Convictions
In my climate action series, I’m sharing the behind-the-scenes of my choices and decisions I’ve made about food, home, and transportation/travel.
Some food I’ve cut out from my grocery list but bought in bakeries or restaurants (or eat as a guest). Some food I’ve cut out completely then went back to. Others I haven’t.
My reasons are a mixture - caring about factory farming and the impact on the global environment, my personal preference to eat more whole foods (and less processed foods), keeping my grocery bill relatively low, and more.
This post is about cheese, yogurt, and eggs.
Cheese
I used to eat melted cheese way too often. Like two or even three times a day. For decades. And, I had very bad cramps.
I didn’t link my large cheese intake to having bad cramps until I re-started my periods and didn’t have very bad cramps.
I stopped eating cheese in 2018 or 2019. I don’t remember why. Maybe because I was starting to eat more varieties of protein. I do remember trying vegan cheese and not liking it at all. And kosher vegan cheese is expensive compared to non-kosher and non-vegan cheese. It just seemed like a waste of money for the taste and quantity received.
After I stopped being on depo provera and was getting my period again, my cramps were noticeably worse if I ate cheese during my luteal phase. If not, I sometimes didn’t even need to take any meds at all (!!).
While I had stopped buying cheese from the grocery store, I would sometimes buy pizza or cheese danishes. But, I still needed to pay attention to where I was at in my cycle, what quantity I was buying and making sure I ate all leftovers by a certain time…
It became something else to track and monitor that I wanted to stop paying attention to, so I stopped buying any cheese at all. I don’t miss it.
Pizza can definitely look good though!
Yogurt
I stopped eating yogurt regularly in 2020 or 2021. I used to have it for breakfast and/or snack for years. I’d typically add mini chocolate chips to it. Mmm.
When I stopped, I think I first wanted to avoid the dairy. I was concerned about the environments the yogurt was being created in. Then, I was really busy comparing companies and ingredients to avoid hidden sugar, and also not eat non-kosher fats. It got annoying to pay so much attention to the ingredients. I wasn’t a fan of the cheaper plant-based yogurt I tried and didn’t want to spend over a certain amount to try out other ones. Also, I wanted to eat more whole foods and less processed foods.
What I liked best about yogurt was the texture (which I get through my tofu mousse nowadays). While I tried kefir as a substitute, I didn’t like the texture or taste. I would get food waste and feel bad about it.
Now, bonus, I’m not bringing in yogurt containers all the time (plastic or glass jars).
Eggs
The eggs I ate until ~2019 or 2020 were mostly scrambled eggs or french toast. And then, when I decided not to eat any animal (by)products I quickly let both go. I didn’t miss either.
I was basically vegan until December 2022. I was on vacation and the only protein option for breakfast was sunny side up eggs. … It was delicious.
Since January 2023, I’ve been eating a sunny side up fried egg every day for breakfast. (And bonus, I no longer need to take B12.) It’s also turned into a bit of a comfort meal, especially if the breakfast egg isn’t runny.
I used to buy myself the free-range eggs, but stopped sometime this year because it’s almost double the price of regular ones (and my conviction wasn’t that strong).
Next up: apartment living