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michelle clark said #1 Oct 20, 2009 at 6:58pm

What if you are vegan, but you are in a situation when you are at someone's home and unable to be dairy free, and your only choice to eat yogurt is their yoplait yogurt lite and you have been dairy free for a month but need some probotics and you ate the yogurt, I now feel guilty, do I start all over again since I cheated one night? :(

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Evie said #2 Oct 20, 2009 at 7:28pm

You shouldn't beat yourself up. Even "The Kind Diet" has a section where Alicia says that if you cheat, just get back on the bandwagon. Guilt is too often a part of "diets," and that's not healthy. You should make yourself one of the teas she describes, or if you don't have those ingredients, just treat yourself to something relaxing like a bubble bath and try to let go of the nagging thoughts. It's a process. I've been "flirting" with veganism for almost a year now, and only for 2 months have I been completely 100% vegan.
When I go to my boyfriend's house, he and his housemates are always making meat or dairy dishes, and chocolate chip cookies from a tube. Sometimes the stuff is tempting, as they don't have anything vegan in their home except bananas, oil and beer :). They are a bit disapproving of my veganism, and I occasionally get lectures about how I am being "weird and unnatural. " Anyway, I try to eat before I come, and I always bring snacks. That's the key. Bring yourself some extra yummy vegan snacks when you go to someone's house. You can bring pita chips with a small container of hummus, fresh fruit or veggies, trail mix, bars, soy or coconut yogurt, pop corn with nutritional yeast, olive oil and salt on it...anything really. I tend to bring entire meals as well as vegan ice-cream, but that's because I don't have a problem being cheeky and sticking my stuff into the fridge and freezer, as I am quite comfortable in that house.
You can get probiotics from enriched soy/coconut yogurts, unpasturized miso and saurkraut (I think!) among other things, or you could take them in supplement form. Don't worry too much, and most of all, just keep feeding yourself yummy vegan meals! Pretty soon, you'll get the hang of it, and you will learn to pinpoint the difficult situations before you are in them so that you can prepare!

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Robyn Eastling said #3 Oct 22, 2009 at 10:48pm

Everyday should be lived one meal at a time until it becomes second nature to you. And even then, just choose what's best for you at the time. Don't beat yourself up for eating a little bit of dairy. You're life isn't over, you use to eat it ALL the time and you can not eat it with your next meal. It's not like there's 'vegan police'. And if there was, you'd probably be much lower down on their list of concerns. smiley-wink.gif

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Zachary Wolk said #4 Oct 22, 2009 at 10:57pm

Why did you need to eat the yogurt? (I don't mean to give you a hard time, just curious).
You aren't starting all over again, you're continuing and treating the yogurt as a treat during a super inconvenient time, rewarding ourselves during hard times helps us cope with those difficulties, especially if we truly deserve the reward (which it appears you did).
no harm, no foul.

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Lea F. said #5 Oct 26, 2009 at 2:56pm

It's okay! Don't waste your energy feeling shitty! Use your energy to plan ahead better next time so you eat something that makes you feel wonderful instead of yucky!!

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