Becoming Vegan-ish

So for about 9 months I've been really thinking about the idea of becoming a vegan. My bud is vegan, and between watching intently what Alicia Silverstone, Kathy Freston, and Ellen Degeneres say about it and my buds life, I am intrigued.
Now i am an animal lover, but I am not into PETA, or thinking on it because of slaughterhouses.    Although if you saw the Oprah with Lisa Ling, going to a 'better run' slaughterhouse, it really is hard to want to eat meat...although easy to just block that out, and eat ignorantly (or at least that is what I do). And, it's not because I agreed with the book, Skinny Bitch.
What intrigues me is the arguements about what is good for the body, and what is good for the Earth, and connecting, and feeling good about who you are. Taking care of your body and soul. I'm not saying this as a bunch of mumbo jumbo.  It's things like this that I am reding in Kathy Freston's book, "Veganist":

• most Americans eat twice as much protein as needed...and twice as much as we did in the early 20th century.
• The American Dietic Association concludes a Vegetarian diet shows lower ishemic heart disease, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lower hypertension, and a reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes (a clencher for me), prostate, and colon cancer.
• it takes 16lbs of grain to feed 1lb of beef.
• Meat stimulates an insulin release (Dr. Barnard). Beef and cheese cause a bigger insulin release than pasta and fish more than popcorn. <~~this catches my attention as I am insulin resistant.

I thought you may be interested in these little factoids, and i may continue sharing them as I come across them.
Another big thing for me, is all the crap they do to meat...I feel like I can't trust it. Lots of chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics going into the animals we are injesting.

Anyway, so what the heck is "leaning in" to "vegani-ish".  "Leaning in" means its not going to happen overnight. This is a lifestyle change not a diet.  I'm not going to hold my feet to the coals to be perfect.  What I am going to do is be concious of my eating, and think about it, and make choices towards vegan. Vegan-ish to me means, I may be a vegetarian, and I may try to avoid dairy....but it may take me some time to give up the cream in my coffee.  And what if that is the 1 thing I hold onto....so what. It's not about perfection, its about being concious.

So yesterday, I was a bonafide vegetarian.  I had the following to eat:
Breakfast: Whole Wheat Cranberry Orange Scone and a Strawberry Banana Orange Smoothie

Lunch: Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread with bean sprouts, avocado, tomato, and spinach

Snack: We went to the Strawberry Festival and I had a Strawberry Taco. Vegetarian....yes.  Vegan....no. It is a waffle cone, with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

Dinner: We grilled some zucchini, yellow squash, garlic, onions and corn, with some teriyaki marinade.  I also had a baked potato with butter (not healthy, nor vegan)

Dessert (I know twice in one day, but it was my anniversary): Some mint chocolate chip Vegan ice cream, made with Coconut Milk....super delicious.

So far today, I've had an Odwalla Bar and smoothie.  We are having black bean burritos for dinner.  I'm going to see if I can try it without cheese or sour cream.  I am hoping the guacamole picks up the slack.