After a sweltering summer of excessive work, travel and bouncing from sublet to sublet around the city, the portion of the summer that was the most unexpected was that by August, I would be embracing a vegan lifestyle.
As someone who has a serious love affair with all things dairy, eggs and meat, this abrupt change in my weekly meal plan came wielding several lessons not only about what dinner options are available to vegan diners, but also served as a way to reflect on the issues around the way our population produces food.
Technically, choosing to be vegan was not a real choice. After a month of living in a rundown and overpriced sublet, I chose to temporarily move in with my boyfriend whose roommates happen to be vegan. I was able to rent from them at great price with one catch, that all the meals I made and the food that I kept in the house would be 100 percent free of any animal products.
Initially, I thought, “how hard could this really be?” and compared to my previous living situation, this would be a walk in the park. However I quickly learned that being vegan is far more complex than just bypassing the cheese aisle at the grocery store.
After the first several nights, I was at a complete loss for what to eat. Disgruntled and a little “hangry,” I scrolled through google and various vegan friendly recipes on Pinterest. Slowly, I became more and more inspired. A week later, I was much less forlorn looking walking through the grocery store and instead was eager to try new recipes and foods.
After several weeks had gone by and the end of August was quickly approaching, I also began to notice that I was feeling healthier. After eliminating copious amounts of processed foods and animal products from my everyday diet, I began to feel like I had more energy and felt less full and bloated after meals.
Feeling healthier than I had in months, I began to reflect on the choices I made at the grocery and how they tied into a much bigger web of problems and issues within the production and manufacturing of our food.
Not only can a plant based diet benefit your health, but it benefits also extend to the environment. Even the United Nations has reported that a vegan lifestyle is a far more environmentally friendly and efficient way to sustain an ever growing population, while helping to eliminate harmful toxins and practices from the environment, such as pesticides, greenhouse gas emissions and the contamination of invaluable water sources and ecosystems.
Now that I am moved out of my August sublet and in a place of my own, I have reverted back to my carnivorous ways, yet have a very different state of mind. Learning about the benefits of veganism opened my mind to a new lifestyle that I had never before considered and may very soon take up again.
Pursuing a vegan lifestyle is, without a doubt, a commitment. However, it's not an idea to laugh off with a joke about how you love bacon too much to ever try it.
Even if being vegan, or even vegetarian, is an idea you've never considered, I’d encourage anyone to go out and learn as much as they can about this growing lifestyle. You may just be surprised by the unexpected goodness you'll find.
