What I've Learned

For anybody who says you can't eat vegan at Legal Sea Foods: I present to you veggie sushi

As my semester as a devout vegan comes to a close, I want to address a few things and talk more in-depth about why, while I have acknowledged the vegan diet to be the healthier and safer diet, I will be sticking with my initial plans to transition away from veganism. 

These past few months have taught me that veganism is not a diet, it is a lifestyle (that sounds clichéd, but like all clichés, it holds truth). Your entire way of living and your daily lifestyle choices are altered with a drastic change to your diet. Because our supermarkets, restaurants, and chains are saturated with products from the animal industry, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, being a vegan changes your way of making decisions. I have thought more about food than I ever have, which is a good and a bad thing. It means that I have become more aware of what I'm putting in my body, and I've come to understand the effects that animal by-products are having on our environment and resources. It also means that I have expended a lot of my daily efforts just to get a decent meal. 

I wanted to see if veganism was a plausible lifestyle for the average college student. I'm here to tell you that it is. It's a lifestyle that anybody can have and thrive on, but it requires effort. There is a wrong way to do it. I would have days where I really planned out my meals and felt amazing, but I have also had nights writhing in my bed with a stomach ache, coming to the realization that I hadn't eaten since breakfast. My dining hall at school didn't help, and the lack of available options for me at restaurants left me feeling like an inconvenience. I have had good days on the vegan diet, and bad days on the vegan diet. I have the utmost respect for vegans, vegetarians, and other people who change their food intake to benefit something other than themselves, but I don't want to half-ass this lifestyle, and in my college environment and hectic lifestyle, I fear that some days (days where I only eat potato chips) I'm doing damage to my health by not providing it with proper meals. 

I want to thank veganism for overall improving my energy, attitude and perspective. For vanity purposes, I will tell you that my skin has cleared up and I have lost weight. For anybody considering going vegan: with caution, I recommend it. 

By now, veganism has become second nature to me, but on Wednesday, my last day of classes, I will be transitioning away from that second nature and back into consuming animal products. To be honest, it's hard for me not to feel like a giant hypocrite. I have spent the last semester researching and rifling through information on the vegan lifestyle, and I have spent the last semester writing about the benefits of the diet. I have written about the atrocities of the animal industry and how it is affecting the environment, our water consumption, our health, and the welfare of animals. This is why I urge you, as I urge myself, to cut down animal consumption whenever you can. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce a gallon of cow's milk, so opt for almond milk at the grocery store, or buy vegan butter instead of margarine. 

Treat animal products as you would sweets, soda, or other things you eat as a "treat" but aren't the best for you. Don't think you need to drink milk because you need the calcium, and don't think you need to eat chicken because you need the protein. This upcoming summer, I will challenge myself to choose the vegan or vegetarian alternative whenever I can. I can, and you can, still make a difference in small ways.

Is this the end of your blog?

I plan to continue writing for The Vegan Project for another month or so, to talk about my transition. I need to ease myself back into eating animal products so that my body and digestive system can handle it, so I will be posting about that in the near future.

As for runningwithterriers.com, I have plans for my summer that I can't wait to write about. I will be spending three weeks in Salzburg, Austria with the Salzburg Global Seminar, and subsequently studying at the Salzburg Academy for Media and Global Change. I was selected from a crop of Emerson students and I was both thrilled and surprised to be chosen to represent the school. I'm sure I'll be writing about my studies in Salzburg and staying in the historic Schloss Leopoldskron (iconic for being a filming location for The Sound of Music), as well as any other European travels.

Three more days of being a vegan, and I am all nervous, sad, and excited. Until Wednesday...