With us being non ethical vegans, meaning we enjoy eating animal products, but we understand they aren’t the healthiest option for us, this is our second vacation where we must deal with temptation. The first time we were plant based and on vacation we had my mom in town for the whole week, so we were pretty good about the rare inappropriate being one time only and then right back on the program. For us, we are trying to change our relationship with food. We both suffer from an attachment with food as a way to celebrate things, and this is ok if your celebrating major successes like a promotion, or graduating college, but we were celebrating getting through a workday without killing or yelling at someone. So, every day could be a celebration, and therefore we could eat burgers and pizza every day. But this vacation is going to be harder to rebound from. Katie had family the first weekend, then we went out of town for a few days, then my mom and step dad come into town this weekend; and since our rare inappropriates are about people and places, I’ll admit we have been off program for several days now and won’t be back on until Sunday. So, we really have to plan out our return to eating right. I definitely see a change though in both of us. Katie doesn’t beat herself up as much for not being perfect. She is a perfectionist to a detrimental level, I try so hard to show her that any action in the right direction is a success, and to not let not being perfect derail her. She seems more motivated now to return to our way of eating than before after all of this. Even though we are both enjoying vacation eating and drinking sooooo much. We have had Crawfish Etouffee, Cheeseburgers, Seafood Pasta Salad, Oyster Po’ Boys, and so many other amazing things. If you are looking to eat better to feel better, veganism is in my opinion an amazing option, but never let yourself believe that you must be 100% vegan every day and every minute, or perfect in any eating plan. There are so many diet plans and gurus that will try to get you to act and eat in their perfect little box, but people aren’t perfect, and life should be enjoyed, so if you want to be healthy, remember this, health isn’t about eating the right way 100% of the time for the rest of your life, it’s about stacking more good days in between bad ones, but never condemn yourself for not being perfect. You will never be perfect forever, so stop trying, start being perfect for short periods of time and then forgiving yourself for failure and pick up where you left off. We have eaten as unhealthy as you can for most of the week, and we plan on continuing, but you better believe come Monday will we be back on plan and stacking the good days up to be our best selves.
-Matt