Day Two--A Few Things I've Already Learned

There are animal products in everything!--Okay, obviously there aren't animal products in everything, but there's a lot more to this vegan thing than meat, fish, dairy, and eggs.  I knew I'd have to be on the look-out for milk, eggs, and butter in some products, but I didn't know that I also had to be on the lookout for wine (sometimes the fermentation process uses gelatin from animal bones, isinglass from fish bladders, and milk proteins), orange juice (anything that's fortified with Omega-3 stuff has fish oil added), and tortillas (could be made with lard).  Seriously?  I've decided that I have to forgive myself if I "fail" on some of these ingredients...at least for now.  I am only on Day Two, after all...

I have a lot more to learn--As you can see above, there's more to this than I realized, but I'm grateful for that.  What a learning experience!  I obviously plan on improving my animal vocabulary and label reading ability over the next 30 days.

I need to plan ahead and be ready at a moment's notice--I almost always pack my lunch and snacks when I'm working and have been putting in extra effort during these vegan days...  So I thought I was prepared today, but then I had an appointment after work, ran home to change clothes, and then headed to a yoga get-together.  I was starving, I didn't have enough food with me and wasn't sure where I could stop to get something quick that was "allowed," and even at the yoga studio, they were serving cheese and crackers.  Of course I should plan my days better, but I also plan on being better prepared with Lara Bars and nuts in my car...just in case.

Smarties are vegan--I've done more odd Google searches in the past couple days than ever...and one today was "Are Smarties vegan?"  I was glad to find out they were...and I was actually even more impressed that the company had a whole page specifically devoted to discussing vegan products.--to me that shows a company that's concious, understanding, and helpful (because they know there are newbies like me who have to ask Google silly stuff like that).