Hi Tynan,
I started reading your blogs here and for Life Nomadic a while ago, and I've since become compelled to keep reading them. While I enjoy your crazy adventure stories, it was especially nice to read an article with which I could so closely relate. I, unlike you, was not instantly converted from a carnivorous to vegan diet (I had a lengthy vegetarian in-between phase). The transition for me to vegan eating came via macrobiotic guidelines, which in turn steers me away from being one of those vegans with imbalanced, heavily processed diets. (Plus, I have a "sensitivity to soy," which makes most processed vegan items quite unbearable.) I loved reading about your vegan conversion experience, as it so closely mirrored my own fairly recent one. As for the sugar thing...I will never forget the disbelieving look my mother threw me when I explained the sweet delight I now get from eating brown rice. And that applies to all fifty chews per bite-simply marvelous.
Anyhow, it's nice to know someone else has had similar experiences, and that I'm not as crazy as my mother would suggest. Thanks so much for doing this blog, especially this article. You keep writing, I'll keep reading.
Bree
Austin, TX