Vegan Rant

May I have a few -- just a few -- rows to throw a tiny vegan rant out there? Pretty please? :)

I'm usually thoughtful about my posts, but tonight I want to say something that's not elaborate or even thought-provoking. It'd just help me get a huge weight off my chest.

When I first started my vegan diet, I also started experiencing something that I thought would go away in time: people questioning everything I eat. Only it hasn't gone away six months later... and it's starting to wear me out.

When they see me with a scrumptious slice of decadent chocolate cake smothered with whip-cream, "That's not vegan! What is that?! Are you allowed to eat that?" So I explain where I got the cake and what's in it and that it is, in fact, vegan. When they see me with a Yumm Bowl, "Doesn't that have sour cream in it??" No, I asked for it vegan, without cheese or sour cream. "Popcorn?! That's made with butter!" No, if you read the label of this particular bag, it's made with vegetable oil. "A latte?? YOU can drink a latte?" Yes, it's made with soy milk.

This is not on occasion. This is every day. Several times a day.

Unless I'm munchin' on carrots or sprouts, any cooked food I eat is under question.

In a couple of instances, I've had to put down what I was eating and stop eating all together during lunches because people insisted so much that what I was eating was not vegan, that I felt like some sort of criminal that was about to get stoned ... and since it didn't have labels on it, I couldn't prove them wrong.

{The opposite happens if we go out somewhere where they want to eat :) Then they try to convince me that nearly anything on the menu is made without animal products just so I'd eat and they wouldn't feel guilty about eating in front of me while I'm not.}

I really appreciate people looking after me, but I don't understand why this particular diet -- the vegan diet -- gets so much negative attention. Most other people I know are on some kind of diet. Yet, I could never bring myself to say, "Hold it right there. Are those fat-free crackers?" "Hey, is that Coke sugar-free?" "How do you expect to lose weight if you're eating fried chicken?" "Is that the second sandwich you've had today?"

Should I?

Maybe this is people's way of caring for me and I got it all wrong. I could be wrong. But I wish everyone knew that I'm trying to make a difference, not to make anyone else feel bad about their choices.  So, please, don't make me feel bad about mine :)

End of rant. Thank you for listening... and for putting up with more than a "few" lines of mine ;)

Hope you're all having a wonderful week!