More Vegan Eating Tips
I don’t know about you but I’m less than thrilled when someone suggests going to a restaurant with a “huge salad bar.” The reason isn’t that I don’t care for salad, in fact I love salad. It’s that a meat eater’s idea of a great salad bar and my ideal salad bar differ greatly. And if we’re going to a steak house with a salad bar, just guess who designed and filled the salad bar. That’s right, the person whose idea of a complete menu is six different types of grilled cow flesh.
Oh vegans, I know you feel my pain on this one.
When I’ve eaten out with co-workers (not a vegan or vegetarian among them) they often insist on the steak house with the “beautiful salad bar.” In fact they get annoyed and think I’m being difficult if I point out that I don’t love that salad bar. From their viewpoint a salad bar ought to be vegan heaven.
Let me describe this scene of horror for you.
First there are two types of lettuce. There is a big bowl of iceberg lettuce and then another bowl with romaine. The romaine is pre-dressed in César dressing and grated cheese. There are endless bowls of various pre-made salads, Jell-O and fruit salad, pasta salad, potato salad, Cole slaw, most of these have mayo in them, and some have bacon in them. Then there are about six different types of cheeses. Also present are bowls of different meats you can top your salad with: bacon of course, ham, chicken strips, and something that looks like bologna. Then there are cheese covered croutons. Finally there are some plain veggies: cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and, if I’m lucky, some shredded carrots. Not a chick pea, sunflower seed, green pepper, sunchoke, or stalk of arugula in sight.
Then there are the dressings. They usually offer several, but all contain cheese or dairy, there ranch, bleu cheese, thousand island, and a “zesty Italian” with parmesan. If I ask they’ll dig me up a little bottle of vinegar to drizzle over the top of my iceberg salad.
While my co-workers dig into huge platters of “surf and turf” (otherwise known as the eating-one-animal-per-meal-just-ain’t-enough platter) I’m miserable with my sad and unsatisfying salad. Of course everyone else got the salad bar too, and they’ve heaped their plates with pasta salad and cheese cubes. Then my resentment increases ten-fold each time one of my companions nudges me and says “This is the best salad bar I’ve ever seen! Isn’t it great?”
Unfortunately through the years I’ve found that I can’t always dictate where my work decides to hold lunch meetings. I’ve had to come up with a work around instead. Here’s my method. If I know ahead of time we’re going to the restaurant, I bring along a tiny Tupperware of my own salad dressing—for me it’s Amy’s Goddess. I can also pack a little baggie of chickpeas and pumpkin seeds. Whatever you like on your salad but you know they don’t have can be tucked into a purse (or if you’re a guy I would suggest an innocent looking gift bag, so the next time someone gives you a gift in one, save it).
If you don’t know ahead of time that you’re going to a place where you’ll have trouble eating, then you shouldn’t feel the least bit ashamed to skip the salad bar and ask your waiter if they can make something vegan for you. Maybe pasta marinara, hold the cheese, or perhaps the dreaded steamed vegetable plate. Also ask if they have any fresh fruit in the kitchen—sometimes they, especially if they have a breakfast bar in the morning, do but it might not be on the menu. It doesn’t exactly sound ideal, but if you have something to eat it might cut down on the crankiness. Of course this is also one of those situations where that stash of vegan energy bars in your desk drawer at work comes in really handy too.
I hope these tips help you survive salad bars. I think the thing that bothers me most about this situation is that I try to show people how simple, flavorful and inspired vegan foods can be. But to someone uneducated on veganism my inability to eat at a salad bar makes my diet and lifestyle seem difficult, boring, and joyless. If I’m able to sneak my bring-your-own additions onto my plate then I’m able to eat something that looks and smells good, and more importantly something satisfying that I enjoy, while around non-vegans.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Having a Plan
Something has been nagging at the corner of my mind lately, and it is this: the adjectives we use to describe people who do things we don’t like. Recently I got into a heated discussion where the words “lazy” and “selfish” were lobbed at vegans who failed to achieve perfection in certain ways. My first thought was “Whoa, if some vegans are calling other vegans lazy and selfish, what are they saying about the average non-vegan out there?” But I don’t know the answer to that one, I was too busy insisting I’m not really lazy and selfish.
Not to rehash all that, instead I want to talk about the vegans who slip up or the vegetarians who want to be vegan but can’t seem to make the leap. Is this because they’re lazy and selfish? I don’t think so. I mean, c’mon, I can be pretty lazy and selfish myself, but I keep a vegan kitchen. The main way I prevent slip ups is having a plan. Yeah, seriously, when the going gets tough I don’t fall back on my moral self-righteousness, I don’t crack out a dvd of Earthlings, when the going gets tough I fall back on two things, habit and planning.
When my fellow vegans confide to me that they ate something non-vegan it usually falls into three categories. The first is accident: “The waiter told me that the soup was vegan, but this thing floating in it seems to be bacon.” The second category is hormonal cravings, and this is mostly women but sometimes even happens to men, but typically it’s: “I had terrible PMS and all I could think about was chocolate but I was stuck at the office and the only chocolate in the vending machine was a Milky Way Bar.” The third type is stress/depression/tragedy eating which goes like this: “I was totally vegan for months but then my grandmother died and I went to the funeral and afterwards they were serving all the foods she used to make and I ate them all.” These confessions are usually accompanied by a lot of self-recrimination or even hand-wringing. The vegans here often ask themselves why they can’t be more perfect, why they keep messing up when others don’t.
So the first aspect of this is habit—when things aren’t stressful and overwhelming, get into the habit of eating vegan foods. This should help cut down on the cravings for non-vegan foods, and also help you learn where you can find vegan foods in a pinch. Sorry, it doesn’t always totally eliminate cravings, but it certainly helps.
Habit helps with the accidental non-vegan foods too, because we learn which restaurants serve foods we can eat and keep going to those places. We might also just develop a habit of asking the waiter specific questions instead of “is this vegan?” Sometimes people don’t know precisely what vegan means so asking “is the broth a meat broth?” might bring a more accurate answer.
Working on forming new habits is especially helpful for recovering junk food junkies. If your taste buds are accustomed to white flour, tons of sugar, and a greasy slab of fried animal flesh, those are the things you’re going to reach for when your brain is on auto-pilot. However, if you go through the sometimes painful process of realigning your taste buds to crisp juicy apples, whole grain crackers, veggie sandwiches, and carrot sticks there’s a good chance you’ll eventually start to just automatically reach for those foods instead. But just like learning piano, learning healthy vegan eating takes practice. And it isn’t always fun when your brain is screaming “ice cream” to bite into an apple instead. It can be hard work, but eventually it does become second nature.
The second aspect is planning. For me this means trying to keep a couple of vegan energy bars (yes, with chocolate in them) in my desk drawer at work so if I am stuck working late or have an intense craving I have something on hand. This is also good from a nutritional standpoint too, because while energy bars aren’t perfect they have to beat whatever junky stuff I could find in vending machines.
This kind of planning especially comes in handy when you’re going through a really tough time, like the funeral of a loved one, or even happy stress like traveling to and participating in your sister’s wedding. During those stressful times we tend to skip meals, so the hunger combined with stress, combined with an urge for “comfort foods” means we’ll be especially tempted by the non-vegan foods we once loved. However if we go into it knowing that we can plan. We can tuck a box of vegan “shells and chreese” into our luggage for a late night indulgence, we can check listings of vegan and vegetarian restaurants online, as well as regular restaurants with vegan options before we travel to an unfamiliar location. We can stash a few of those energy bars in our coat pockets just in case.
We also have to remind ourselves why this is important. It’s not because we’re selfish, stupid, or lazy that we forget, it’s because like everyone else we’re busy, pulled in nine or ten different directions, stressed, tired, etc. It’s hard to keep in mind every single day the things that after all are so carefully hidden from us. Some people even wear something to remind themselves about the animals when they’re least likely to think of them, like working late and starving, or at a party. Other people will periodically watch a video or visit a sanctuary to keep the connection fresh in their minds. There’s no wrong way, so long as it works for you. The trick is to find a way to remember that the tasty-looking slice of cheesecake also meant suffering to the cows (for the milk and cheese) and to the chickens (for the eggs). One friend of mine keeps the photographs of sanctuary animals she is sponsoring in her wallet. This can keep her reasons for being vegan close at hand and also gives her a pick-me-up on a rough day. Just looking at those rescued animals, knowing they are safe and fed and cared for can go a long way.
Not to rehash all that, instead I want to talk about the vegans who slip up or the vegetarians who want to be vegan but can’t seem to make the leap. Is this because they’re lazy and selfish? I don’t think so. I mean, c’mon, I can be pretty lazy and selfish myself, but I keep a vegan kitchen. The main way I prevent slip ups is having a plan. Yeah, seriously, when the going gets tough I don’t fall back on my moral self-righteousness, I don’t crack out a dvd of Earthlings, when the going gets tough I fall back on two things, habit and planning.
When my fellow vegans confide to me that they ate something non-vegan it usually falls into three categories. The first is accident: “The waiter told me that the soup was vegan, but this thing floating in it seems to be bacon.” The second category is hormonal cravings, and this is mostly women but sometimes even happens to men, but typically it’s: “I had terrible PMS and all I could think about was chocolate but I was stuck at the office and the only chocolate in the vending machine was a Milky Way Bar.” The third type is stress/depression/tragedy eating which goes like this: “I was totally vegan for months but then my grandmother died and I went to the funeral and afterwards they were serving all the foods she used to make and I ate them all.” These confessions are usually accompanied by a lot of self-recrimination or even hand-wringing. The vegans here often ask themselves why they can’t be more perfect, why they keep messing up when others don’t.
So the first aspect of this is habit—when things aren’t stressful and overwhelming, get into the habit of eating vegan foods. This should help cut down on the cravings for non-vegan foods, and also help you learn where you can find vegan foods in a pinch. Sorry, it doesn’t always totally eliminate cravings, but it certainly helps.
Habit helps with the accidental non-vegan foods too, because we learn which restaurants serve foods we can eat and keep going to those places. We might also just develop a habit of asking the waiter specific questions instead of “is this vegan?” Sometimes people don’t know precisely what vegan means so asking “is the broth a meat broth?” might bring a more accurate answer.
Working on forming new habits is especially helpful for recovering junk food junkies. If your taste buds are accustomed to white flour, tons of sugar, and a greasy slab of fried animal flesh, those are the things you’re going to reach for when your brain is on auto-pilot. However, if you go through the sometimes painful process of realigning your taste buds to crisp juicy apples, whole grain crackers, veggie sandwiches, and carrot sticks there’s a good chance you’ll eventually start to just automatically reach for those foods instead. But just like learning piano, learning healthy vegan eating takes practice. And it isn’t always fun when your brain is screaming “ice cream” to bite into an apple instead. It can be hard work, but eventually it does become second nature.
The second aspect is planning. For me this means trying to keep a couple of vegan energy bars (yes, with chocolate in them) in my desk drawer at work so if I am stuck working late or have an intense craving I have something on hand. This is also good from a nutritional standpoint too, because while energy bars aren’t perfect they have to beat whatever junky stuff I could find in vending machines.
This kind of planning especially comes in handy when you’re going through a really tough time, like the funeral of a loved one, or even happy stress like traveling to and participating in your sister’s wedding. During those stressful times we tend to skip meals, so the hunger combined with stress, combined with an urge for “comfort foods” means we’ll be especially tempted by the non-vegan foods we once loved. However if we go into it knowing that we can plan. We can tuck a box of vegan “shells and chreese” into our luggage for a late night indulgence, we can check listings of vegan and vegetarian restaurants online, as well as regular restaurants with vegan options before we travel to an unfamiliar location. We can stash a few of those energy bars in our coat pockets just in case.
We also have to remind ourselves why this is important. It’s not because we’re selfish, stupid, or lazy that we forget, it’s because like everyone else we’re busy, pulled in nine or ten different directions, stressed, tired, etc. It’s hard to keep in mind every single day the things that after all are so carefully hidden from us. Some people even wear something to remind themselves about the animals when they’re least likely to think of them, like working late and starving, or at a party. Other people will periodically watch a video or visit a sanctuary to keep the connection fresh in their minds. There’s no wrong way, so long as it works for you. The trick is to find a way to remember that the tasty-looking slice of cheesecake also meant suffering to the cows (for the milk and cheese) and to the chickens (for the eggs). One friend of mine keeps the photographs of sanctuary animals she is sponsoring in her wallet. This can keep her reasons for being vegan close at hand and also gives her a pick-me-up on a rough day. Just looking at those rescued animals, knowing they are safe and fed and cared for can go a long way.
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