This year I decided to participate in Lent for the first time. Having a Catholic roommate was an incentive behind this decision. Plus, I've always been curious about Lent, and I wanted to give it a try. And anyway, roommate bonding is a great idea, yeah? Gritting our teeth and bearing the 40 days of fasting together is bound to have a positive effect on our relationship.
... or else we'll just kill each other. But I, being the Eternal Optimist, hold out hope for the former. After all, it's all about Jesus, right? Living at peace with your neighbor is in the New Testament someplace. (Romans 12:18)
The idea of Lent, as much as I understand it, seems like a great one, too, from a spiritual perspective. It's like a symbol to help us sort of join in Christ's suffering before and during the Cross. And the 40 days are from his 40 day fast in the wilderness. I'm all about taking a look at Christian things from a new perspective, and I think this will be good for me. Not to mention that it will give me a much greater appreciation for what I'm giving up, I'm pretty sure.
Hm, I haven't mentioned that yet, have I?
This brings in the second reason for why the vaguely-Baptist-associated Christian girl is going along with a Catholic tradition. I have a crazy friend who came up with an equally crazy idea. She wanted to go Vegan for Lent. (The ironic part is that she's a Messianic Jew. She did Lent for the first time last year with spectacular results) I was already considering giving up meat with another friend of mine, so I jumped at this idea. Go big or go home, right? Why just give up meat if I could give up all animal-derived products instead? (Read: Why just eat cardboard if I could eat rocks instead?) Why not go Vegan? I'm not going to stay a veg anyhow. As long as it's only for 40 days, I might as well. And provide some moral support for my friend (not like she probably needs it).
That was three weeks ago. It's now Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and I hit my first obstacle. I go to downtown public schools once a week and help out in 7th and 8th grade math classes, and this entails eating lunch with the kids. Remembering my own 7th-8th grade experience (traumatic) and not wishing to estrange myself from the kids any more than my being in a teacher position already does, I was starting to worry about lunch choices. I'm sure you all remember 7th-8th grade; they're very into labels and judging. I mean, if I showed up with some weird vegan food on day 2 of working there, I would forever be "That Weird Aide That Eats Rocks" which isn't exactly the label I wish to acquire.
So I was thinking I could eat a PB&J. Easy. I checked my jelly -- yup, it's already clear. Peanut butter is a vegan staple, so I'm good there. And bread doesn't have any milk, eggs, or butter, so that shouldn't be a problem. But when I went to check the labels on the bread on the campus grocery store, I found something that startled me. It appears that there are mono- and diglycerides (glycerol from animals fats) in Arnold's Soft-Baked Wheat bread. Without stopping to consider why on earth that would be in the bread, I shrugged and picked up the next loaf, skimming through the ingredients.
Cultured Wheat Starch, Raisin Juice Concentrate (Pause: Why is there raisin juice in here? And wouldn't it just be grape juice? Raisins are dried up grapes, right?), Enrichment... Mono- and Diglycerides! What the cow? Beginning to panic, I pick up the next brand.
And the next.
And the next.
Desperate, I move onto the bagels.
Then the mini-bagels.
They all have it! This nebulous animal-fat product has successfully infiltrated all the bread products I can buy with my meal plan. Not only am I aggravated at the food companies for such unnecessary placement of stupid glycerides, Operation Normal Lunch is in danger of failing. I had to think fast.
With relief, I remembered seeing that Ritz crackers were vegan, so I grabbed a box of those off the shelf. Fifteen minutes of label reading helped me come to the realization that there's also a nutrition/granola bar they sell that's vegan. The Luna brand bar was relatively expensive ($1.69 a pop) but boasts many helpful vitamins and minerals that will keep me hopping (such as 35% of the calcium I need for the day and 30% of the iron, along with some Vitamins A, B12, C, and D) along with the most convincing non-dairy chocolate I've yet tasted. It had me reading through the label again, just to make sure.
So Operation Normal Lunch was a moderate success. Peanut-butter Ritz sandwiches, carrots, an apple, peanuts, a Luna, and a juice were all tossed in the plastic bag and brought no funny looks from the giggling 7th grade girls.
Oh, and my roomie gave up Facebook. I'm still debating as to which one is worse. Methinks both of us are going to be a little crabby these first few days. However, I'm confident it will get better and be a great experience for both of us. And my friend, too, if she remembers to eat properly. When I saw her at 10pm today and offered her some carrots or peanuts, she looked like I'd offered her a golden goose. Apparently the dining place near her work had no vegan-friendly food. She did, however, find vegan bread at the off-campus grocery store, so I'm too busy feeling jealous to feel too bad.
But anyway.
All in all, today was pretty good. Besides a bout of queasiness at breakfast without my normal milk-balance (Note to self: Buy soy milk. Learn to like it.) and a bit of sketchy dinner due to business, I'm doing alright. I even tried hummus tonight, much to the amusement of my roommate's boyfriend. When I said I was going Vegan for Lent, he gave me a sucks-to-be-you laugh.
...I might agree, just a little.
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