12 months a Vegan (You know, like 12 years a slave... see what I did… eh?)
Many years ago when I first
met the man who would go on to become my husband, I knew almost instantly that
I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I was only very young and
people were understandably sceptical but I knew in my very core that this was
going to last. The days, weeks and months went by, building up to the momentous
occasion when I could finally say I had been with him for ONE WHOLE YEAR! And
thus convince the world that my new love had staying power! Well, I feel much
the same about my anniversary with veganism. I knew within two weeks that I had
met my match, that, just like with Matt, I had found something wonderful that I
never wanted to let go. I wanted to shout about it from the roof tops but I knew
that, until a reasonable time as a vegan had elapsed, people would have their
doubts, so once again I longed for a year to pass by so I could prove my
staying power.
So what have I learned in a whole year (and 5 days, FYI).
1.
I can eat most
things.
To say I was unprepared at
first would be an understatement On new years day, by about 8 at night I hadn’t
eaten a mouthful and started to tremble. My blood sugar had dropped
dramatically and I had to gobble down an emergency bar of dark chocolate and
blubberies as if it were life giving medicine. It took me about 4 days to latch
onto the fact that I could still eat bread! I was so in the mindset of thinking
veganism was totally limiting that it took me months to realise that most food
is already vegan. That we already have a whole host of vegan food in our lives.
Right now, I’m munching on a whole load of sweeties that just so happen to be
vegan. You don’t have to get everything from special shops, you don’t have to
eat at special vegan only places. There are options all around us, all the
time, you just have to notice them. The longer I am a vegan the more and more
stuff I love I realise was vegan anyway.
2.
I don’t miss a
single thing.
I used to eat meat at every
meal, ordered my steak rare and dreamt of one day owning a cheese shop. If I
can become a vegan anyone can. I loved meat and dairy. Well, I thought I loved
meat and dairy. I now think I was merely addicted. A good example of how little I miss this stuff
occurred the other day. I always have a bit of a joke where I pretend to gag
around cheese. The other day I sniffed a wrapper that had contained Smoked
Applewood, a former favourite of mine, and as I pretend to gag, I realised, I
wasn’t pretending anymore. I genuinely had a nauseated reaction. Dairy, more
than meat even, no longer seems to be food to me. I am now aware, not just
intellectually but physically, that baby cow growth hormone dilution isn’t
something I should be putting into my body. It takes a while but before too
long you break your old habbits and what was once the norm becomes unthinkable.
As I said, it doesn’t happen straight away, it takes time to adjust and something
that can really help get over the hump of those cravings are direct replacements for these types of food . There
are hundreds of vegan cheeses out there, vegan sausages, vegan bacon, fabulous
“milk” chocolate truffles, cookies, ices cream, pork pies. Anything I have ever
wanted to eat I have managed to eat vegan-ly. To me they taste more delicious
than the thing they are trying to substiture; you never have to endure the crunch
of bone or the senewy chew of an errant bit of ligament, however maybe not
every single product tastes 100% like the product it is replacing but isn’t it
worth taking a 10% hit on taste to save animals, your health and you know, the
planet we live on? Even if you don’t take my word for it that animal products
become repulsive, isn’t it worth it anyway, just for a slight taste difference?
3.
People are
much more receptive than you might think.
There are always going to get
some idiots who will try to tear you down and make you feel bad about your diet.
I don’t know why these people do this. I would like to think it was because
Vegetarians and vegans make them feel inferior and they want to lash out… its
probably just that some humans just love to be arseholes and we’re easy
targets. To these people we can only try to resist punching them very hard in
the face and if we can’t resist, then just try to forgive ourselves for said
punch. At the beginning of last year I imagined I would have to deal with people
like this all the time, but to my sheer delight they seem to be a very rare
breed. Perhaps they have been punched enough already that they know to keep
quiet. There is a second far less annoying, though still negative group- I shall call these “the jokers”. The ones who
feel like they could never do it and engage in light hearted mockery, to let
you know they’re not going to be converted any time soon, so don’t even try. To
these I say “hey guys, relax. Have it your way, I won’t try to convert you. I’ll
just look down on you with a pitying smile from my (synthetic) ivory tower.
These too represent a relatively small percentage of the people I’ve encountered
this year. The largest group of people I come across are the genuinely curious.
Many of these are simply intrigued because, as if meeting a tribal person or Martian,
they have never seen anything as strange or exotic as a vegan and I am more
than happy to sprinkle a few seeds in their garden of knowledge (does that
sound a bit filthy to anyone else?). The final group, and these are my
favourite of all, are the people who are exactly as I was 18 months ago. The
people who basically are vegetarians, maybe even vegans, in their minds but
just daren’t. They’re scared that somehow it will confine them to a life of
pious misery and bleakness. Whilst they think it will be the right thing to do,
and want to do it some day, they fear it will be a monastic existence in which your
soul may be at peace but at the cost of your day to day happiness. These types
are trying to hold on to their none Veggie state, to gorge on animal flesh and
bathe in cheese for just a little while longer before giving up all that animal
product based joy forever. To those I
say, JUST DO IT!!!!!!! It’s not scary,
it’s not virginal, t’s wonderful, its
exciting. It’s… it’s…
4.
IT’s FUN!!!!
That is the biggest surprise
of all. When you’re a vegan it’s not just about what you eat its about a new
lifestyle. It encourages me to go out and try new places to eat, to meet new
people to watch interesting documentaries and to enter into fun discussions. It
becomes a hobby that you do all the
time. It fills your life with passion! I am happier person, more joy filled,
because of it. Not just in a pious, I feel all holy and great now kind of a way
(although I am definitely basking in my own smug sense of self satisfaction up
here on the moral high ground) but in a truly fun way. It has made me love the
outdoors more because I feel harmonious with it, which has in turn made me get
outside and have adventures more. It just permeates everything with an added
sense of happy. Frustratingly, I truly can’t describe it. The only way to get
what I’m talking about is to join me!
5.
It’s catching
In the year since becoming
vegan I have noticed it spreading like wildfire. I can think of at least 5 people who have
becoming vegan or veggie at least partially because of conversations with me.
For those people they have gone on to influence others. And those others have
probably done the same and on and on etc. I’m not standing around on street
corners preaching the good word of the vegan bible or anything, I try not to be
aggressive, although sometimes that can be hard but by being open about it and
engaging with others when they seem interested, it does work. It is suprising
to me how many people just need a little
discussion with someone who is passionate about it to take the plunge
themselves. Thrillingly, It’s not just on a personal level that I would
describe it as catching. Shops,
supermarkets, café’s and restaurants seem to be adapting as well. There are now
more vegan choices than ever in all these places and its because we are asking
for them. I am so excited about being a part of that wildfire. There are times
when I don’t feel so upbeat. I get frustrated sometimes because there’ll be a
needless bit of yoghurt in an otherwise perfectly vegan Christmas sandwich (Pret
a Manger, I’m looking at you) or there’s an unnecessary trace of why powder in
your favourite pringles flavour. There are harder times too when it feels like
you are living in a nightmare, when you just can’t run away from the fact that
good people, people that you love are commiting what I can now only think of as
murder for the sake of their tastebuds or their messed up sense of what’s
healthy and it seems that it will never stop. But then something always shifts
my perspective. Some glimmer of hope. It
feels wonderful to be on the right side of a growing movement. To notice more
and more that the world is shifting. Slowly, much slower than it has to but it
is shifting nonetheless. It feels to me like a playground roundabout. Its hard
to get going at first, its heavy and the roundabout only moves slowly but with
more people pushing it starts to really moveand can eventually go whizzing round at breakneck
speeds. Our roundabout is picking up pace now and I am happy to be pushing with
all my might. Which is weird because in real life roundabout situations I would
always sit back and let other kids put in the hard work.
Right I ought to stop there
or I never will. I could talk about this all day long. I guess that’s another
thing I’ve learnt this year, it is a never ending source of delight to discuss and discover. I have
reached my first milestone. What will the next one bring?
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