To find out how long I lasted on my vegan diet before succumbing to omnivorism in a rather spectacular fashion*, please take the 28 days of February, divide it by 2, then divide that by two. Then subtract 3.
Yeah. Four days. Pretty awesome, huh?
The worst part was knowing I’d have to cop to it here, since writing things down is usually a good incentive to keep me going at something. Fear of shame got me through the ‘no buying material stuff for 6 months’ jaunt a while back and the more recent ’09 Blog Challenge. Then again, I had the following conversation with one of my friends today:
Me: Gah, so now I have to blog about how I failed at being vegan.
Friend: You were vegan? When did this happen?
Me: Last week, for like four days. I put it up on the blog and everything. You didn’t see it?
Friend: Oh, yeah, actually I think I may have read that. I didn’t pay it a lot of attention though *insert amused laughter here*
We then had a conversation about how eggs are delicious. So, it’s quite likely that nobody really cares about this except me.
Earlier, I wrote about 7 paragraphs detailing the exact nature of my journey of failure. But reading it back, it’s extremely boring. As my love for you all is as deep as the Atlantic, I will not subject you to it.
Here is the short version: I made a meal plan and did research on tricky non-vegan additives. For the first two days I was happy, eating a range of home-cooked delicious vegan foods. Day Three, I became cranky, got headaches and craved eggs and yoghurt. Day Four, I became crankier and headachier still, thought about dairy all day, plus royally failed at my newly regular gym workout. At this point, I caved. The End.
Point being, I don’t think I had a good enough reason to justify giving up foods I am apparently unreasonably attached to. ‘For the adventure of it all’ seemed silly when, on Day 3, I would’ve killed a man for a piece of vintage cheddar. I needed something solid and most people I know who are vegan have that. A strong ethical commitment to minimise harm to animals (I love animals, but get overwhelmed when thinking about how far I’d have to go to have a truly animal-product free lifestyle), or food allergies, or compelling health reasons. Something to get through the first stage of the new diet, when I was the Most Boring Person On Earth, thinking and talking constantly about food. The vegans I know generally understand what they can order at restaurants and they don’t take 2 hours to get a few groceries because they’ve slogged through the initial part and figured most of it out.
So, I’m not saying I’m giving up forever. I’m just saying I need to be better prepared with motivating influences when I do. Inspirational pictures, perhaps? Or a lucrative book deal…
In the meantime, I’m open to new challenges.
*May have involved throwing a small tantrum before going out for steak and beers.
13/02/2010 at 7:55 am Permalink
He he. Steak and beers is a pretty good fail, Cheney.
My first meal after 11 years of vegetarianism was Mongolian Lamb. I still can’t get over the delicious taste. Now, I think I am more prone to be craving meat than Angus! :D
I am writing a post about Sustainable Eating. It is about making choices that are better for environment, humane and social reasons. It should go up today. You definitely shouldn’t feel bad about being a failed vegan. Just making good choices when you shop is the most important thing, regardless of what you eat.
14/02/2010 at 3:20 am Permalink
Cheney,
Being a vegan is not in the Brew family genes. All your ancestors on my side of the family were 100% omnivores and ate meat three times a day, seven days a week ( we also drank a lot of beer!). If in doubt, blame your ancestry!
Dad
15/02/2010 at 7:52 pm Permalink
Hey Cheney,
Normally I would bang on about the awesomeness of being a carnivore (it’s pretty awesome), but I know you’re already down with that.
It sounds like you may need to ease into it if you want to really try it out, maybe cut back on one animal product at a time. Cutting everything out all at once, well, that’s ballsy.
You could always try to do it like an elimination diet; where you cut one thing out a week and then slowly add them back in, it’s what they do when trying to determine food allergies (as you probably know.)
Good luck with your next attempt; now you just need to eat enough bacon to last you through the follow-up go.