Veganniversary

This June marked my 8-year veganniversary!  Way back in 2010, shifting to a vegan lifestyle was a major change for me.  I was addicted to dairy and definitely a picky eater.  On one occasion my friends took me to a vegetarian restaurant and I couldn’t find anything on the menu that I was willing to try.  So when I announced that I was going vegan, it was a shocker-- on the surface level.  When I think about it, though, it actually made a lot of sense.  I come from a family of animal lovers.  I had been deeply disturbed by the idea of eating meat my entire life, and I found cooking with raw meat particularly unsettling.  I was picky because I’d found what I liked to eat within my limited horizons—I had not been exposed to vegetarian options growing up on Long Island or in college, where vegans and vegetarians ate salad and pasta in the dining hall at Providence College in the early 2000's.  Vegetarianism, and definitely veganism, seemed like a strange world where people ate tofu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Then I started reading about animal cruelty.  My roommate had a copy of The Kind Diet, which I devoured.  I then went through The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Becoming Vegan, and Skinny Bitch in rapid succession, crying as I learned about the abuse and slaughter of pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals in the food industry.   I immediately went vegetarian, and then transitioned to veganism over the next 3 months.

 

Everyone had an opinion.

My mom was super concerned:

                “What will you eat?”

                “You’re going to become malnourished.”

Friends poked fun:

                “Natalie will be having a glass of water for dinner tonight.”

My students were confused:
                “Are you trying to lose weight?  If you turn sideways, we won’t be able to see you!”

I knew that people would have various reactions, but didn’t realize it would be such a problem for some, and that my lifestyle would become the center of conversation at lots of meals over the following years—that for some reason, people felt the need to explain why they had to eat meat, and then proceed to eat lots and lots of meat in front of me.  Was this a subconscious effort to negate my veganism by digging their heels in as omnivores?  I do not know.

The first vegan dinner I attempted to cook was awful. It involved Earth Balance, lima beans, and corn.  I thought to myself, either vegan food is really bad, or I’m not very good at this—or both.  Shortly after that, I tried to make a vegan chocolate peanut butter cake for my roommate’s going away party and it resembled two giant pancakes slathered with some kind of lumpy chocolate ganache.  It tasted good, despite the presentation!  A step in the right direction!  I remember spending hours in the kitchen of my Phoenix apartment (listening to Ani DiFranco) and learning how to cook vegan dishes that summer.  It was food I had never tried before, but which was delicious and didn’t leave me feeling disgusting, physically or fundamentally. 

Things have changed substantially since then.  While it’s my regular routine to review the menu before I go to any restaurant, many more establishments offer vegan dishes, and label them as such on their menus!  That little v-in-a-heart vegan (be still my vegan heart!) symbol is appearing on many more food packages.  There are tons of varieties of non-dairy ice cream and milk to be found at regular grocery stores, not to mention Amy’s products and vegan chocolate.  Those Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups are popping up everywhere!  I can walk into Stop&Shop and find cruelty-free and vegan shampoo.  These products were just not widely available when I started on this road.  Also, more people are choosing veganism.  Last week I was at a work event and found myself talking with TWO other vegans as we picked up our boxed lunches.  I’d become so used to being the only vegan—I wasn’t sure this day would ever come!

Since going vegan, I have lived in four cities and traveled to many more, having lots of adventures exploring the vegan options in each.  I’ve attended vegetarian food festivals and met others who’ve committed themselves to a cruelty-free lifestyle.  I’m not malnourished—in fact, I’ve run three half marathons!  I’ve become a pretty good vegan chef, hosting dinner parties for friends, and cooking vegan Thanksgiving dinner every year.  The chocolate pancake-cake is a thing of the past—it’s now my dream to open a vegan bakery!  And I have a niece who, at dinner, looks around the table and frankly states—“Aunt Natalie does not eat meat”—because it’s no longer a big deal.  Embodying compassion for animals—in the foods I eat and the products I buy— has made my life more fruitful (literally and figuratively), and I’m eager to see veganism become more mainstream over the next 8 years.

Blogger's Soundtrack:

Ariana Grande: "God is a Woman"