My introduction to veganism was through Tumblr. Of course I had been aware of the vegetarians around me, even in my family, but veganism was a brave new world for my 16 year old self.
My decision to go vegan was not a shock to anyone. I had done ballet since the age of 4 and was training to be a yoga teacher at the time. During my two years as a vegan, I attracted so much admiration for my grit and, at the same time, a lot of anger from people I barely knew. It was quite interesting to see how people felt so strongly about my personal nutrition, even those I barely knew!
I am sure everyone has heard about the ethical arguments and health benefits highlighted to promote veganism in one way or another. What I want to focus on instead is what I learned from this journey and why I eventually quit.
I learned so much about nutrition.
I had always been a fairly active child and I rarely caught a cold let alone getting properly ill. I am infinitely grateful to my parents for giving me a healthy mindset regarding food. We ate for enjoyment within reason. To this day my mother, a retired ballerina, has not dieted for one day of her life and kept reasonably trim by finding ways to enjoy fresh vegetables alongside her love of cheesy chips.
Long story short, I did not know much about macronutrients and such simply because I didn’t have to!
As soon as I announced that I was going to be vegan my father dragged me to a health food store to stock me up on B12 and vitamin A. He was way ahead of me with his research on vegan nutrition.
Veganism is not all banana ice cream and quinoa.
I know that veganism does wonders for many, but the key details are often overpowered by the online images of sunkissed women munching on large chunks of watermelon. Sustaining a vegan diet, especially if you are physically active, takes a lot of effort.
Even Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama could not incorporate a vegan diet into their lives. On top of this, there are so many spiritual leaders who do not even bother giving it a try. After two years of a tug of war, I can confidently say I understand why.
Within around a month of going fully vegan, my skin flared up in a way I had never experienced and I had very heavy flu-like symptoms for three weeks. Bloggers and Youtubers assured me that these were detox symptoms of going vegan and that I would turn into the eco-Goddess I was meant to be in no time.
The reality is grizzlier than I would’ve guessed. I was eliminating foods like there was no tomorrow. It was getting increasingly more challenging to find anything I could eat outside of what I had packed with me. My breakfast consisted of five to eight bananas and after all that sugar I still had brain fog.
As I have later on found out, your body does not detox aggressively. You do not need special teas or juice detoxes that leave you starving. Our bodies are incredibly good at getting rid of toxins when you have reasonably healthy food in the first place.
There is no such thing as “bad” food.
Obviously if you eat kebabs three times a day your arteries will not be in good shape. That does not mean that the food itself is dirty. This was one of the pitfalls I happily walked into. As it turns out, life is too short to have 99 percent Lindt for birthday cake.
If you are interested in reading more about other ex-vegans, here is a brilliant website: http://letthemeatmeat.com/tagged/ExVegan_Interviews