Karalee was out of town, so I decided to challenge myself and live the vegan lifestyle for the Labor Day weekend.
Being vegan is quite a bit different than being vegetarian. Vegetarian is a diet, you eat plant-based foods and avoid meat. There’s no ethical restriction to keep you from eating butter and eggs, or even the occasional hot dog. Vegan, on the other hand, is a lifestyle.
Vegans choose to eliminate all animal-based products from their lives, including products that aren’t made of animals, but might exploit animals in their production. No meat, no leather, no gelatin-capsule medicines and no Elmer’s Glue.
It’s a strict lifestyle, stricter than I care to live, but for three day I gave it a try. Eating vegan wasn’t difficult for me, we prefer a plant-forward diet anyway, but there are certain elements of the diet that would have tasted better with butter instead of oil. The bigger problem was eliminating animal-based products from my life. I stopped carrying my wallet, but I wasn’t about to sit on the floor to avoid my leather couch. There are medicines I take in gelatin capsules, so I couldn’t avoid animal products, but I did my best.