A Vegan Identity Crisis

      I've been at this whole vegan diet thing now for about 8 months, and I'm not sure anymore if I can technically classify myself as a vegan since I occasionally (and more regularly, it seems) ingest meats.
     There comes a time about once a week where something goes crazy in my body, and I think it is a cry for meat or protein. I satisfied that craving last night with a run to Wendy's for a chicken sandwich and some chili (someone absolve me from my sins, please!).
     Also, when I am not eating meats and staying on the straight-and-narrow with the vegan diet, I overcompensate for my lack of comfort food by pigging out on potato chips and French fries. You can be what is called a "junk food vegan," where you do not eat animal products but do eat a lot of junk.
     So lately I am kind of going through an identity crisis. But maybe being a vegan (like being a Christian) does not depend upon perfect adherence to a set of rules and regs. Maybe there can be a measure of grace in this lifestyle and that I can identify with a diet I am faithful to 90 percent of the time.
     Or perhaps a better thing to say -- so that I can dump all of the baggage associated with the term "vegan" -- is to say I am on a plant-based diet. Michael Pollan uses this phrase, and it is not so much a name/identity as it is a philosophy of eating:
          1. Eat food (real food).
          2. Don't eat too much food.
          3. Eat mostly plants.
     In other words, if you eat meat at all, it should be in small amounts or occasional.
     Not sure where this puts me. All I know is that I have hit a wall with the extremes of veganism, and think it may be time to back up a little bit and settle into something more sustainable.
     The wrestling continues...