I’ve been a vegan for nearly three years now, and am therefore no stranger to the barrage of questions the world seems to have regarding my diet and the collective diet of vegans at large: queries as to how much protein we get, what our calorie consumption is, what types of foods we even eat, the list goes on.
After a while, the constant and consistent questioning gets a little tiring—to be sure—but that is not to say that these questions are intrinsically malicious. Often, people just don’t know and are curious about veganism, it’s as simple as that. I am not here to tell you to go vegan, although I think that would be pretty cool of us all to do. I am here to show you, presumably non-vegans, what my diet actually looks like without the Instagram filters and the aesthetically pleasing brunch layouts.
As a busy, barely sleeping, super-broke college student I think it would be far more beneficial to show the world what I’m actually eating on a daily basis. There will always be visible vegans who eat far better than I do, and those that eat far worse than I, but in this day and age when accessibility and practicality are the first facet of any sustainable diet I find it would be the most useful to propel forward my “What I Ate In a Day” as someone who doesn’t exactly have money to buy copious amounts of groceries, means to cook meals, or even time to eat a decent breakfast.
Let’s start at breakfast. Most mornings I wake up early, grab breakfast from my dorm, and jet off to Cafe Rachel to eat and write. Peanut butter on sprouted bread is my go-to because of its ease of portability, cost efficiency, and its ever wonderful ability to keep me somewhat full until lunch at one. While there are many different kinds of sprouted bread on the market, I usually buy Squirrelly’s, which is available at Target and usually on sale! The peanut butter I use is Smuckers All-Natural, which is free of the palm oil and sugar often found in nut butters and is easily bought cheaply in bulk. Along with my peanut butter sandwich, I usually eat a piece of fruit (whatever I can scrounge) and have a cup of black coffee.
For lunch, I usually hit up Anderson, our dining hall here at Chatham. While they often have amazing vegan options ranging from sandwiches to soups to enchiladas, the salad bar is a consistent and tasty option I find myself going back to day after day. It is especially difficult to fit in that many fresh vegetables into my diet at school due to their perishable and capricious nature, so any time I’m in the dining hall I try to cram as much green food as I can down my throat. Another tip, never leave the dining hall empty handed! If it is allowed by your school, make sure to take a piece of whole fruit with you out the door to have as a snack for later, it will save you not only loads of time but also money in the long run.
What I eat for dinner depends on many variables, but when I don’t exactly feel like sitting in a cafeteria and don’t have the energy to walk off campus to buy food, smoothies at the carriage house are a great alternative; plus, through meal exchange you are able to use dining hall meals on smoothies. This cuts down considerably the amount of cash or flex you are spending; Pictured here is a soy milk, banana, and blueberry smoothie.
That’s what I eat in the day! It’s not exactly fascinating, and to be honest how much I am consuming and how healthy the food is varies greatly on a day to day basis, and not everyone is as lucky as to have such great options available at their university for a vegan diet, but I hope this at least cleared up one of the many “vegan questions” I get asked daily, like, “So what do you even eat?”
Are you vegan? What’s your college diet like? Post in the comments!