I tried being a vegan and failed

Props to the people who are vegan. Despite all the jokes about people who don’t shut up about their new vegan diet, there is something amazing about eating this way.

I think the hardest part about going through this change in diet was that I didn’t have a reason to become a vegan. I just became a pescatarian a few months ago and that was for health and personal reasons. But there was nothing pushing me to keep away from eggs and cheese.

I know a few vegans, and they have changed their lifestyle over a long period of time. They started with a vegetarian diet, then slowly moved towards vegan because of their own health needs and personal views on food.

The first few days of my new diet went pretty well, and I was feeling great!

Monday

My day consisted of missing breakfast and grabbing a coffee before class.

After the gym I dragged myself to the grocery store in the snow to get all my healthy ingredients for a week of eating vegan, or as my dad put it: “eating like a bird.”

As I strolled through the aisle I picked up a lot of my normal shopping needs – just not much in the middle rows.

My next goal was to make my meal for the week: a quinoa salad with loads of veggies and tofu (it wasn’t too difficult, and I didn’t burn the house down).

All in all, it wasn’t too bad the first day, but I was a little disappointed I was missing out on all the half priced Valentine’s Day candy (especially when there is a box of chocolate covered strawberries sitting in my fridge just mocking me).

Tuesday

Morning thoughts: “Okay, I can do this, this isn’t so bad.”

Afternoon: “I’m hungry. I’ll eat some stuff.”

Twenty minutes later: “STILL HUNGRY”

An hour later: “OMG I’M STARVING!!”

Okay, so Tuesday I was just really hungry, but when you’re only eating fruits, veggies and soy product, you get hungry more frequently. I’m not an expert on perfectly eating vegan, but today was a little rough when it came to my newfound diet.

Wednesday

A busy day means lots of snacks. But when it comes to on-the-go vegan snacks it means lots of dried fruit and nuts. This would be totally fine, but when you are surrounded by pizza and ice cream all day, it’s torturous.

The one good thing about this is that dollar Bud Lights will not be missed because beer is vegan!

Thursday

All hungover me wanted was a slice of gooey pizza, but I subbed it out for a green smoothie and some dried fruit. Luckily I had lots of coffee to get me through another crazy day of eating nothing with a face.

Here is when my newfound diet (or lifestyle, whatever you want to call it) went to shit.

I had made plans to get sushi with a friend that night (I knew I could easily get sushi without fish in it) but I just had to have it! I caved and then caved even harder after a night out. You can’t stay away from pizza after too many vodka sodas.

This is when I realized that I could not stick to this diet. It’s simply not something I could do without a reasoning behind it.

I’m just a girl who loves her pizza.