Hi everyone,
I'm thinking about going vegan (I haven't eaten meat in years and don't like eggs so it shouldn't be too hard at home) but I'm a little worried because I'm going across the country with 2 friends this summer and I'm worried about finding food I can eat. Do any vegans out there have trouble eating on vacations or in restaurants or while camping?

I recently tried to go vegan, but only lasted a few weeks. I didn't realize how much of a role dairy played in my daily diet, even if on a small level. I think it would be very difficult to remain vegan while on vacation, unless you go to restaurants that cater to vegans. That's just my opinion based on a very short experience, lol. Hopefully some others with more experience will share some tips.

You might want to wait until after the trip. It's sometimes difficult to find vegetarian options and even harder for vegan ones. Then when you get back home try out the vegan lifestyle.

An idea would be to be stick to vegetarian choices and if you do find something vegan on menu try it out.

I was also on the road quite a bit last summer (had a conference and then moving) and managed to stick with being a vegan while eating out, eating at my brother's home, etc. I did end up eating a lot of salad bar lunches and bean burritos for dinner, but I was fine with that.

I also made sure to have sources of protein that traveled well (nuts and seeds and Luna bars, mainly) so that if I got stuck eating something at a restaurant that was vegan but didn't have protein (such as a garden salad or a pasta marinara dish) then I could munch on some nuts afterwards to get the full protein. In the mornings, I would stick with fruit and toast, but later hop to a Starbucks or something similar and order a soy latte to get the protein in the soy milk. So you have to be creative sometimes but I haven't not found it too much of a problem. And we were traveling mainly in rural areas, not big cities.

The one thing that was difficult from what I usually experience was ice cream cravings. But that was mainly because my parents (who I was traveling with) are addicted to Dairy Queen!

Hope that helps. Honestly - I would not discount trying to stay vegan while traveling just because it is more of a challenge. As long as you're prepared to be up front with asking wait people about whether a dish has dairy/eggs in it or not, asking them to make it without, and keeping protein sources in the car, then I think you should be fine. I ate well during that month and a half and actually lost some weight!

Tam