Julia: (00:01)
Hey everyone, I'm here with Trace Rudolph. Hello, Trace! Um, I'm going to be asking you some questions about your experience with veganism in Tallahassee. Um, so let me find those questions. Okay. So what first influenced you to become a Vegan?
Trace: (00:21)
I was working in North Carolina at a summer camp and one of my friends at the time was a Vegan and I was drinking a banana custard shake at sonic. It was very thick. It really wasn't that good, but I was still drinking it. Uh, and he had told me a very, I learned later that this fact isn't true, but it was a like something that was pretty disgusting. It was that 15% of drinking milk, which is the highest quality milk can be blood, puss or skin. And I was like, oh, that's disgusting while I'm drinking this custard shake. I was like, Oh. Uh, and then he later said like, milk isn't supposed to be like white. That's supposed to be like a, like a cream color, duh it's milk. Uh, and just like all the weird stuff that they do to the milk and all the weird stuff that they do with the cows. I'm also trying to be environmentally conscious. But yeah, that was the first time I had the first thought in my head, uh, I should become a Vegan.
Julia: (01:26)
Yeah. That's very unique and I appreciate that. I got soy milk today. It's pretty good. Um, so what idea or mantra keeps you going in your journey?
Trace: (01:38)
Idea or mantra.
Trace: (01:46)
I suppose a lot of the reason why I'm also Vegan is because I think I have an eating disorder a bit and I don't feel as bad when I'm a Vegan. I tend to gorge on stuff and stress eat. Because there's no dairy involved, there's not like the high amounts of sugar that you usually see.
Trace: (02:10)
And that's just like, kind of it. If I want to eat like something like that, I'm like, oh, I just don't want to eat something like that. Also, it's a big identity thing with me too. Because at this point I like to identify myself as a free spirit. And this is an effort to control how I view myself as a person, uh, because as a child I would lose control a lot and like get in trouble and stuff. I was on some weird medication. Uh, I also have ADD, so that contributes to it. But I always idolized the free spirit type of people, because of their calm nature. They're fun attitudes and whatnot. Uh, so that's like something I try to be a part of and whatnot. And also I liked the ethical aspect of it too. If I like really like need to get like a guilt trip going, I'll be like, this chicken died. You're a terrible person. Yeah.
Julia: (03:02)
Yeah, haha. Um, okay. Has the media been a big influence or any text in the Vegan community, like podcasts or social media accounts?
Trace: (03:16)
I would say sort of. I do get a little, like slight joy. It's like, I guess it's a false joy from when I'm like trying to like order something, I'm like, does this have dairy or egg in it? And then they go, are you Vegan? I'm like, yeah, I like doing that. Yeah. Um, and I think like the media has made it out to be like a more like pure diet and like only like the purest people do this. So I guess that has like helped me like keep it up because it does like, you know, send off the, the joy neurons in the mind and it makes me feel good. Um, but I don't really like listen to any Vegan podcasts or anything like that.
Julia: (04:03)
Do you see yourself continuing this, um, dietary practice for like your whole life or are you just kind of going with it?
Trace: (04:16)
Uh, I think my whole life would be good. I also, uh, I've also like thought like longterm too. Like, what if I have a family? What if I have children? And I think it would be wrong to raise my kids vegan because then I'm not giving them the option to eat meat. Yeah. And a lot of my quarrel with eating meat nowadays is the meat industry and uh, like dairy and egg industry and how it just like awful it is to the animals in general. So like maybe if I had like my own chickens I'd eat eggs . Maybe if I like knew where the meat came from. But I would definitely have my kids maybe like meat once a week or something.
Julia: (04:55)
I respect that, that's a good idea. Um, so you feel as if you're part of the Vegan community and you found a sense of identity in it. So what is your experience with being a Vegan in Tallahassee? What does this town have to offer? To the larger Vegan community?
Trace: (05:17)
Tallahassee is kind of cool because there's so many college students here, there's like a lot of the more hippier kind of things. So the whole art district and Gaines street, there's like three Vegan restaurants that serve all Vegan menus. That's SolVeg, the bark, and sweet pea. So those are pretty fun. And there's a bunch of, um, there's like five, uh, what's it called? Farmer's markets. There's like five farmer's markets and like, it's really not hard to be Vegan when there's just like chain around because every chain restaurant has at least one option for you to eat. Um, and like I'm saying for you to eat, it's not like just French fries for a meal. It's like a protein. And then like some nutrition on top of that, which is what I consider a meal.
Julia: (06:13)
What are some examples of those? I have trouble with that when I'm eating at chain restaurants.
Trace: (06:19)
So every chain restaurant, like Mexican inspired cuisine-- chipolte, Moes, Tijuana Flats-- you can order just a bean burrito, black bean burrito with rice and stuff like that. Get GUAC. Those fats are really good for you, but you don't really get that many fats as a Vegan. It's mostly just olive oil and Guacamole. Um, so those are easy. Mediterranean is also easy. You just get falafel.
Julia: (06:44)
Ooh.
Trace: (06:44)
Like Zoe's kitchen, love Zoe's kitchen. They have great hummus. Just get falafel.
Some burger joints will have like fake burger stuff, like a black bean burger or something. You have to be careful with those because they have eggs in them sometimes. Oh, I recently learned last night Miller's has a Vegan black bean burger. The Guardian broker. Usually when they sell like a black bean burger, it's not their own creation that usually get to like third party through someone else.
Trace: (07:13)
Yeah. Usually all the big chains have like an option.
Julia: (07:16)
Yeah, that's good to know cause that's made me step back from like wanting to just go into it whole heartedly.
Trace: (07:25)
Yeah. Especially in a place like Tallahassee where all there is to do is like, go out to eat with your friends and stuff. Especially in college. Yeah. So it's like a little harder some of the time. Because eating out is a big social outlet. I think if I were to do like a more extreme, it's harder for me to do like a more extreme diet, like the Daniel fast, uh, because I wanted to just be able to like go out with my friends at any time.
Julia: (07:50)
Yeah. Okay. Um, so what advice would you give an aspiring Tallahassee beacon?
Trace: (07:59)
I'm a weird person when it comes to diets cause I can jump into it. Yeah. I would just say listen to what your body needs. If you need to go vegetarian for a while too, just to weight off meat then do that. Yeah, do that at first. But I literally was just like, I'm going to try veganism and the last meal I ate was a like, I think a half pound cheesy potato burrito from Taco Bell. Um, and then after that I just like straight up stopped. Uh, but you have to like pay attention to your body at all times. Yeah, I recommend that like the first like two weeks, like you have to kind of ball out the first two weeks as far as like buying food, you have to kinda give your body plenty of fats to weight it off.
All the fats you are used to getting are from meat. You have to make sure you get all your protein in. And a big thing too is just like making sure you have a protein at every meal because you don't get as much food as someone who eats meat would, but those the fats are fine to go without. I mean, like a lot of Asian diets are a fat free so you can do it. It's just, it feels a little weird at first. Um, because your brain is like only feeding off the carbs and not the fat anymore. So like if you go without a meal you like, you can like, feel a little fuzzy. Yeah. And you also have to eat a lot of greens. That's the big thing too.
Julia: (09:19)
Okay. Has it been like hard financially to be Vegan? I guess no, not really? Cause you're mostly buying produce.
Trace: (09:27)
Yeah. I mostly buy produce. The most expensive things I buy is like Hummus. Um, I also like live pretty cheap. Like in the morning I do oatmeal and Chia seeds, which buy in bulk. Those things are very cheap. And I'm like, there was some like almond milk or coconut milk on top, and that's like the same price as normal milk. Um, yeah.
Julia: (09:50) Okay. Well, I think that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for your time, Trace!
Trace: (09:56)
Anytime!