Vacationing and Veganism

Kris and I got back from our two week vacation on Wednesday and I must say that I had a fantastic time. Our first stop was in San Diego. We spent a week at the Beach Cottages, as we do every year. The weather was fantastic and we got to spend a lot of time in the water boogie boarding, which was a blast. One awesome thing that we got to do this year was spend time with Kris's friend, Cameron, and his wife, Alanna and their adorable baby, Nolan. We all went to Sea World and since Alanna had previously worked there, we got to do some great behind the scenes stuff. (This is me petting a baby penguin).

  Even better than going to Sea World (in my opinion) was when Cameron and Alanna had us over for dinner and cooked a completely vegan and gluten-free meal for Kris and I. Alanna is already vegan, so the meal wasn't much of a stretch for her, and I just have to say thank you, Alanna! You showed Kris and me that vegan food can be fucking amazing!! Seriously the food she cooked that night is probably the best vegan food I've had so far. I still can't get over the chocolate mousse that was made with only avocados, cocoa powder and agave nectar. Blows my mind! Thank you!

Our last leg of the trip was New York. Kris and I went pretty much to keep Kris's dad company because a daughter of his friend's was getting married in Ithaca. I really didn't care why, I'd gladly take any excuse to go to New York. Now, the first time I had ever gone to New York, I went with Kris 3 years ago, but that was only NYC. This time around I was excited to get to see some of upstate New York.

The wedding was held on the Cornell campus in the Sage Chapel. The campus was beautiful and had some amazing architecture. One thing that I thought was beyond cool was the fact that there was a crypt in the chapel that housed the bodies of some of Cornell's founders. It was eery to walk around it knowing that there were bodies lying in the cement sculptures of the deceased.

The wedding itself was interesting to say the least. The groom was Sikh and Indian and the bride was Chinese and Jewish, so they had a few different ethnicities to represent for the wedding. The ceremony took a total of 2 hour and 45 minutes and even had an intermission in it! It was like nothing I had ever seen, but cool nonetheless.

Ithaca was a great place to find vegan food. It is a college town with a lot of unique and trendy restaurants. I've found that these are the best places to eat vegan. Most chain restaurants do not offer a vegan dish, and their vegetarian dish most likely can't be modified to be vegan because cheese, cream or some form of dairy is the staple of the dish and they don't carry vegan substitutes for it. So this has meant that a lot of salads are ordered when eating out. This was not the case with Ithaca. We went to dinner the first night at Simeon's. Their menu had one lonely vegan item on it, but I was still happy to see it on there. It's always nice to have a warm meal when you're so used to eating salads. Their one vegan dish was a tofu curry. It was my first time eating curry, but I thought it was fantastic. The next day for lunch we stopped at a bagel shop. Again, I figured I would probably just have a fruit cup or something of the sort, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out they had a vegan lunch "meat" and some gluten-free bread, so I was able to eat a sandwich that fit my dietary requirements. Ithaca was so vegan friendly, it was incredible. There was even a Mexican food restaurant there that was vegan friendly. Unfortunately I didn't have time to try it, but I was amazed at the selection of places that I could go there.

We traveled east to Cooperstown. Kris and his dad wanted to see the baseball hall of fame, so we went there the next day. I tried to find a vegan friendly restaurant in Cooperstown with no luck. I even went to the information booth to see if the lady there could suggest anything and she had never even heard the word 'vegan'. It was definitely weird, but I figured my good luck for food would run out somewhere.

Now I must confess, if Cooperstown gave me any doubts, New York City did a great job of redemption. There were so many vegan and vegan friendly restaurants, it was a little overwhelming. I found this awesome place called Otarian that was about a quarter mile from our hotel. I went there twice while I was there because it was frickin delicious. I ate a quinoa mushroom burger in a gluten-free wrap and it was seriously REALLY good! It was so exciting going on vacation and trying all of these new places that I never would have found if it wasn't for my dietary restrictions. (The picture is of Kris and I enjoying Central Park.)

If you're thinking about adopting this lifestyle and are worried about all of the limitations, don't be! I was terrified at the thought of giving up all of my favorite foods, but truth is, I don't even miss them anymore. And guess what? In the 3 weeks between doctor's visits, 2 of which I was on vacation, I still lost 8 pounds! Can you believe that? 8 pounds down while still on vacation! And that was me eating all of that good vegan junk food. I didn't get nearly as many fresh fruits and veggies in as I should have, but I still dropped nearly 3 pounds each week. I think that is incredible. I can't remember the last vacation that I didn't gain weight, let alone lose it! So no more excuses! Go read Skinny Bitch and watch Forks Over Knives!! It'll change your life and you will hardly miss the old food once you find all of the awesome alternatives that you have.

Oh! And as for my current weight loss results, as of this morning, I am down 27 pounds in 37 days. I haven't been going to the gym hardly at all, so I'm thinking once I get my lazy ass over there, the weight will probably be coming off a lot faster. Anyway, thanks for reading and for all of the support I've received. If you think you might want to give this a try, get in contact with me and I'd be happy to help! It's truly an amazing feeling and I am so thankful that I found this lifestyle. :)