It's all green, mon.

No eggs, butter, meat, fish, fowl, cheese, yogurt. Nothing animal.

7 months today.

"Well, Jesus, don't I get a gold record or knighted or nothing?" John Lennon, watching a loaf of bread he'd baked being eaten

Nonetheless, the rewards exist.

For the past few years, I've had acid reflux so intense that I finally grabbed Dr. L by his lapel and demanded something, anything. He prescribed a drug that gave me a Franklin Delano Roosevelt "I've got a terrific headache", and I stopped taking it.

But if you looked in my desk(s), shoulder bags and pockets a year ago, you would find Tums and other, more powerful anti-holy-effing-shabadoo-my-goddamn-stomach-is-on-fire drugs.

I take none of those stomach acid remedies today. My belly loves beans (even wit' hot sauce and Beano)






...all the veggies in the spectrum, big blocks of tofu with wasabi, cashews, peanuts, almonds, fruits of any kind, brown and white rice, sorbet, etc.

I feel, physically, pretty damn good. Yesterday I downed a cup of coffee, an enormous dollop of peanut butter, a bowl of brown rice, drove 40 miles out of Manhattan, and biked up a ten-mile hill, after which I drove to a gym and pumped the ol' chest.

Clearly, the vegan way isn't costing me any energy.

My eyelids, a constant source of redness, itching and such, have calmed down considerably.

Asthma's about the same. I thought quitting dairy would cure it, but nope. That's ok.

Nothing but positive things to say about veganism. I should also add that by adopting this way of eating, approximately 28 chickens haven't died because of me, nor have any fish suffocated in agony, nor have any cow's udders turned red and raw from overmilking. Nor have I ingested any feces-dotted, decaying meat.

Sure, my broccoli may have fallen on the floor and my lettuce ridden in an open truck, exposed to the grit and shit in the air of New York.

Somethin's gonna kill ya eventually, and I ain't dead yet.