The VEGANing of 2013

A new year, a fresh start. I have a few resolutions that I always try to keep regardless of the time of year. Without fail, the list always includes reading more. This year I also plan to study Korean a little harder and maintain by Spanish. I'd also like to be a more compassionate person. And going along with this, I’m starting this year off by going vegan for January.

Even after 10 years of a vegetarianism, a vegan diet is still daunting to me. The more I learn about eating healthily, the more I become aware of the importance of a plant-based diet. A lot of the things we should want to avoid putting in our bodies happen to be found in animal products. Vegetarianism has been a step in the right direction but I think I have nullified some of the positive effects by overcompensating with animal byproducts. There are also a number of ethical reasons that a vegan diet can be superior. I’m looking forward to the challenge and excited to record what I eat and how I feel. 

It’s not always so black and white. I approached vegetarianism with an all-or-nothing kind of mentality. I don’t particularly like labeling my diet anymore, but it’s useful for the lack of a better description. Baby steps in the right direction are nothing to belittle. The past four months I have on occasion sampled a few non-vegetarian foods, simply because I didn’t want to deprive myself of the experience. I never ordered them, they just happened to already be prepared or leftover. Some dishes did taste very good, others were nothing special. But there is no taste good enough that would make me go back on my vegetarian values. If you want to join me for a day, a week, the month...let me know! It's going be fun!

It only takes 30 days to create a habit (or something like that…) and while I’m not permanently committing to a vegan diet at this point, my intention is that some of these habits will stick with me throughout the year.

It wasn’t on purpose, but it happened that I consumed more animal products than I’m accustomed to in the days leading up to 2013. Friday night involved three helpings of ice cream and a little fried chicken (which everyone claims is far superior to American fried chicken...and I can agree, if only because fried chicken never left an impression on me in my meat-eating days.) New Year’s Eve featured block after block of cheese, deviled eggs, and arroz con leche. I put my stomach through the ropes the past couple of days, so it wasn’t surprising I didn’t have much of an appetite on Day 1 being vegan. It’s not hard to eliminate animal products if you’re not eating much of anything!

New Year’s Day was a bit of recovery day. I was free from teaching duties and took the day at a very relaxing pace. It involved reading, writing, Thai food, and vegan grocery shopping. I didn’t really need to go out of my way to buy vegan food…but I wanted to. There is a pleasant little foreign food mart by the name of High Street Market that I enjoy any excuse to frequent. Not only do I find certain hard-to-come-by items, but I can also pick up treats and prepared food from my three favorite vegan bakers/cooks in Seoul. It can become a pricey habit so I keep it as a special treat. But in honor of the new year, birthday month, and being vegan, it felt necessary and appropriate.

People I meet in Korea, both Korean and foreign, always think being a vegetarian has to be extremely difficult here. And I can see how it could be if you’re not equipped with some general knowledge of vegetarian Korean dishes prior to sitting down at a restaurant. Korean BBQ is extremely popular and forgoing marinated pork belly is unthinkable to many Koreans. Allowing myself to eat seafood the past four months has certainly made dining out more flexible for me. However, now that I am familiar with Korean cuisine I know being vegan is just a matter of willpower.

I actually don’t even think being vegan will be as hard has everyone thinks it will be. If I slip up, it will be because I temporarily forgot I'm vegan. I have met more vegans in Seoul (mainly expats) than I ever knew at home. They have shown me just how doable it is. It requires a little more planning but that can be the fun part! New recipes to experiment with, new excuses to delve into some untried foods. I have several great vegan resources (oh those blogs again) in Seoul. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to buy their prepared foods and baked goods, continue trying their recommended restaurants, and scour their blogs even more closely than usual. They have shown me how making this change isn’t as drastic and intimidating as I initially thought it would be.

If you know me well you know I refuse to let a single sub-par calorie enter my body. I may be going vegan but I will be eating very well. I embarking on a fun journey and I’m taking you along whether you like it or not!

I’m still deciding how much of my vegan journal will be interesting to people other than, well...me. So far I've written enough that I could post about each separate day, but I should remember that everyone isn’t as interested in what I eat as I am. I see the irony since I say this after an entire new post about food…

I am constantly referencing 'my favorite vegan baker' and 'my favorite vegan blogger' and yadda yadda yadda, so perhaps it’s best I introduce them:

http://aliensdayout.com/

http://wholeistic.wordpress.com/

http://kimchitacos.blogspot.kr/