Eating Vegan: A Beginner's Take

Today marks my 31st day of eating vegan. Aside from honey (I’m still trying to finish up the half of a small bottle that’s in my cupboard from the pre-vegan days), a small amount of casein in the soy cheese I bought without reading the label (I only ate a couple of slices), and half a loaf of whey-containing bread I had to finish up, I have not consumed any animal products for an entire month. Most information I’ve read online about implementing a vegan diet advocates transitioning gradually; slowly phasing out meat, then dairy and eggs.

I went cold turkey. I last ate meat on July 13th, when I finished up the last of the salmon burgers in my freezer, and then no more meat, eggs, or dairy. To be honest, I’m a little surprised at how hard it wasn’t. After going vegan, I had only one major episode of cravings. I got either the flu or a really bad cold, and after spending around four days holed up in my apartment with body aches, sinus congestion, and a fever, all I wanted to eat was eggs. Realizing I’d spent four days eating toast and frozen fruit (no energy to go grocery shopping) and was probably in need of some serious protein, I ate rice and beans and felt much better. Now, I can be pretty strong-willed when I set my mind to something, but I think there are a few factors that contributed to my relatively easy transition:

1. On July 1st, I decided to give up sweets, desserts, and diet soda until I went on vacation three weeks later. Partly, I think I just wanted to see if I could do it, but I also realized that my HUGE sugar addiction was largely responsible for the 15-20 pounds I’d gained over the course of the last school year. And, I realized that eating a lot of sugar was making me feel terrible. Diet soda played a huge part in this; any time I drank a soda, I’d immediately crave either high-fat or sugary foods. Eliminating sugar was really hard. Knowing that there was a definitive “end date” to it (i.e., I told myself, “I can have ice cream/cookies/other sugary food when I’m on vacation”) certainly helped, but I still had the worst cravings for the first few days, much worse than any I’ve had for animal products since switching to a vegan diet. As time went on, however, I found that fruit started to taste much better to me, and the cravings pretty much disappeared. And, when I finally went on vacation (this was about a week-and-a-half after the switch to veganism) and bought some Oreos (which are vegan) I ended up overindulging and felt really sick for the rest of the day. I believe I told my mom, while lying sluggishly in bed, “I’m never eating again.” Since vacation, I’ve eaten soy ice cream a couple of times and a bit of dark chocolate here and there, and while I haven’t had a reaction anywhere similar to what I’ve taken to calling “The Great Oreo Debacle,” I’ve realized that soy ice cream is probably too much sugar for me, and will only ever be a very rare treat. My taste buds have become much more attenuated to sweetness; fruit tastes delicious to me, and is all I need to satisfy my sweet tooth.

2. Another BIG help was having Chelsea a phone call away. We’ve had many chats about veganism, and having the benefit of her experience, along with stuff I looked up on the internet, really helped me to feel like I wasn’t ‘flying blind’, and kept me from being overwhelmed. The thing that helps me the most is that it’s not about what I can’t eat, but about what I can. Vegetables and fruit, beans and grains provide a huge variety of foods to eat, and I really have not felt deprived, save one trip to a restaurant with my grandmother where I ordered a spinach salad without the shrimp, and had to eat around the pile of parmesan cheese and the two pieces of garlic bread the waitress neglected to mention when I asked if there was any dairy with the salad.

3. I think it’s also been helpful that I’ve been doing most of my food buying at the grocery store, and eating out very rarely. Aside from the one time eating out with my grandmother, I’ve gone to restaurants a handful of times during the month, and always to places where I know I can easily get vegan fare (Cafe Yumm and Holy Cow Cafe are always reliable; have I mentioned I love Eugene?) Other than that, I eat my meals at home. As long as everything I buy at the grocery store is vegan, I don’t even have to think about it; I just look in my cupboards and fridge and decide what sounds good. And grocery shopping is really not that hard. Chelsea gave me a good primer on the foods she keeps stocked in her kitchen, and I’m discovering the wonders of Fred Meyer’s bulk foods section. And vegan cooking is a lot easier than preparing meat dishes that require a lot of messy prep and have the potential to make you sick :) I’ve avoided processed foods for the most part, opting for grains, beans, fruit, and vegetables.

4. Costco’s been a big help in getting vegan food for cheap. They sell a case of soy milk in shelf-stable packaging for really cheap, and I use it sparingly (a splash in my coffee, a bowl of cereal every few days). I buy my sprouted grain bread there; it comes in a package of two loaves for about $5.00, so I freeze one and keep the other in the fridge. Eating one or two pieces most days, it takes me two to three weeks to finish a loaf. I know baking my own would be even cheaper, but I’m willing to pay for the convenience. They also sell inexpensive hummus, which I eat almost every day. I also buy big bags of frozen fruit and vegetables there, which is helpful for throwing together dinners, and occasionally fresh fruit and vegetables, if I’m confident I can finish or freeze it before it goes bad. I’m also going to try buying greens there and freezing them for green smoothies. Normally, freezing greens is a big no-no, but it doesn’t matter if they’re blended into smoothies from frozen.

If there’s one area I would say I still need some improvement in, it’s bumping up my vegetable intake. I make sure to drink a green smoothie every day, and I put about 4 cups of greens in it, so that’s a good dose of fruit and veggies, but sometimes that’s the only veggies I eat, which isn’t good. Still, I eat 4 or 5 cucumbers and 5 or 6 carrots every week on top of the daily green smoothies. I recognize that this is a work in progress, and that my goal is to eat not only a vegan diet, but a healthy vegan diet. I’ve been taking a daily multivitamin to fill in any gaps I might have, and I drink tons of water throughout the day.

I have tons of energy, so much that I’ve started willingly exercising just to keep myself from jumping out of my skin (before, I always had to force myself). My hair looks thicker, my skin looks healthier, and I’ve already lost fifteen pounds. I can’t imagine going back to eating meat, or eggs, or dairy. I was watching television this afternoon, and a fast food commercial came on. They showed a close-up of something called a “Baconator,” and I actually gagged before I was consciously aware that I found it repulsive. Ultimately, I’ve found the biggest challenge to eating a vegan diet is navigating a world that caters to omnivores (basically, figuring out what to eat in social situations)––I don’t miss meat, I don’t miss dairy, I don’t miss eggs, and I feel amazing.

I’m such a hippie.