I successfully went a week with going vegan as far as eating vegan food. However, there are a lot of products everywhere that people use daily and do not even know that they are made with animal products. Though I was not fully successful I still feel like I made a difference and I am proud of myself. Bridget commented on my original post and I did take her advice. All week I did eat any foods that contained animal products and I also used vegan cosmetics. ELF is a completely cruelty free and vegan cosmetic brand. I am not a person who wears a lot of makeup, but I do wear primer, foundation and mascara. I already had the primer and I went out to the store to buy mascara and foundation by ELF. The part that was the most challenging was planning what I was going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as snacks every day. Since I was very new at this I kept it very simple. I went online and looked up vegan recipes and then I wrote down all the ingredients I would need to buy for the week. I made sure that I got everything in one trip because during this pandemic I did not want to go to the grocery store more then necessary. I am not a huge breakfast fan so every day for breakfast I had blueberry Belvita bars. For lunch I would either have a salad or leftovers from a vegan meal I made the night before. I had veggie burgers for dinner a few nights and I also found a few really good vegan recipes online. My two favorite meals were veggie pasta and spinach lasagna. I really like fruit so if I wanted a snack I would have some type of fruit.
Though I was not completely vegan all week I think my plan was successful. I am going to try and continue to eat vegan meals and snacks for a while and hope that I can stick to it. I have always wanted to go vegan, and this could be the beginning for me. Going vegan is definitely difficult and it is going to be a challenge to completely convert to it, but my hope is that I will slowly transition. As far as personal activism goes I believe that this was very successful. How I felt all week made me want to continue to do this. I also think it raised some awareness. For example, one day when I came back from my lunch break at work my manager asked me what I had for lunch. I told him it was spinach lasagna that I made, and he replied saying that sounds interesting. That was a perfect opportunity for me to tell him I was trying to go vegan for a week. Even though I am only one person that is one more person that is advocating for the animals.
Hi!
Spinach lasagna sounds delightful! I have tried becoming vegan in the past and it is definitely incredibly challenging. I found time-management and meal prep to be very difficult with my busy lifestyle as well, as the higher cost of healthier ‘vegan friendly’ foods. I don’t know if you have experienced this but, I got a lot of negativity from friends and family. Everyone would always say “why” is a negative tone and, were not too receptive to my answer as to my choice of becoming vegan. I did give up and, I haven’t been vegan for roughly two years now. I am still on the fence over whether or not I will try again but, I applaud you for your plan of action! I think you used your week wisely especially, using your opportunity at work to explain your spinach lasagna for lunch. I think even just one person’s actions makes a huge difference. If we all become more eco-conscious, imagine how much better and ‘healthier’ our environment could be! You said that you were not entirely successful during the first week of trying but, I don’t think you should be too hard on yourself. It is a HUGE change and, even baby steps are successful in my eyes. Keep up the awesome work! Also, I would love your spinach lasagna recipe!
Spinach lasagna sounds so good! I’ll have to try that. I love making veggie lasagna, made with onions, peppers and chopped broccoli. Also, pumpkin/sweet potato/onion/squash is another great combo too.
That’s great that you tried eating mostly vegan for the week. There’s definitely a lot of alternatives available from meat-free meat to various “milks” for coffee, etc.. Unfortunately, we’ve been eating more meat/milk/eggs etcc than usual from a local farm to avoid crowds at the grocery stores.
However, we definitely plan on starting a garden ASAP so hopefully, we can balance that out/ go back to eating less meat and canned products.
I did not realize ELF was vegan, nor did I realize animal products were used in makeup. That would be interesting to look into this further.
Although you were not successful, I commend you for attempting to go vegan for a week. It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around how difficult it is to go vegan. I used to just assume that it would be a little bit harder then going vegetarian, but when I really think about it, we use dairy, eggs, animal fat in a lot of different recipes. Cutting out eggs isn’t as simple as not eating an omelet, you also have to avoid baked goods that include them in the recipe. I’m sure you have spent a lot of time checking over items to make sure they are completely vegan, especially when you consider the makeup you use as well, which makes the vegan lifestyle all the more impressive as it requires effort beyond just saying no to certain options. If you were to turn down delicious cookie that happens to have egg, it may not seem to the uninformed onlooker as if you were making a noble attempt to save animals like it may if you refuse a burger, but you truly are, and that deserves recognition.
Hopefully we will live in a world that accommodates vegan lifestyles more in the future. We have so many different fast food restaurants that all serve basically the same items, but I know of zero mainstream vegan chains that can provide cheap, quick, and tasty meals. Carol Adams was right in pointing out that meat is a luxury product. Other countries eat significantly less than we do. The average American eats over 100kg of meat a year while the average in India is only 5kg. This is yet another example of the bubble that Americans live in and the strain we put on the Earth. If the entire world population lived the life we did, we would need 4.4 planets to sustain the entire population. We commonly refer to ourselves as the greatest country on Earth, but that notion is clearly flawed as it doesn’t account for the damage we do.