Starting on Monday, March 5, I decided to challenge myself. The weekend before I decided that I would attempt to change my diet to a vegan one for a week. This meant I would have to cut any meat or animal byproducts out of my diet. For me especially, seeing as I love cheese and many other dairy products, this was going to be extremely difficult.

I had never planned out my meals before, so this part was already new to me. I immediately began Monday with researching easy vegan meals. Surprisingly enough, there are a lot of options available; and inexpensive options, at that. Many people complain about veganism being too expensive; however, if you eat healthily and find the right foods, it can be pretty much the same cost as eating a normal diet.

I usually don’t eat breakfast before school, seeing as I don’t have the time, so I planned lunches and dinners. After running to the store and getting various “vegan” options, I ate my first purposefully vegan lunch. It consisted of vegan bagels and some fruits. It was boring but filling. That night for dinner, I simply had avocado toast, which was surprisingly good.

The next few days I had a bit more fun. I made vegetable sushi, which was awful, rice and lentils, and packaged vegan ramen. My other meals mostly consisted of rice, fruits, and vegetables, as well as fried tofu.

I am not always very adventurous in my food intake, but as much as I thought this would help, it didn’t. Unless you live somewhere, like a big city, where veganism and plant-based foods are a “thing,” you’ll find it hard to find interesting foods. I struggled in the grocery store to find many vegan options for regular foods, whereas in larger cities there are entire stores devoted to such things.  

Of course, I knew there would be pros and cons before I started, so let’s get into what I discovered from this.

A major pro of veganism would have to be for someone on a diet. You could easily lose weight by becoming vegan. I, however, had absolutely no interest in that. Another would be if you lived somewhere where veganism was big, you could then explore many alternative food options. Eating vegan also makes you much healthier of course, and more creative in how you plan your meals. Even if the foods aren’t incredibly good or diverse, there are still tons of ways you can prepare them.

Of course, there are cons. A very obvious con is no animal byproducts. This is what forms the line between veganism and vegetarianism. It’s also what makes it much more complicated. You might think a food is vegan until you look at the ingredients list and it says “eggs,” or “milk.” Another con is finding food options at restaurants. Although it is slowly becoming more common, many restaurants still do not offer a lot of vegan options. The only options at most places in Alliance is maybe a salad. This was a major con to me when I would go out to lunch. I ended up having to go home almost every day for lunches because I couldn’t eat anywhere else.

So, of course, the remaining question is: would I do it again? I would have to say maybe, only because if I was in the right environment, I would. I appreciate the point of veganism, and the way that you can protect animals as well as a protest with the lifestyle; however, it is hard. Now, I know that sounds bad, but it’s true. I love meat and dairy. It would simply be too hard for me to completely give them up. Although it was a good experiment and gave me a new perspective, I do not think I could do it again.