I know I need to explain more thoroughly why I decided to turn vegetarian, but I’ll do that in my next blog.

I have had the flu all week, so unfortunately I missed out on Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras celebrations, but it did give me plenty of time to think about what I’m giving up for Lent (the 40 days proceeding Easter, a period of prayer and fasting). It’s a common Western Christian tradition to give up eating meat on Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) and on every Friday during Lent. Since I’m already vegetarian, I have loftier goals.

I currently call myself “almost vegan” or “99 percent vegan,” but I’m going to use these next six weeks as preparation because I’m going to have a 100 percent plant-based diet by Easter. Hopefully.

My inspiration came from PETA Europe’s blog about Ash Wednesday, especially the part where it says vegan women weigh 4.7 kg less than the meat-eating variety, on average. Which converts to about 10.36 lbs. Sounds good to me.

Okay, so I like cheese, but really I think the hardest part about turning vegan is I have absolutely no idea where the line is drawn. I know vegans don’t eat meat, dairy or eggs, but I’ve also heard of vegans who don’t eat whey, honey or even sugar. Then there’s the whole subject of not wearing certain clothes or buying certain brands. I just don’t know enough to go that far.

My mother and I were on the Atkins diet for well over a year. Quite often I would eat eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m so sick of eggs, giving those up will definitely not be a problem. I don’t eat most dairy products anyhow, so 40 days without cheese, not a problem.

We’ll see how long I last, and more important, we’ll see if I lose that 10 pounds.