What happens when a cheesehead goes vegan
How do you find a vegan at a dinner party?
Going vegan has always been appealing to me but being raised a lover of dairy, I never thought I could go through with it. I mean, when asked what my favorite food is I literally say “anything with cheese in it or on it,” I am just that obsessed.
There are many reasons to go vegan: clearing up your skin, losing weight, environmental purposes, etc. But whatever your reasoning for doing it (or not doing it), I am here to tell you all about my experiences thus far.
It has only been two weeks of living meat and dairy-free, but here are the pros and cons I have encountered:
PRO: If you do it right, you’ll have a very colorful plate which will give you enough energy each day to make you feel like you could run a marathon… but you won’t, because running is awful.
CON: You get extreme melancholy feelings when you can’t put ranch on every single thing you eat, have your daily Chobani Flip or have your bi-weekly Ben and Jerry’s (but good news everyone: Ben and Jerry’s makes dairy-free flavors too. *insert praying hands emoji*
I’ll miss you, my love
Questionable: Your alcohol tolerance decreases… quite a bit. Good way to save money though, right?
PRO: For some people, your skin starts to clear up and you lose weight, helping you to finally gain that killer confidence you’ve been needing (especially in the time of finals season).
Both: You have to find a lot of replacements for things you cut out of your daily routine. Coffee drinker and need lots of creamer? Have no fear, every single coffee shop has either soy, almond, or coconut milk (and I promise they’re tasty).
look at that cute… Colectivo coffee with almond milk
CON: You start to spend more money. You don’t have to – you could live off of TV dinners if you so choose… but then what was the point of going vegan in the first place?
PRO: You learn a ton of new recipes. So many people assume we can’t eat anything but seriously Pinterest has all the answers.
“What do you even eat besides salad?”
CON: Your motives will be questioned A LOT and people will often try to argue about it. I’ve had an interesting diet since 14 so I know how to handle this, but it can be very frustrating. Just hope you have a good support team by your side.
Overall, having a plant and grain based diet has taught me a lot of things: going vegan isn’t as bad as it sounds, you feel really good about what you’re doing, and finally, you miss your cheese like crazy.
Oh, and, we can totally laugh at that vegan joke.