It’s just twenty minutes after midnight, the official end of vegan week. I’ve eaten part of the last piece of key lime pie.

My son polished off a plate of chicken wings and some mozzerella sticks are heating in the oven.

It’s over. We made it.

Tomorrow will be our last vegan day. It’s become a real struggle as my meal imagination is slipping. We’ll be going out to dinner tomorrow night (Pho Saigon) where I’m hoping that I can find a vegan meal. If nothing else, my friend Amanda says I can eat a bowl full of water chestnuts.

The Back to School tax free holiday is coming up. I cover this and more fabulous Back to School info in this week’s edition of Shop Talk, the best shopping column, ever. Or so my mom tells me.

I made a huge mistake today. I didn’t realize until about 4pm that I had not had any protein all day. I was tired and not thinking too clearly. I had been making a pretty good effort at making sure I was having enough protein throughout the day, especially in the morning when I tend to be sluggish. Today, I blew it though. So for dinner I wolfed down a bowl of black beans and rice and plan to have some fruit and maybe some carrots in a bit.

I’ve been fantasizing about steak and cake. Mmmmmm.

The whole experience has been amazing so far. This is the first time in my life I’ve been on a restricted diet. It’s bizarre for me to have to put so much thought into what I’m consuming. I am not doing it to lose weight, so I don’t feel deprived, and in fact, am not terribly hungry. I’m not obsessing or engaging in the emotional eating I can be so good at doing when stressed.

In fact, this has been an incredibly stressful week for me for reasons other than my diet and I feel strangely balanced. Perhaps this exercise is more about self-control and confidence in something in which I feel I have a choice. Not at all what I expected when we started out four days ago.

Black bean soup, apple, pasta, fire-roasted tomatoes, asparagus, soy milk, cereal, and a soy latte ($3.89 @ Starbucks, whew!). A good day for the vegan experiment. I find that I’m eating quite a bit less and have to plot snacks here and there so I don’t pass out (hence the cereal at 10pm).

The boy starts marching band practice tomorrow so his dairy and meat free lunch is packed and he’s ready to go. They’ll run, do pushups and march from 7am till 4pm for the next several weeks. He’s going to eat tonight’s leftover pasta for breakfast for a Lance Armstrong inspired pre-exercise carbfest.

As for my newly red hair, (pic to come, Ajay) so far no snickering or stares so I’m feeling more Brenda Starr than Bozo the Clown. More Mary Jane Watson than Ronald Mc Donald.

Signed,
The Real MJ

My favorite morning radio talk show guy, J. C. Corcoran has said that women, when they make a drastic change to their hair, they’re “going over the wall.”

Well . . . I’ve gone RED. Auburn, actually, but it’s a big change and I’m wondering what the reaction will be at the office tomorrow. I wonder if my friends will tell me what they really think. I’ve asked them to laugh only in front of my face, not behind my back.

We shall see. After all, it’s only hair.

Wow. It’s harder than I thought it would be. I’m enjoying the increased fruits and veggies but struggling with making sure we get enough protein and calcium. We’re taking multivitamins daily (yes, I know we should be doing this anyway) and having soy milk a couple of times a day.

We resisted the key lime pie so far, and for lunch today I wasn’t really hungry so ended up eating only cashews and some crackers instead of the tomato soup apple and orange I’d also packed. For dinner we had veggie burgers which really aren’t bad (especially with pickles, ketchup and mustard).

I’m pretty proud of my son, who’s resisted temptation like the pizza they ordered over at his girlfriend’s house this afternoon, and suffered some grilled tofu for dinner last night (it really wasn’t that good).

My fear is eating out for lunch, which I may need to do this week. It could be tricky.

My husband returned from the store with a key lime pie! I love key lime . . . but it’s full of eggs and dairy . . . something he wasn’t thinking about when he bought it. He thought, Lime! They can eat lime. Aargh! He said he was truly sorry. Of course now he’s going to eat an entire pie by himself.

Vegan week continues as I stare into the pantry trying to decide what to eat for lunch.

This week’s column is largely about maternity clothes (I seem obsessed, but it’s really because I’ve been surrounded by babies and pregnant people.)

Enjoy!

Welcome to Vegan Week! We tried “meatin’ up” yesterday, making sure there were meat and dairy elements in our meals, since that’s the end for the next . . . seven days.

We went to Dierberg’s and browsed the “meatless meatballs,” laughed at the hemp bread and steered clear of the imitation cheese. We came home with a huge selection of veggies, fruits, tofu and just a few frozen alternatives (veggie burgers and “chick’n” patties) in case we get truly desperate. It’s going to be an interesting week.