July 9, 2010 11:00 AM

So I thought I'd clarify about that "mostly vegan" comment in my profile:

I eat vegan food for every meal with a few exceptions - if someone makes me food, says "oh, I was so excited to make vegan food that fits what you eat" and I look at it and its not vegan (like it has egg or milk in it), I suck it up and eat it. If someone serves me something that generally is vegan (like bagels) and I'm not sure if its vegan (but it probably is), then I'll eat it. If it's sushi (and not just something tossed together but like $3/piece high quality stuff), then I might (depending on my mood).

I also don't pay attention to things like "vegan sugar" since regular sugar is processed with animal bones or "vegan maple syrup" since its normally processed with lard. Same thing with Red 40 - but I do pay attention to casein and lactose derived from animals. If it has "natural cheese flavoring" but says "vegan" on the front, I tend to avoid it.

When I got my roommate at freshman year, she was a vegan, and I learned about what it was/meant. I started eating more vegetarian around her, just to be polite and more health conscious. We became best friends, and I moved with her into an apartment for my sophomore year. When we went food shopping for stuff in the fridge, I resolved only to buy vegan things at the store so we could share food. I still ate fish, meat, etc, but I had cut back a lot.

She transferred during the first part of the year (down to New Jersey), and I continued eating vegan in the apartment. When I went home for Christmas vacation, I was vegetarian until the last night when my mom put some meat in my food (devil woman). On the flight back to Rochester, I was sick, and I said "that's it! no more!"

However, seafood doesn't make me sick, so I still enjoy it from time to time. Also, I tend to get sick when I eat things with milk and egg in them, so that is gone from my diet too. I've limited what I eat (seafood-wise) to only really high-end stuff, so I won't be too much of a 'cheater' when it comes to veganism.

I do feel guilty when I'm on vegan websites looking for recipes and people are arguing about how people shouldn't call themselves vegan unless they are 100%. So I'll say this clearly - I am a pesca-vegan. And since I can't afford to eat fancy sushi often, I go for month-long stretches of veganism.

I'm doing it for health reasons (since I feel queasy and gross when I eat eggs etc), but I'm mostly doing it for fun! It's pretty great to walk around the supermarket and try to discover things I can eat (Oreos are vegan!), and I like opening the fridge and seeing tons of vegetables.

And just to clarify - veganism is defined at: http://www.vegan.org/about_veganism/index.html

Enjoy the rest of your day!