Why try going vegan? I’ve always been what I consider a relatively health eater, particularly since I’ve been a lacto-vegetarian for many years. However, late last year I came to the realization that I am **the** definition of the emotional eater; after an extended period of dealing with emotional stress using potato chips, cheese and chocolate, I decided to make some serious changes in my diet. Early this year I committed to cutting out processed foods from my diet (or at least minimizing them as much as I can). I also decided to cut out refined sugars from my diet about a month ago after a family wedding. So far the two commitments have left me feeling great. So after recently seeing the much-talked about movie Forks Over Knives, I decided it was time to tackle my last comfort food addiction – cheese. It seemed the best way to do this was to try Sarpreet’s experiment of going vegan for a month. However, I have to confess that I did decide to keep cultured yogurt in my diet as an exception. I’m a believer in the benefits of the probiotic cultures found in natural cultured yogurts, and I think making this exception to a vegan diet is more likely to help the change ‘stick’.

Tomorrow marks a full week of my being vegan! So far so good – I had some weak moments this weekend when offered some lacto-vegetarian friendly homemade cupcakes…so exquisitely decorated! In the end, I decided that succumbing to temptation (especially before I’ve even made it a week) would just make me disappointed in myself. So, with my new resolve, I’m ready for week 2!