(or fall down seven times, get up eight!)

Whether vegan or not, this post is about choices and willpower (or the lack thereof.)

Yes, Virginia was an avid Vegan for three (very long) years. As a long-time vegetarian, my idea of a good day was cheese for breakfast, cheese for lunch & cheese for dinner (with sides of bright veggies, beans & rice.) Ah, the bliss of a good Havarti, flavoring of Feta, heartiness of smoked Gouda (very gooda), meltiness of mozzarella, creaminess of Muenster, effervescence of Edam, giddiness of goat cheese and the heights of my favorite, Halloumi cheese (lightly fried in a little olive oil?)  🙂

sigh.

Cheese is one of the reasons Virginia became Vegan Virginia: it had to be a completely cholesterol free diet or pills every day. Vegan diet won. Doctor acquiesced menacing medicines 6 months later when vegan diet beat health challenge.

saw this last week parked @ our regional library!

Fast forward 3 years later, doctor reassessed situation & ordered eggs back into diet. Not a hard thing to add eggs once a week, but not-so-Vegan Virginia took the liberty of adding a little cheese to the eggs. A little feta here, a little skim mozzarella there, a scoop of real ice cream every now & then?

Could just feel those arteries hardening.

Sooooo, a few weeks ago made choice to get back on the Vegan Wagon.

Here’s the kicker. Last week I drove down to Whole Foods in Newport News (our closest big city) to stock up on vegan soy-free Mayo (there’s a distinct shortage in Williamsburg) & other vegan hard-to-find ingredients.

Dashed in and filled cart, hurrying to beat traffic back but somehow cart ended up near the prepared foods. At Whole Foods there’s lots to choose from in their huge salad-bar islands of goodies (numerous vegan options inclusive.) Kinda crazy how my cart veered over to the counter with their home-made oven-fired pizzas.

I was so hungry. (Skipped lunch to zip down to N. News. Not such a good idea.)

There sat a vegetarian pizza, untouched, right out of the oven. Fresh spinach, basil, tomato slices, feta & ricotta. Hot. Without even blinking (or thinking) I asked for a piece.

oh, oh, oh! Such joy in every tasty delectable bite. Struggling with the guilt thing here, because suddenly my energy spiked & the world seemed like a wonderful place.

Superficial, yes, I know. (But it was amazing pizza!)

It was so good I wanted to go back and get another piece to take home. (Didn’t.)

A wee bit grateful for that small morsel of self-control.

Still, just two weeks in and I blew it. For three years I kept to a strict vegan diet and never blew it, but just two weeks of trying again, splat, pizza did me in.

Fall down seven times, get up eight.

It’s just a diet, but I failed. Maybe my ‘get up and go got up and left’ but now I’ve got to try to move forward, (one tiny cheese-less step at a time.)

Sometimes in life we fall down, splat, flat on our faces and have trouble getting back up again. Failures, disappointments, screw-ups, mistakes, missteps pull us into the mire mucking up our mobility to move forward.

Fall down seven times, get up eight.

Tomorrow is a new day.  To try again. And again. And again.

Looking up, getting up… and never giving up!

Grace, peace & get-up-again-&-againers

(mostly) Vegan Virginia : )

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.” Saint Jerome