My Vegan Mondays

I started doing My Vegan Mondays about two and a half years ago, inspired by the Meat Free Mondays celebrated in England. I’m obsessed with food—from the ridiculous and indulgent to the pious and pure; from the principles and practices to the customs and culture. This is why, at the turn of the millennium, after being introduced to MichaelPollan and feeling pretty scared about our environmental future, I gave up red meat. It was a combination of intellectual fascination and a very doable lifestyle change. It was a small thing I could do, and something that was personally meaningful. And when Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, launched their Meat Free Mondays, I figured I would up my ante a wee bit by doing My Vegan Mondays—“my” vegan Mondays, a very deliberate label.

It may seem silly that I don’t eat any animal products or by-products on Mondays. But it’s my little thing. It’s not meant to co-opt the vegan label or be misleading about what veganism is. Just as I’m not preaching to those who eat meat, I’m not being ignorant as to what veganism is about. I don’t claim to be a purist. I just eat a vegan diet one day a week. Or at least try to.

You can’t change the world, you can only change yourself.

Morning

Coffee with soy milk

Green juice (kale, apple, cucumber, lemon juice and banana)

Peanut butter Clif Bar (it had been a long, long time; I had forgotten how these can be like eating candy bars.)

Afternoon

Brown rice bowl with some eggplant, sprouts, carrots and edamame

Dried pineapple (I had a book event in Stamford tonight. Any time I pass through Grand Central, I have to get dried pineapple from the market. From Zabar’s, they’re some of the gummiest, most decadent rings in the city.)

Evening

Fruit salad

Lentil salad