4 days

   Four days ago, I made the somewhat unplanned decision to become vegan. I have been 95% vegetarian (bacon) for the past year, and even before then, as long as I can remember, I have never really enjoyed eating meat and definitely ate a lot less meat than the average Wisconsinite.  Making the decision to go vegan, is of course a huge, huge adjustment for a vegetarian who would still eat fish and eggs and bacon from time to time. I do worry that I have jumped into this with not enough thought or planning, and only time will tell how committed I am to being a full- time vegan.
   What led me to make this decision? For the past month, I have been very ill with a lot of gastrointestinal issues, and yet have not changed my eating habits. It has been miserable and afraid to eat anything. Barring any serious conditions, I have narrowed it down to lactose intolerance or extreme ibs as brought on by my new birth control pills. (symptoms beginning a month and a half after switch, makes me very suspicious.) Given how miserable I was, it was a no brainer to give up the last remaining non-vegan aspect of my diet- dairy. Since doing that 4 days ago, I have noticed a gradual daily improvement of my symptoms, but I am definitely still having symptoms. I have always been suspicious of putting non- natural things into my body, and I generally don't care for taking any sort of medications. I did some online research this morning, and it turns out that a lot of women complain of having the exact same problems caused by the pill. I have decided to stop taking the pill as of today, and I am reasonably confident that this will also help. Overall, it's just time to make my whole system cleaner.
  I will record my experience of becoming a vegan (and hopefully staying vegan) here, and my next post will be about my first four days. I have decided to start this blog because even though there are some great resources out there, I feel like there aren't enough personal blogs that chart a person's daily beginning experience, and especially, of being vegan in suburban Milwaukee.