Eating Vegan and Diabetes: Day One 🍏🌽🍌

Alrighty, here goes. Today, I attempted to start eating vegan(not eating meat, dairy, eggs, or any other animal products.) I started the day strong, determined to get through the day and not give into temptation to eat things that weren't vegan and to try to put as little processed/artificially flavored/colored products into my body as possible. It sounds great in theory, right?
Well, I lasted until about 3 pm when I got out of school. I got up and ate a fairly healthy breakfast(a banana and oatmeal) and when to school armed with a healthy vegan lunch and fruits and veggies for snacks. Breakfast went over pretty well and I didn't drop low or spike up, although I was a little on the low side when I woke up which might have played into it. Between breakfast and lunch, I ate some of the fruits and veggies as a snack, but forgot to check and bolus, so my blood sugars was slightly high when I checked at lunch(I was at about 215 or so. ) I checked at lunch, heated up my meal(chickpeas with cooked spinach and an orange and some more veggies.) But... I ended up not being too crazy about my lunch(cooked spinach does NOT go down too well... unless it's your thing. Then you'll be fine.) So, for lunch I ended up eating an orange and some carrots and celery with peanut butter. By about 1:30 or so, my blood sugar was dropping and I could tell. By the time I was out of school and able to check, I was at about 49, and, in the hungry, I-just-want-to-feel-better state that being low brings, I broke my vegan foods only attitude and ate marshmallows and a pack of Little Debbie cakes.... oops. And, with my resolve weakened but not gone, I decided not to beat myself up over breaking and eating non-vegan foods and to try just eating vegetarian for the rest of the day... which lasted until supper time when my family had made chicken and I gave in and ate that too.
Basically, what I learned from today is that eating vegan and making that transition isn't easy, but that's okay. You're not going to be perfect on the first day, or ever. You just have to do your best and keep trying, even when you mess up and things go wrong. On the diabetes side of things, I learned that changing eating habits is going to require more careful monitoring of blood glucose levels and carb/protein intakes. Eating vegetables doesn't mean you never eat carbs in protein, it just means they come in different shapes and forms than they would when eating a carnivorous diet, and that's okay. You and your body will take time to adjust to new eating habits and how to get what your body needs and it'll take some time, but we can both get there with a little patience and perseverance. 😃