Well, I did it! I survived my first day, and as work was CRAZY, I am proud to say that I got by on share will power. I work in an open heart unit, where we recover patients after surgery. When you receive a patient back straight from the OR, things can be harried as the patient's body recovers from being on bypass. Especially when your patient is unsteady and bleeding, as my patient was initially. There is not time to eat, drink or pee! when I had finally gotten my patient stable, another patient went into cardiac arrest. Fortunately, my patient's husband was kind enough to stay with his wife while I ran between rooms. Fortunately, my patient was too sleepy to get off the ventilator, so I had time to help my co-worker. That, of coarse, left no time to EAT. By the time the end of the shift came (7pm), I had only eaten a bowl of flaxseed cereal with lite soy milk, a banana, and my V-8 juice (at least I didn't have to hit my self in the head!). My relieving nurse was kind to have put up with me while I heated up my pumpkin soup and spit out some resemblance of a report between slurps. This kept me from munching on the candy that is usually readily available in the nurses lounge. ( Usually I would have no problem doing this, justifying the fact that any calories were good calories at a time like this!) When I got home, my husband, who would never eat the food that I intend to eat during this mid-life crisis episode, had dinner waiting. I left out the chicken and enjoyed the jasmine rice and steamed broccoli with a glass of cheap red wine and then I snuggled in bed with my 2 wonderful boys (who plan on tempting me with steak this weekend - NICE!) When I asked my eldest son, how could he eat a sweet cow with those sad eyes, he responded, "I'm only going to eat his Ass." So, I guess that we know how he feels about my vegan adventure.......