I'll admit it: ever since I first heard of the concept of being vegan, I've been completely turned off by it even to the point where I would make fun of the vegan lifestyle. I love meat and animal products. My favorite food is a hamburger and I eat string cheese basically every single day. So I wondered, what would happen if I attempted an all vegan diet for a week? Could I do it? I decided to give it a shot. One week: no animal products consumed whatsoever. I documented the meals I ate and how I felt the food was affecting my health. Here's how it all went down:

Day 1: Monday, February 5

Meals: Cinnamon Life cereal (no milk) and a banana; veggies and cantaloupe and tomato Florentine soup; tortilla chips with corn and beans and salsa and guacamole; cherry pie

Reflection: I ate a lot of normal foods today and didn't feel like I was eating grass like I expected to. Health wise, I would say I didn't feel bloated after eating which is something that I typically feel after eating my regular diet.

Day 2: Tuesday, February 6

Meals: Cinnamon Life cereal (no milk); pasta with marinara sauce and roasted cauliflower; meatless chicken tenders and fries

Reflection: Nothing has really changed since day one, but the temptation of giving up has been really, really strong, as I find it harder and harder to say no to the foods I normally love.

Day 3: Wednesday, February 7

Meals: Cinnamon Life cereal (no milk); meatless chicken tenders with fries and strawberries; pasta with marinara sauce

Reflection: It seems that nothing I eat keeps me full. After I eat a meal, I constantly want more food and the food that I want is meat products that I know will fill me. Even after eating, I become extremely hungry in only a matter of hours.

Day 4: Thursday, February 8

Meals: Cinnamon Life cereal (no milk) (again); pasta with marinara sauce and roasted veggies (again); tofu enchiladas with chips and salsa and guacamole.

Reflection: Despite how tired I am of repeating the same few meals over and over again due to the lack of options in the cafeteria, I'm feeling my health improve. At night I've been getting tired earlier than I normally do and have gone to bed before midnight every night this week (which never happens for me), but I feel a lot more refreshed in the morning when normally I just feel groggy; definitely not a bad thing.

Day 5: Friday, February 9

Meals: Cinnamon Life cereal (no milk), tacos with beef and chicken...

...Yes, you read that right. On Friday, my fifth day of a vegan diet, I gave up and gave into the temptation I had been having all week. I got to the point where I was so hungry and frustrated with the fact that I couldn't find any foods that would actually keep me full. I choose to end the experiment in order to eat an actual meal for the first time in a week.

Despite how tough being vegan was for me, I learned a lot. I learned that the vegan diet is possible, and in some cases, actually really delicious! However, there's no way I would ever adapt this as a permanent lifestyle. Eating on campus became such a struggle as I constantly had to look up the menus of the cafeterias and plan my meals in advance. I cannot imagine having to do that all of the time. It was exhausting. And eating the same few meals over and over again because that's all that was offered got old really fast. Especially after a few days, too, meat began to sound incredibly delicious and I became jealous of people who were eating the foods that I was restricting myself from. That all being said, I do understand the health benefits and why one might choose to go vegan. I did feel significantly less tired and bloated after eating my meals and I just felt more healthy overall.

It takes a lot of willpower to be a vegan and as much as I wish I had had the strength to finish off a full week of a vegan diet, the temptations were too much.

Catch me at McDonalds now.