic a Day - 12/28/15 to 1/3/16

Mon. Dec 28, as much as you love me, I ain't got $400 just lying around...
Tues. Dec 29, icicles and swirling snow in the sunlight
Wed. Dec 30
Thurs. Dec 31, it sucks their house got TP'd, but it was done so artfully
Fri. Jan 1, printed versus cursive Cyrillic
Sat. Jan 2, scrapbooking
Sun. Jan 3, Gardein chick'n sliders for lunch