Once More Eating Vegan for the Nine Days (and more)

Last year for the nine days leading up to Tisha b'Av I decided to go on a strictly vegan diet. Tisha b'Av,  the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av,  is a day of mourning that commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples and other calamities in Jewish history. Tisha b'Av is one of the fast days in the Jewish calendar and the nine days that precede it are days of mourning and preparation. There are restrictions about activities of pleasure, laundering your clothes, and it is traditional to not eat meat nor drink wine. It seemed to me that a strictly vegan diet would be a physical act that would be as if I was cleansing the temple. The physical ritual would lead me in a mental state of cleansing too. One of the things I learned in the process what how much my diet depended on dairy. Only my early morning meal did not have any dairy not counting the skim latte I was either buying on the way to work or at work was really part of breakfast.

 Eating up all of the onions, garlic, eggs, white sugar and milk before the start of the nine days.

This year in June I spent a week at an ashram where they practice bhakti yoga or yoga of devotion. Bhakti is a Sanskrit word whose root "bhaj" means "to adore or worship God". The meals served at the ashram followed yoga diet principles both in when they were served, how they were served and what was served. There were only two meals, the first at 10am after morning yoga and the second at 6pm after late afternoon yoga. The  food was served in a meditative setting. You could eat alone or with others from the ashram surrounded by beach, water and jungle plants. I missed my morning latte and did go to a nearby Starbucks several times that week for one but I did not miss meat or chicken. The typical yoga diet is lacto-vegetarian but I never saw eggs or cheese and milk only in the morning meal to go with cereal. More surprising I didn't miss the absence of garlic, onions and mushrooms the base of my evening meals. At the end of the week and I decided  to try and combine the vegan and yoga diet for my nine day cleanse this year. 

One of many of my meals at the ashram sitting at a picnic table in the back area watching the waves.

I will need to eliminate some additional foods from what the list of things I normally eat that would be allowed on a vegan diet. The harder part will be to make sure I am not rushing my meals and to eat in as beautiful and restful a setting as possible. If I was going to be on vacation it would be simpler but most of the nine days will be regular work days. Meanwhile today is Thursday and the nine days starts  Sunday evening so that means I have four days to fry the onions and garlic, drink the milk and cook the eggs. Next step is to think about the slowing down and meal places. I can't produce an ocean but I am creative. Last year I needed to really focus on the foods but I have more of a comfort level in that regard now. Instead of the "what" it will be the "where and the "when" that I focus on. Let's see what I learn this time. I learn.