The Long Haul

For most people Friday is typically a work day.  Unfortunately for me, I took a vacation day today.

Now normally this is a good thing, but you have to realize that it means I have to survive three days without being able to sneak hot dogs at work...  I think I'm going to have to try to sneak some at home.  

But how?  We don't have any hot dogs in the freezer?  I can't just walk over to the neighbour's house and invite myself to a hot dog lunch, especially under the watchful eye of Elphaba...

It sounds like I'll have to upgrade to stealth mode.

My first opportunity arose just before 10 on Friday.  My wife had to take our daughter to her first day of pre-school.  Great, that gives me about an hour to find some hot dogs to scarf down.

I woke our youngest son up during his supposed "nap time" and raced outside... drat!  My wife took the car with the baby seat.  

Alright... the Chariot it is.  I got the little guy bundled up and kicked it into high gear.  I jogged for 20 minutes across to the local shopping complex.  While gasping for air and trying to recover my footing (funny, I thought this diet was supposed to give me more energy), I bought a 12 pack of hotdogs:

I ate them in the parking lot.  All twelve.  Cold.

I also happened to puke most of them up on my jog back home.  Urrghh....

The next opportunity came in the evening.  We were walking around the Farmer's market when I noticed a particularly awesome vendor.  I guided Amber to the other side of the market and then excused myself to the bathroom.

These hot dogs were particularly Vegan due to the unusual vegan coating:

Way to stick to the diet plan, Mike.

I ate 6.

Saturday came and went with no chance to escape.

I snuck upstairs every half hour to floss my teeth:

Fast forward to Sunday.  I'm feeling rather weak after a full day of the Vegan Challenge.

I found an excuse to take the kids over to Costco and pick up a few groceries when I noticed:

One of the menu options seemed to be calling to me.

I looked at the kids and tried to decide if they needed something to eat:

Aaaahhh!!

This vegan thing looks like it's having some unintended side effects.

Excuse me, I'll have 3 hot dogs please.  Kids, don't tell your mother.

Breakfast

A solid breakfast is the key to a successful day.

With bacon, eggs and even milk out of the picture, I've been searching for something that fills me up and puts me on the right foot for the rest of the day.

There are plenty of decent vegan cereals but my milk options are pretty limited:

Almond milk. Meh.

Soy milk. Double-Meh.

Hemp milk, hmmmmm....

Hmm.... maybe not...

I figure if I'm going to taste farmer's fields and grass when I'm eating my cereal I may as well go all out:

Breakfast of champions. You can really taste the diesel.

Thought twice about finding hot dogs today as there were some strange winged creatures flying outside the window...

Luckily I had the foresight to sneak in some afternoon snacks:

Surveillance

Phew, I managed to get out of the house today while keeping to Vegan challenge.

Cereal, soy milk, espresso. So far, so good.

Well, the espresso at least. Thankfully I roast my own beans.

I managed to suppress my Tim Horton's cravings and made it to work for my first meeting on time.

Unfortunately, all I could think about during the meeting was hot dogs. Let's just say we kicked off a new project code named "Hot Wieners".

It wasn't good.

At this point I was starving so I left the meeting early and zipped over to the nearest hot dog vendor. I was going to just get a hot dog (hey, I'm pretty sure there isn't any meat in these things anyway) but I recalled that French Fries are vegan, so I loaded up on those too.

My wife would be proud.

Strangely, after I started munching down on my vegan meal, I felt like someone was watching over my shoulder.

My wife couldn't be here... could she?

Oh well, I've shaken off the feeling, but I better be careful at work.

One never knows who is watching!

Rocky Start

Well.... day one is here and I've fallen off the band wagon.

Although, I suppose this means I never really got on it in the first place.

I had a full on vegan breakfast under the watchful eye of my wife. Cereal and hemp milk. Mmmmm.... yummy... er, uh, yeah, yummy...

I almost made it to work before I re-directed to Tim Horton's and grabbed a coffee without milk. Good job, Mike.

I may have also had a sausage breakfast sandwich...

I asked the guy behind the counter if it was Vegan and he shrugged his shoulders. Good enough for me.

Lunch was a bit better. I took a bagel with homemade hummous and cucumber. Too bad I threw it in the garbage and ate this:

I'm pretty sure that mustard is Vegan. Down the hatch.

Dinner was at home with the kids back under the Eye of Sauron. It was a rather healthy Vegan burrito but I didn't care for the potatoes....

Well, it was a rocky start but I'm sure I'll pick up the pace tomorrow.

High five, Mike.

For all those days I can't resist

Some days it's hard to stay Vegan. Really hard.

Rather than let it get me down or stick to my commitments I go to the Main Dish in Bridgeland and indulge my cravings.

But don't worry. I still feel guilty and isn't that the point?