Day 2: Ginger Snaps and Bummers

After cursing through day 1 with relative ease, today I was faced with my first set of obstacles in the form of my co-workers. I have very little will power when it comes to going out for lunch. I could have a sensible lunch squirreled away in my desk, but at the first mention of dining out, I’m running towards the elevators yelling “I’ll have a #4, super-sized with no pickle.” It’s really not about eating greasy fast-food, as much as it is escaping the confines of my desk for an hour. Ok, maybe it’s 60% / 40% getting out of the office / eating greasy fast-food.

50% / 50% tops…

So while I spent yesterday holed up in a meeting during lunch time, today I was confronted by my co-workers regarding the all important topic of lunch plans. The office space support for my vegan endeavor can best be summed up by my boss’s comment “What the hell is wrong with you?” Needless to say my suggestion to hit up the downstairs salad bar was met with angry stares. I was however, able to reroute the lunch destination away from Fuddruckers (I died a little inside) to Panera (they do a really good job of posing ingredients for all breads and foods on their website), thereby clearing hurdle #1.

On my way home from work I made a stop at Whole Foods, and it was there that I uncovered a sure fire key to victory – snacks! In addition to the previously purchased vegan dinner entrees, my kitchen is now stocked full of organic potato chips, gluten free non-dairy breakfast bars, trail mix bars and most importantly ginger snaps (non-dairy, of course)! These snacks have already paid big dividends, by helping me fight off a late night pizza roll snack attack.

My army of vegan foods is increasing with each passing day. Victory shall be mine!

*Edit:
I was just about to break into the Ginger Snaps before hitting bed, but I thought it best to check the ingredients one last time. While the label on the cover clearly states "Non-Dairy" the ingredients list "Egg Whites." This is a major bummer for me, since I was pretty stoked about the snaps - but at least I didn't open the bag. I'll have to check back at Whole Foods to see if they have any Vegan Ginger Snaps.

Day 2:
9:00 am – Cup of Coffee (no milk, no sugar)
11:45 am – Bowl of Low Fat Vegitarian Black Bean Soup (from Panera – very good), an apple (the bread that typically comes with the soup had dairy – lame), and a cup of Earl Gray Tea
1:15 pm – apple (I bought a lot of apples, I might get sick of them by the time this is through)
1:45 pm – Cup of Coffee (no milk, no sugar – this will be a reoccurring entry)
5:30 pm – Trail Mix bar
6:00 pm – 2 red bean and rice burritos (satisfying, but lacking flavor. Next time I will add cilantro and lime), and a handful of organic potato chips (kettle cooked, baby)
8:00 pm – beer (bowling league night – every time I felt the urge to order chicken fingers, I took a sip of beer…)
11:00 pm – 2 more red bean and rice burritos (I added some sea salt to the mix and it helped out the flavor) and a couple of the mint chocolate chip Oreo things.

~Saps