Veganuary: One Year Later

I am sitting here trying to think about the first time I ever heard the word “vegan”. I honestly have no idea, but all of the usual stereotypes around veganism definitely used to cross my mind. “Ugh, the only thing vegans can eat is salad.” “Eww tofu is gross…” (Even though I couldn’t tell you what tofu actually was.) “Maybe I could be a vegetarian at least… if it wasn’t for chicken…” “Good for them but damn, I just couldn’t live without dairy!” As recently as 2018 I was still saying all of these things. Now I have been at least 90% vegan for over a year. (I say 90% because I have dairy occasionally if other options aren’t available.) I genuinely never thought I’d be at the point that I am now. It was a slow (and evolving) transition that I expected to begrudgingly get through, not thrive in.

 While only a year ago, one of the most influential things I’ve ever done was a simple challenge called Veganuary. I only decided to do it for just that reason- a challenge for myself to see if I could hack being vegan for a month. I was more than sure I could for 31 days. Then hey, I could go back to just being a vegetarian. No big deal… until it was. It showed me a seemingly radical change of lifestyle was way more possible than I thought. It showed me that changing our way of eating  is only “extreme” if we decide it is.

Before I embarked on this challenge, I realized that the only reason I was nervous about it was because of the narrative I had always heard around veganism. Society mainly leads you to believe that it’s so daunting. That it’s so impossible. You’ll just be completely missing out and your life will be utterly miserable. I am grateful that this societal dialogue has definitely started to change. Just since I started my journey over to plant based in 2019 I have already noticed a significant shift in society. Food bloggers are posting way more veggie-centered or full-blown vegan recipes. I am seeing entire plant based sections in multiple grocery stores. “Plant Based” is a term used in marketing to boost sales. People are seeking it out. When I participated in the Veganuary challenge for 2020, 400,000 people had signed up. This year for 2021 the total jumped to over 580,000. 

Looking back, the first time I noticed my desire to change my way of eating was back in 2015 when I first watched Cowspiracy (on Netflix). It is a documentary about the impact of animal agriculture and how greatly it affects our planet. That definitely was the first thing I ever saw/heard that got the wheels of change spinning in my head. I had the instant urge to cut all meat and seafood out of my life overnight without another bite. I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work for two reasons: a drastic change seldom is executed well overnight and I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t familiar with anything other than the standard American diet that I had grown up with. I knew I would need to do some research and venture way out of my comfort zone. Long story short I got overwhelmed very quickly and as the weeks slipped by it was easy to put the documentary further and further out of my head. “I barely eat any beef anyway…”

Fast forward a couple of years after I had been living in New Yorkfor a while and had developed a regular yoga and fitness routine. Living in New York I started meeting more and more people who were vegan which I always found to be inspired by. I would always ask questions about their go-to foods and where they ate out. New York was probably the easiest place to be a vegan as it had the most options available out of any other place I had been. The one thing that stuck in my mind was how my ex had switched from steak-house-loving-carnivore to full-blown vegan after we broke up. He told me he finally watched Cowspiracy on his own per my suggestion and it completely prompted the change for him. I remember being absolutely floored by this revelation.  If someone like him who had been a huge meat and dairy lover could make that switch I knew if I truly wanted to I didn’t have a single excuse not to. 

I had toyed with the idea of at least being a vegetarian for years at this point, but chicken/turkey were literally the only  things holding me back. Especially once I began getting way more into fitness, I was consuming chicken or turkey every single day simply for protein purposes. When I wasn’t eating chicken I was loading up on dairy for the same reason- hello #macros!  Then sometime in 2019 I realized that I had stopped buying chicken at the grocery store. By that point I only bought chicken or turkey and had other meat or seafood occasionally if I was eating out. I was looking up more and more “meatless monday” inspo on Pintrest.  Meal prep had become a staple of my weekly routine. It took me months to realize that I stopped buying chicken altogether because dealing with it raw had begun to gross me out. 

During the second half of 2019 I stumbled upon another Netflix documentary called The Game Changers and not to sound corny as hell but, it really was. That movie was the total turning point for me. After seeing that film, I embarked on my own research regarding the impact diet has on your physical health. Health became the number one factor as to why I decided to finally commit to this change.

This time it was different. I actually did the research. I knew going in that it was going to take time. I didn’t have to change overnight.  I mentioned to friends and family about this film and how blown away I was by it, but kept my own plans to myself. I still was afraid to say I was making this change out loud because the fear of failure was at the forefront of my mind. It took me months to realize that failure is impossible. This was a lifestyle change, not a set task. I would never be done- your lifestyle is on going. Any and all effort matters. Even having one less serving of meat and dairy a week was a huge step forward. I started exploring trying different recipes and different foods I found in the grocery store. I looked for different options on restaurant menus. I always thought everyone I knew was watching me. Scrutinizing me. Were they going to ask why I didn’t order chicken? The funniest part was that no one was even noticing unless I mentioned it. 

By the time my birthday rolled around in November of 2019 I was at the point I truly didn’t desire any kind of meat at all, whether I was cooking it or not. I went out for dinner and drinks with friends that night and on a whim ordered chicken tacos to split. I wound up barely eating them. I took the first bite and realized I really didn’t want to eat this, nor were they satisfying at all. As it would turn out, that would be the last bite of meat I would have to date.

I have been thinking lately about the timing of finally making this switch. I used to be so hard on myself thinking I was failing. I kept thinking I just wasn’t disciplined enough. I realize now that I was being a total asshole to myself. At the beginning of 2020, I was officially a vegetarian who set a goal to be vegan for a month and to start using my cookbooks weekly. I wanted to cook more and try new recipes/foods. Then once the pandemic began I wound up only cooking. Something that at first I just wanted to put more effort into wound up becoming a necessity. People were rushing to the grocery store for those pantry staples when I already had them in my kitchen along with various ways to use them. It is not lost on me that if I hadn’t spent the two months before the pandemic exploring meatless and dairy-free cooking I would have felt a lot more panicked about cooking. By this point a year later, I am making my own takeout, actually enjoying tofu because I learned how to cook it, and can in-fact live without dairy. I just baked dairy free cinnamon rolls that truly taste better than “regular” ones. Perspective turned out to be one of the greatest gifts I have been given in this past year. Whatever that thing is you have thought about trying- make sure you go for it. The only way you can fail is if you never try at all.