As someone who chose to live a vegan lifestyle, I never wanted my choices to instill a sense of restriction. I firmly believe that if your body is craving something then you should listen to that alert from within yourself and think about why this might be.
This is not to say that if you are craving unhealthy food choices such as cupcakes or deep fried pickles then maybe this is your body trying to tell you something else. Perhaps you did not consume enough calories for your dietary intake and now you are left wanting more. Don’t restrict yourself from indulging from time to time but as a general rule these are not healthy choices for your daily meal consumption.
What I’m getting at is that recently I’ve started listening to one of my body’s desires. For a little over a month now I’ve been thinking about eggs and it has been about two years since I consumed an egg in any degree. The eggs I was consuming at the time came from my Aunt’s farm where the chickens roamed free and ate a myriad of grassy morsels. But one day I had some and my body said to me' I don’t want this anymore'. The taste of them didn’t appeal to me and from then on they didn’t make their way onto my plate, until recently.
Of all the makings of a vegan lifestyle, eggs were always that one food source that I didn’t necessarily have a problem with - in the right environment. I wasn’t going to buy them from the grocery store, or from an unreliable source because of what the mass-egg production involves and ethically it’s just not for me.
That being said, eggs themselves aren’t something I ever expected never to eat again but when the time was right I would know. After a month of contemplation, two weeks ago I bought some to see just how far this craving was going to take me. I bought them from a local organic farmer who feeds their free-range chickens, organic grain from their own fields. No GMO corn or soy chicken feed are fed to these little ladies.
And it was fine. No, better than fine!
I fried up an egg and because it was a conscious, thought out decision from a reliable source I not only kept my morals in check but by listening to what my body was saying, I found comfort in my decision.
We get so stuck in the title of our choices that any sort of straying from this outlined lifestyle is often met with a negative retaliation and what is this saying about the vegan community? A community that revolves around compassion and the ethical treatment of all beings should not feel right about berating others for whatever their choices are. No different is the choice to eat eggs or to omit them from your daily diet.
To this I say – so what. Berate away if you so choose but consider this my official announcement that eggs will not be a part of my day-to-day lifestyle. I hope you can all still appreciate and love the happenings on Eat With Joy but should you choose to look the other way, I accept your choices equally.
That being said, I will still be eating within the vegan lifestyle, i.e. not incorporating eggs into cooked or baked dishes, simply just adding them to my plate.
Shortly after I made this decision, we headed to one of our favourite places for brunch where the owner congratulated me on incorporating eggs back into my diet. He told me that the eggs he uses come from a local farmer who has free range laying hens and asked if I would like to incorporate them into my otherwise vegan brunch. I said yes and this is what happened…
This is not to say that if you are craving unhealthy food choices such as cupcakes or deep fried pickles then maybe this is your body trying to tell you something else. Perhaps you did not consume enough calories for your dietary intake and now you are left wanting more. Don’t restrict yourself from indulging from time to time but as a general rule these are not healthy choices for your daily meal consumption.
What I’m getting at is that recently I’ve started listening to one of my body’s desires. For a little over a month now I’ve been thinking about eggs and it has been about two years since I consumed an egg in any degree. The eggs I was consuming at the time came from my Aunt’s farm where the chickens roamed free and ate a myriad of grassy morsels. But one day I had some and my body said to me' I don’t want this anymore'. The taste of them didn’t appeal to me and from then on they didn’t make their way onto my plate, until recently.
Of all the makings of a vegan lifestyle, eggs were always that one food source that I didn’t necessarily have a problem with - in the right environment. I wasn’t going to buy them from the grocery store, or from an unreliable source because of what the mass-egg production involves and ethically it’s just not for me.
That being said, eggs themselves aren’t something I ever expected never to eat again but when the time was right I would know. After a month of contemplation, two weeks ago I bought some to see just how far this craving was going to take me. I bought them from a local organic farmer who feeds their free-range chickens, organic grain from their own fields. No GMO corn or soy chicken feed are fed to these little ladies.
And it was fine. No, better than fine!
I fried up an egg and because it was a conscious, thought out decision from a reliable source I not only kept my morals in check but by listening to what my body was saying, I found comfort in my decision.
We get so stuck in the title of our choices that any sort of straying from this outlined lifestyle is often met with a negative retaliation and what is this saying about the vegan community? A community that revolves around compassion and the ethical treatment of all beings should not feel right about berating others for whatever their choices are. No different is the choice to eat eggs or to omit them from your daily diet.
To this I say – so what. Berate away if you so choose but consider this my official announcement that eggs will not be a part of my day-to-day lifestyle. I hope you can all still appreciate and love the happenings on Eat With Joy but should you choose to look the other way, I accept your choices equally.
That being said, I will still be eating within the vegan lifestyle, i.e. not incorporating eggs into cooked or baked dishes, simply just adding them to my plate.
Shortly after I made this decision, we headed to one of our favourite places for brunch where the owner congratulated me on incorporating eggs back into my diet. He told me that the eggs he uses come from a local farmer who has free range laying hens and asked if I would like to incorporate them into my otherwise vegan brunch. I said yes and this is what happened…
Yes. Those are tempura fried squash blossoms under those eggs which are then on top of some roasted tomatoes. I love this place through and through.
What I’m essentially getting at is that just because we made the decision to eat within a certain structure once doesn’t mean we can’t ever change that decision. You have to do what works for you and your body. Listen to what it's telling you because it changes just as much as you do. It’s a magnificent being and we need to care for it just as much as our ethics account for our choices.