So how has it been so far?

... I ask myself as your proxy.

Well, so far it has been mixed. In order to get the results I need, Drs. Campbell (nutritionist) and Esselstyn (surgeon) say that I have to be animal protein-free for six months. I've been at this for just a month and have failed to maintain my dietary integrity four times.

It doesn't surprise me that they all were cheese related incidents. Cheese is harder for me to give up than meat. Having cheese around is like being constantly tormented by bacon. (You know, I never thought I'd actually write those words, like that, in a sentence.)

I didn't note the day I started, but I watched FOK on September 1, and within the next week I decided to give it a try. So a reasonable estimate for a start date is September 7.

Things went well for a couple of weeks, until temptation in the form of a container of blue cheese crumbles appeared on the refrigerator shelves in the middle of the night. It was, in hindsight, so stupid. I took whole grain bread and smeared some olive oil-based spread on it and made myself a blue cheese sandwich.

What can I say. It was late at night, I was lonely, and there she was all tempting and seductive in her blue and white gown. I should have just looked, it was a mistake to dance with her, and I certainly shouldn't have taken her back to my room and had my way with her.

Hmmm. Does the fact that I think about these food temptations in sexual or romantic motifs, say something about my relationship with food? Or maybe it's about my relationship with people. There's a wild and hairy thought ... a Vegan Hannibal Lechter. 

A few days later, a mozzarella appeared and was consumed with a a sauce of regret and guilt.

The last two incidents were truly accidents. Having lunch at a restaurant on two different occasions, I ordered two different vegetarian sandwiches that turned out to have a small amount of cheese hidden in them that I did not detect until it was too late. I swear it's mostly true. Would I lie to myself? Don't answer that. Good grief, I'm arguing between alter-egos.

Either I have more problems than I thought or it's the effect of posting before my caffeine level has been optimized.