Not too long ago, I light heartedly mentioned that I follow a vegetarian diet.  For over 20 years now, I have chosen to follow a diet that excludes meat but includes dairy and eggs.  It was easy.  I was happy.  Then I went to the bookstore and stocked up on some new reading material.  It began with Born To Run, a great book about the incredible super athlete, ultra running Tarahumara Indians.   I found it interesting that this tribe follows a primarily vegetarian diet and was even more intrigued by ultra-runner Scott Jurek who adopted a vegan lifestyle in the late 1990s and proceeded to win the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run seven consecutive times.  But it wasn’t until I read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer that I even contemplated personally adopting a vegan diet.  I simply love(d) cheese.

My initial thought after completing Foer’s book was to seek out local, natural and more organic sources of dairy and eggs.  To that end, there are several options for eggs in particular that eliminate the concerns of consuming factory farmed products.   For example, Nest Fresh provides consumers with certified humane, organic eggs that are readily available in my area.   Dairy proved to be a bit more of a dilemma for me.  I had to acknowledge some of the harsher byproducts of the dairy industry – namely the baby calves.  As a dairy consumer, I am taking the milk (and milk product) that is naturally intended for the calves.  I am quite unsettled by what happens to these calves.  The logical argument is that these animals are created to provide food for humans.  I understand that argument – but it’s an issue that I find difficult to resolve personally.   

I also found out that many of the cheeses that I have so loved over the years are processed with an enzyme called rennet.  sigh.  Rennet is an animal enzyme that comes from the stomach of a baby calf.  Fortunately for lacto-vegetarians, there are many rennet-free cheeses that are available at most grocery stores.  I didn’t even know I needed to check for rennet – hell, I didn’t even know what rennet was!  This may be the end of my love affair with cheese… even though I know it will be hard to make a clean break.    As a vegetarian for health and ethical reasons, I am facing the fact that my egg and dairy habits are contributing to industries that treat animals as cruelly as any meat production facility.   

For myself, I am ready to try a a well intentioned vegan diet.  It’s going to be hard to break up with cheese for good.  For my family, I am fortunate to be able to purchase certified humane eggs and organic, rennet free cheese for my children, – I know that not everyone has these options.

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone.  The dishes are done; the house cleaned up… my sisters and their families gone back to their homes, their routines.   We had a great time this year.  My family is an active one – we pumped, we went to spin class, yoga and ran the 2009 Briargate YMCA Turkey Trot.  I didn’t run my best 5K by any stretch, finishing with a 26:38 time according to my Garmin but still managed to come in 7^th in my age group.  It is a pretty hilly course.

(Poor Daniel had to sit this on out..stress fracture)

Also, this year we celebrated our first completely vegetarian Thanksgiving.  In years past, we’ve had the traditional turkey for the hubbies and kiddos but we collectively decided to go veg this year.  I made a valiant effort to go all the way vegan but we did have some cheese on our vegetarian shepherds pie and our pumpkin pies were baked with what we hope are cruelty-free eggs from Nest Fresh.   Judging from the lack of leftovers, our feast was quite a success for adults and kids alike.

The Las Vegas Rock n’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon is a week from today.  I don’t have a great expectation for a PR on this one.  Seattle was a great race for me this year and despite my speed workouts, I am sort of stuck at 8:30-9 min as my best pace right now.  It’s kind of discouraging but when I think back on my year of running, it is an improvement.  Early this year, breaking the 9 minute pace was monumental for me … anyway, we’ll see how Vegas goes… no matter what, it’s going to be a great time!