You don't know how good you have it!
I'm a little late to commenting on this, but I noticed that the San Francisco Chronicle's "Accidental Vegetarian" columnist went vegan for a month and wrote about it.
She speaks glowingly of how great she felt and looked on the diet. And she took full advantage of her cooking skills to get creative in her kitchen (PS-it all sounds yummy) but it sounds like she wasn't the most successful shopper in the world...not in grocery stores nor in restaurants.
And she lives in San Francisco! I can't imagine how she would have fared in a less vegan-friendly part of the country.
I would say two things:
1. It truly IS easy to find many veganized versions of everything...we have Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Mollie Stone's etc. etc. So, no, you might not shop for everything at Whole Foods, but if you're looking for soy yogurt without milk proteins (one of the things she said she couldn't couldn't, find!) then yeah, Whole Foods is your go-to source.
2. I think she got a bit more caught up in the drama of being a vegan and how limiting that can be (please read that as dripping with sarcasm) if her friends really were reluctant to go out with her. I go to every kind of restaurant there is. Yes, sometimes that doesn't work out so well for me. BUt when that Happens, you know what I do? I laugh it off.
And if most of my friends "found it too difficult to think of places we could go together"? I would think of the great places we could all go together. I've taken friends to very vegetarian and vegan-friendly places...sometimes even to (gasp!) vegan restaurants themselves. And you know what? 99% of the time, everyone is happy.
I hope perhaps the accidental vegetarian will try it again, without placing more limits on herself than really need to be there.
