I went vegan for one week and I faced challenges but honestly, it wasn’t that bad.
It all started one day when I was roasting my friend about how he couldn’t go a day without chicken wings, so out of the blue he decided he was going to go vegetarian for a week. I was indeed shook at the challenge he had given himself but then to make it more interesting, I challenged myself to go vegan for a week, since I’m already a vegetarian, I didn’t think it would be that hard. But I was so wrong.
My experience began with struggling to FIND foods that were acceptable and it’s tough on-campus. Our dining halls are not that vegan friendly, though they have options, I’d rather eat a bag of kale chips than eat there. Grocery shopping took a toll on my bank account because whew, vegan food is pricey. I wasn’t really a fan of the food that was available either. Let’s just say majority of my meals were hummus.
For the first two days I noticed I was so hungry all day. A meal just wouldn’t fill me up which never really happens to me. I was constantly snacking and ended up running out of half of the stuff I bought. I decided to put more beans in my diet and that ended up helping a lot. But also in the result of that, I was so gassy, like the entire week. I did speak to vegan friends that I know and they said that they did not learn to control that until 3 months after, apparently it has something to do with your body adjusting to what you’re putting in. One week was not enough.
This process wouldn’t be nearly as bad if I wasn’t hanging out with my friends who weren’t going vegan. 9 out of 10 times us hanging out involves food, and watching them eat food that I couldn’t eat drove me insane. Watching them go through their buffalo wings and cheesy fries while I sat there eating a salad without dressing and a side of fries.
If you didn’t know, I am a huge cheese lover. I am so obsessed with cheese that I almost gave up on day 3 because I was craving cheese, I’m literally addicted. But I persevered and made it through. My friend on the other hand, made it only 3 days, and honestly that’s better than what I thought he’d be able to do. I will say that the last two days of the diet, my body did feel good inside, like it was a detox from all of the gross foods I usually eat and I could feel it.
Veganism isn’t really that bad, you just have to know what to eat and how to fill yourself up.
Also in Lexington: Burgerfi has an amazing vegan burger (super pricey)! And GirlsGirlsGirls Burritos has SO many delicious vegan options!