We thought the cheese would be the hardest part. Eggs weren't really a big part of my life (Serial had them occasionally) so I didn't think that would be a challenge, but cheese... well, cheese is insanely good. How would we ditch that?
Much to our surprise, it wasn't that hard. Since we eat something like 95% of our meals at home, we simply stopped buying dairy and we haven't looked back. Neither of us miss eggs and we've found healthy substitutes for cheese that satisfy those cravings (side note, those dairy cravings drop significantly when you stop eating it for a bit). There are tons of soy cheeses out there, and they taste fine, but we prefer to make our own nut cheese or purchase vegan cheese that's made of nuts (rather than soy).
Eating at restaurants is a little trickier. We're lucky that we live in Chicago because there are a few really awesome vegan restaurant choices (Chicago Diner & Soul Veg are two of our favorites). When we feel like going out for a meal, we usually pick one of those two. (We plan to do a few restaurant reviews of the vegan restaurants we have tried, so stay tuned for those).
Occasionally though, we find ourselves in a non-vegan restaurant, usually because we are out with friends. In these situations, we just order a vegetarian meal and call it a day. We usually leave the cheese off, but it's never really a guarantee that something wasn't prepared with dairy (butter, eggs) in the back. We just try not to stress too much about it.
Once a month-ish, we abandon all cheese rules and order something like pizza. I don't care that it takes away our "vegan" title. It's all in (extreme) moderation and totally keeps us sane. Sometimes you just want some pizza, you know?
So that's where we are at these days. 100% vegan at home. 95% vegan overall. And entirely healthier because of it. I think we've found a good balance and I'm excited for the warm weather to pick up. We just naturally eat more fruits and greens in the summer and many of our meals are raw.