The most surprising part of vegan month was that it was pretty damn
easy. I’ve always heard vegans say that giving up eggs and dairy isn’t a huge
deal, and I’d never really believed them. My twelve years of vegetarianism have
largely been spent convincing die-hard meat eaters that it’s not that hard to
go without. Still, something about the pervasiveness of dairy and eggs in our
food had me convinced that going vegan is a challenge on an entirely different
scale. Once I got in the swing of it, though, it wasn’t that hard. You do have
to be more vigilant about what you eat, but I found that doing so is actually a
pretty rewarding and healthful process.
One of the awesome things about being vegan was that it got me reading
food labels in the grocery store. There were many times I picked up something
to read the ingredients and double-check that it was vegan. Often, the item in
question wouldn’t have any animal products, but would be full of oils, chemical
additives or something else that made me pause and think. There were a lot of
junk foods I ended up not buying, not because I couldn’t eat them, but because
a closer look made me realize that I didn’t actually want to.
Another health benefit came from the challenge of finding vegan junk
food. While it’s not that hard—potato chips and French fries are totally
allowable—vegans are definitely pushed away from many of our worst offenders, like
ice cream. I’ve noticed that gatherings with excessive amounts of junk food are
a hallmark of both American culture and college life. Meetings, newspaper
production nights and the like are often accompanied by a smorgasbord of
pizzas, cookies, brownies and other sorts of sweet, fatty deliciousness. Most
people eat a ton in these situations because they’re stressed and the food
tastes good. Most people who pig out on junk food have eaten plenty of calories
for the day—the junk food is a completely empty addition to the diet that isn’t
nutritionally or calorically necessary. Because I couldn’t join in the pigging
out, I ended up steering clear of a lot of excess food that I otherwise would
have eaten. For me, this was the biggest benefit. I wish I could say that vegan
month made me better about this, but since I’ve stopped being vegan, I’ve more
or less returned to my usual cookie-inhaling ways.
Of course, not everything was perfect. My largest source of frustration
with being vegan was that I became one of those
people: obnoxious hipsters who go to the local sandwich place and stare
pensively at the menu board for ten minutes before asking, “Do you guys have
anything vegan?” I did this once and
immediately hated myself so much that I swore off any further dining out,
making an exception for Walla Walla’s relatively new vegan café, the Garden. I
attended potluck brunches with friends and forgot to eat beforehand, an
omission which left me lightheaded as I tried to walk home after a meal of
orange juice and cantaloupe slices. I found myself turning down pastries offered
to me by a visiting alum and realizing that there’s no way to say, “I’m sorry,
I can’t, I’m vegan” without sounding pretentious. This, of course, is about
cultural associations with veganism rather than the diet itself. But the
further you remove yourself from what society considers “normal” eating, the
more you open your choices up to scrutiny.
The fear of being judged as a pretentious hipster and the difficulty in
finding places which served vegan food made me more proactive about cooking
meals. I planned days in advance, making giant pots of soup on Sunday nights
and planning to eat leftovers all week. I solidified my repertoire of a few
solid dishes—lentil soup, red lentil curry and chili. (I did manage to adhere
almost perfectly to my no-soy-based-fake-meats-or-dairy rule, though I snuck a
bite of two of my vegan housemate’s tofu stir-fry one time.) I essentially
cemented my understanding of “food” as “home-cooked meal”, which was a welcome
transition after spending a semester abroad and having little control over what
I ate.
It’s a little hard for me to pin down the concrete effects being vegan
had on my body. I got a cold midway through the month—nothing unusual in the
winter—but took over a week to recover, which is a long time for me. However, I
can’t attribute this to being vegan. It could just as easily have been a
particularly nasty virus, the fact that I was overworked and stressed, a lack
of vitamin C in my diet or some combination of factors. I definitely lost
weight during this month, but a lot of that could have just been me shedding
the fat that grew out of the insane quantities of rice consumed in Ecuador.
Chester (the temperamental adolescent dragon who lives in my stomach) was also
noticeably happier during vegan month than he had been in a while, though I
think a lot of that was just transitioning back to the U.S. Though since I’ve
started paying attention more to what sets him off, I’m starting to think I may
be mildly lactose intolerant.
I didn’t feel tired or lacking
in energy during vegan month, though I did find myself craving food more,
especially sweets. I’ve heard that this is pretty common, and that not feeling “full”
leads vegans to snack a lot. I think this could have been managed perfectly
fine if I’d decided to do this for longer and invest the time in monitoring my
nutrients, but since it was only a month, I figured I wouldn’t kill myself if I
just played it by ear.
Ultimately, I’m really glad I decided to try being vegan. I came in
thinking I’d be miserable, and I found out that veganism is pretty damn legit.
My usual rants about individual choice being an ineffective weapon for change
still apply, but I think veganism actually can have health benefits, in the
sense that it reduces junk food and fat consumption. This is something that
could also be accomplished with good self-control, incidentally, but I
personally find it harder to stick to rules I made up (don’t eat junk food) as
opposed to rules that are part of a larger thing (be vegan). I’ve noticed a few
permanent changes in my eating habits since then. I’ve stopped eating so much
cheese, and my consumption of animal-product based meals has definitely
declined. I’ve renewed my appreciation for lentils and beans as protein
sources, and stopped making yogurt my default breakfast. I’m definitely eating
less dairy overall and being more conscientious about what I do eat.
My next food challenge is going to be a month without processed foods
or added sugar. I’m waiting until the summer, when I have the full bounty of
summer harvest at my disposal, and my goal is going to be to eat almost
entirely local stuff I buy at the Walla Walla Farmer’s Market. I think that my
biggest health problem is my addiction to junk food, and while vegan month
flirted with addressing it, real food month will hit it head on. I’m excited to
report back.
