W10 - Sandwich

Now that I have put some thought into it, defining a “sandwich” isn’t as easy as I had initially anticipated.  I suppose the definition rests in the hands of the definer and the definition can vary significantly from person to person.

To me, a sandwich is an entrée eaten mainly at lunch; however, this entrée may also be eaten at dinner (in the case of a poor college student who can afford nothing more than two pieces of Wonder Bread and bologna) or at breakfast in the case of the “breakfast sandwich” as made infamous by the one and only McDonald’s (complete with eggs and bacon/sausage atop an English Muffin or bagel).  Personally, I feel a sandwich consists of two pieces of bread between which comes a wide variety of deli meats, cheese and toppings.  Sandwich breads can include the following: sliced bread, bagels and English Muffins; however, pitas are not a sandwich because they are pitas, quesadillas are quesadillas and wraps are wraps. Deli meats can include but are not limited to (but a sandwich does not necessarily need to incorporate meat): turkey, ham, chicken, bacon, egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, bologna and salami.  Furthermore, toppings can range significantly from lettuce and tomato to condiments to potato chips. 

I firmly believe that a hamburger is not a sandwich for the reason that all sandwiches need to be able to have the title “sandwich” follow its name – for example, egg salad sandwich, BLT sandwich, turkey and cheese sandwich, etc.  For the same reason, a quesadilla is not a sandwich nor is a hot dog though they can possess a variety of toppings between two pieces of bread. 

Furthermore, I personally feel the name/title sandwich possesses an American persona.  Rarely do I consider Germans, Italians and Greeks to be heavy sandwich users come lunchtime.  I’m sure they can prepare something much more elaborate than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Leave it to the Americans to be too lazy to whip up something more enticing than a sandwich -- but, i suppose it's better than rolling through the McDonald's drive-through.

W9 - My Vegan Adventure

For this blog post, I chose an excerpt from my blog titled “A Quest for Optimal Health Through Veganism” – a blog that details my 27-day journey into veganism and the health benefits and changes to my body which result. Though I was raised vegetarian, I am an extremely inexperienced cook, and thus, I also detail my vegan adventures in the kitchen.

I have found the key to resisting all foods that contain animal products is to avoid situations in which they will be present -- at least during the initial stages of a vegan transformation.  At moments, the smell of fried food is enough to send my head spinning, and thus, I attempt to avoid environments such as the dining halls, food court at our student union, and my apartment kitchen when my roommates are cooking.  However, there eventually will come a time when I will need to eat at a restaurant and unfortunately, that time for me is…TOMORROW.  I can only hope I’m ready to forgo the bleu cheese on my beloved spinach salad.  Also, there’s always a possibility a restaurant’s menu may not provide any vegan-friendly options, and in that case…well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Another great way to battle cravings (though I’ve hardly had any) or a situation in which unhealthy food will be present (such as my pizza adventures) is to pack an abundance of vegan-friendly snacks in my purse or backpack.  Every morning for the past four days, I packed a bag of snacks to munch on throughout the course of the day.  Typically, I pack a bag of raw almonds, a piece of fruit, a bag of baby carrots and sometimes, soy yogurt.  If I ever feel hungry during the day, I just pull out a snack.  Also, snacking every hour or so on healthy food is a great way to keep my appetite to a minimum.

For yet another day in a row, I experienced an unusual amount of energy and slept extremely well.  My stomach pains and headaches have subsided, and I believe my body is finally adapting to the abundance of fiber.  However, my face is breaking out slightly and I was particularly moody today (symptoms sometimes cause by this change of diet), but I am more than willing to bet the aforementioned symptoms are caused by my menstrual cycle.  But I still feel great!