Ease in or cold turkey?

So what is the best way to become a vegan?  Is it better to do it very slowly and eat fewer animal products each week, or just rip off the Band-Aid and throw all the butter and meats away?  We'll I guess I'm doing a bit of both.  This week I'm not really eating a lot of meats or other animal products, but I haven't really been watching what I eating that closely either.  On Monday, whatever easing I've been doing, will be over, and I will go straight up hard core vegan.  I'm going to cut out caffeine as well junk foods like the 3 Musketeers I ate today.

Okay... so it was really like six of the "Fun Size" bars.

Knowing that I will have to substitute Carob for Chocolate is really scary!  I was stuffing my face with the bag of 3 Musketeers one of my students (whose dad works for Mars) gave me before break.  But we did have a healthy dinner.  Ashley, made some Vegan Chili.  I anticipate this will become one of the staples in our vegan diet as it is quite delicious, so I will post the recipe for anyone that would like to try it.

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Vegan (and mostly Organic) Chili Recipe:
What you'll need -
1 Onion
1 Green Pepper
about a cup of frozen corn
1 can of Kidney beans
1 can of Pinto beans (you can add or substitute Black beans if you prefer)
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 to 2 cups of your favorite salsa (recommend not using Hot)
1/2 cup of pre-cooked brown rice (cooked is about 1 cup)

Chili powder (to taste)
Cumin (to taste)
* We used Trader Joe's organic beans and tomatoes

Add a little bit of olive oil to pot and saute onions and peppers for 1 minute on medium heat.
Add beans and corn - cook for about 1 minute.
Add in a little chili powder and cumin.
Then dump in the crushed tomatoes and however much salsa you like.
You can add more chili power and cumin for taste.
If it's too think, add a little water.
Let the chili simmer until it is cooked through - about 10 minutes.
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If you like something crunchy to go along with your chili, there are plenty of vegan/vegetarian chips out there.  I like Trader Joe's Veggie and Flaxseed Tortilla Chips.

Aren't those chips just so colorful?!

Hills Workout:

1.5 mile jog at about an 8-min mile pace

4 x 0.25 mile Hill Sprint

1 mile jog at about 8-min mile pace