I’m not super health-conscious. In fact, I consider my diet to be unbalanced and I love to indulge in foods that I’m not 100% are “good” for me. One morning I woke up and felt the urge to make a change. I want to healthier and then I will be happier…
So, how exactly should I go about this? Exercise is tremendously difficult for me, and the gym is just plain uncomfortable. As I goggled my way thought things like “hot yoga” and “fasting.” One thing kept coming up: vegan. Ah yes, those people who don’t eat anything that has animal products in it. Could I be one of those people? I would try. A website I stumbled across, recommended that I start off with just 7 days. Seven days? That’s a piece of cake. Before I started these seven days I needed supplies. Lucky for me my local Kroger has a whole section dedicated to the natural vegan life. I picked up items such as soy milk, vegan yogurt, meatless hamburger meat, vegan oatmeal, cereal, among other healthy items. As I stared at the items in my cart, I dreamed about nice steak from Texas Roadhouse. I shoved this fantasy to the back of my mind, and we with that my week began!
Day One: I woke up eager to begin this process. I made myself two vegan waffles and had a glass of soy milk! The waffles tasted like regular waffles to me, but the milk was deadly. I washed the rest of it down with water. For lunch, I felt stuck. Our school had some heathy options, but nothing I could think of that is vegan. Then it struck me the burger place has a veggie burger! It was delicious. I honestly couldn’t tell it didn’t have meat in it! I felt like I was accomplished. For dinner, I ended the day with a vegan risotto.
Day Two: Oddly, I didn’t feel like I had any energy. I thought by eating better my energy would improve. My body was physically craving meat and I felt the temptations stronger than ever. I scarfed down a vegan yogurt, and tried not to think about. For lunch, I just had salad, but I’m seeing meat everywhere. All over campus, I could smell the meat calling my name. I avoided it, and focused on the meatless hamburger that I planned on having for dinner. I couldn’t tell the difference between this and a meat filled hamburger, but it didn’t fill me.
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Day Three: I’m starving. No matter how much healthy vegan meals I prepared I didn’t feel full. The soy milk still made my stomach turn. Everywhere I went I was tempted to order chicken nuggets! Also I discovered how hard it was to tell what was vegan and what wasn’t? I decided to try and figure out what else I could eat. A vegan support group website gave me plenty of ideas, but the area I lived in didn’t have these fancy health food stores, and I’m a college student with minimal income.
Day Four: I didn’t want to give up. I knew something positive with come out this, but it was growing difficult. I was tired all the time, and my body was fighting a strong urge to eat meat. It had become so overpowering, that at times I was dreaming about meat.
Day Five: I abounded the idea of drinking any more soy milk. I decided to focus on fruits and vegetables instead. I already like this kind of things, so it was no big deal to eat them in abundance. It made me happy to make things fruit salad, and steamed veggies, but less joyful when I thought I could be enjoying orange sesame chicken from my favorite Chinese restaurant.
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Day Six: I relished in the fact that tomorrow would be the last day. I tried to make it positive day, by eating my new favorite vegan yogurt. I spent most the day trying to keep my energy up. It was extremely difficult six days for me. I consider myself a strong person, but this had really tried me. It had exposed that I was addicted to meat. I’ve been eating it since the age of two, and my had grown accustomed to it.
Day Seven: The victory lap! I won! I went through the whole day celebrating the fact, that tomorrow I could eat meat. I stuck to vegetables, and a meat free chili for the last day.
Ultimately, my vegan challenge had exposed to me, that I wasn’t a vegan. It just was not the time for me. I decided that I would cut back on the amount of meat I was eating. I wasn’t ready to cut it out altogether. The challenge was never about becoming vegan, but rather figuring out to be a healthier person.