I did it! I am so proud of myself that I went vegan for an entire month and didn’t even cheat once! There were times I really thought I would give up, but I’m glad I made it through and have a decent assessment on the vegan diet, how it made me feel and whether or not it’s for me. So here are my thoughts. Overall, I had a general “light” feeling. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I didn’t feel weighed down after a meal and throughout the day. I did my best to stick to a majority of plant-based foods and rarely had anything processed. I thought I would have more energy, but I don’t think I had any more energy than I would in a normal non-processed food diet. A true test might have been getting blood work done before and after, but honestly, I already had great blood work. My cholesterol has always been extremely low (which I didn’t even know could happen), sugar levels are always normal and my blood pressure has also always been spot on. So that’s why I was waiting for some sort of revolutionary feeling. The only other significant thing I noticed was that I felt “full” faster. I thought I would be constantly hungry, but I needed less food in general I think. This was great for me. I have always had portion control problems, so this was great training for my body and I plan on continuing that trend! Now, some say a month isn’t long enough, but I think I realized you can feel just as healthy eating meat. I think the key is eating less meat and more plants. Before the experiment, when I ate meat and lots of plants, I felt great. And for me personally, I don’t feel there is any reason to exclude meat, dairy, eggs, fish, etc. from my diet. So there it is folks! Vegan is not for me!
What I learned:
- There are a lot of great veggies out there that you rarely eat, I will continue to expand my veggie palate
- There are a lot of vegan ingredients/meat substitutes that really taste good (tempeh, seitan, meatless ground, nutritional yeast, vegan butter, etc.)
- Learning how to substitute things in cooking is fun. I had a few failures, but experimenting in cooking is always a great time.
- I really like lentils. I never really thought I did, but cooked correctly, they’re sooo tasty! (and full of protein!)
- It’s hard to eat out with friends and stay vegan AND healthy. Fries and potato chips and things like that are vegan, but not healthy and not even anything I particularly like. I went to a vegan restaurant once and I still made some other adjustments, but it was difficult. Especially when there are SO many great restaurants in NYC.
So what’s next? For now, it’s some meat eating. I’m going for sushi at lunch and not sure about dinner yet. My parents are visiting this weekend so there will be some great meat meals involved. My goal going forward it to eat less meat though. The way America overproduces meat really isn’t good. So if I’m going to eat meat, I’m going to get organic, fresh and local meat as much as possible. It costs a lot more, but quality is the best way to support the environment and local farmers. Plus, I still have an entire Vegan cookbook to tackle! So eating less meat overall will help me get through it. Maybe in a month or two I’ll try eating raw. I read a girl’s blog that eats raw for breakfast/lunch and then eats whatever for dinner. (although she doesn’t eat meat, just fish) So that sounds like another great challenge and you supposedly get so many more nutrients by eating raw. So that’s the next thing I think I’ll start researching.
So anyway, Veganism was a great challenge. I messed it all up this morning by having two organic eggs and some cheese one Ezekiel bread. It was well worth it though, and I had a huge sense of accomplishment this morning. I learned a lot about food this last month, but I also learned a lot about myself.



e a macaroni salad that was supposed to have radishes in it, but since I don’t like those I left them out. This was the first time using Veganaise. I was scared, but it actually tasted pretty good! It was yummy and I had it with a side of fresh spinach I sauteed with some garlic.


