Wait, what?! Am I allowed to cheat?
|By Lisa McComsey |
Lest you think the seagan/vegan police are a myth, just wait till you reach for a butter-cream-frosted cupcake at your friend’s wedding and someone yells, “Hey, that’s not vegan!”
It’s happened to me—and it can happen to you, too. The diet police are alive and well, ready to pounce at any moment and “help” you toe the line.
I went vegan—and then seagan—for health reasons, and 98 percent of the time I stick to the plan. But I have a terrible sweet tooth. And while I’ve discovered amazing dairy-free ice cream (thanks, Ben & Jerry!) and euphoria-inducing vegan bakeries, I sometimes come face-to-face with a slice of decidedly non-vegan key lime pie or hunk of chocolate lava cake and … well … that’s all she wrote. I wither and partake.
Call me weak, call me a traitor, report me to the authorities … or how about this: Live and let live? I consider myself a devoted seagan, not a militant one, which means I do the best I can—and that may involve the occasional transgression.
Sometimes this “cheat” is done unknowingly. For example, a friend served me her homemade vegetable soup only to realize (after I’d polished off two bowls), that she’d made it with chicken broth. She apologized profusely. I survived!
It always makes me laugh when people ask me, “Are you allowed to eat that?”—as if I’ll get arrested. Admittedly, I often feel the need to explain myself—that “I’m a seagan except when it comes to sweets. Desserts are agnostic.”
Just a friendly warning: Once you slap a label on yourself—in this case, seagan—others may expect you to live up to it perfectly.
Let me emphasize that I’ve chosen seaganism for health reasons, and if I decide to eat something unhealthy—so be it. However, if your motivation is ethical and you’re morally opposed to such breaches, by all means, stick to your guns.
Do you have any cheats? We’d love to about your guilty pleasures in the comments section.
Photos by TK.