If you aren’t vegan, then you probably know someone who is. In my case, that person happened to be my roommate.
I’ll admit that I am guilty of it; I have made fun of vegans. I make fun of my roommate all the time about her diet (which she knows is all fun and games). I was curious watching her day-to-day struggles of being vegan, so I decided that I would join her for a week to see what it was really like for me.
My first step was research. I talked to my roommate to gather some tips, ask for advice and to take note of her vegan food that I had liked in the past. I then turned to the internet! I think YouTube and Pinterest were the most helpful for me. They made out to be easy resources to find some recipes. Once I got that done, it was time to hit the store.
I had a full list of everything I had planned to get: fruits and veggies, then into the vegan section of the store. I already had a good idea of what I wanted, but I still wanted to look around in case I found anything different or interesting. I also took a moment to look at the milk – I mean, there are so many different brands and flavours! I was thankful for the nice lady that explained them all to me and the differences, although she kept mentioning calories, which lead me to explain that I wasn’t looking for weight loss, just partaking in a fun little experiment. Little did I know, that was just the first of my explanations.
Every person I told about my plan to go vegan to was shocked. I mean, I love my meat, but even after making it clear to people that it was just for a week, they were surprised. I know this is something vegans usually have to deal with, but I thought my biggest struggle would be with the food.
Aside from all of the curious people, being vegan for a week wasn’t a problem for me. I mean, yes, the first day was a little rough, but it got better as the week went on. I thought that pasta would be my best friend, but I only ate it once. My main go-to things to eat were actually the fruits that I got, and believe it or not, I actually did eat a lot of potatoes as well.
If you’re a meat-lover that’s open to trying new things, maybe a plant-based diet is in the works for you. I think I would be open to taking a break from meat again, maybe even for a month!