21 days a Nigerian Vegan.

“it was about feeling great, multiple times a day about myself”.

Been vegan means no milk, no animal or fish eating, no egg, no by-product from animals.

Ethical vegetarianism, where animal made clothes, shoes, jewelries and anything a byproduct from animals are forbidden. I might be doing this passively, I don’t really collect animal pieces so I can say not guilty of this ethic.

Types of vegetarian diets

When people think about a vegetarian diet, they typically think about a diet that doesn’t include meat, poultry or fish. But vegetarian diets vary in what foods they include and exclude:

1. Lacto-vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish, poultry and eggs, as well as foods that contain them. Dairy products, such as milk, cheese, yogurt and butter, are included.

2. Ovo-vegetarian diets exclude meat, poultry, seafood and dairy products, but allow eggs

3. Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish and poultry, but allow dairy products and eggs.

4. Pescatarian diets exclude meat and poultry, dairy, and eggs, but allow fish.

5. Vegan diets exclude meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products — and foods that contain these products.

While I was doing my research before taking the challenge, I had a hard time deciding which type of the vegetarian choice threw me out of my comfort zone, as normally I could go a whole year without meat (beef in particular), so if I take out beef only , I was honest enough to tell myself that I’m still swimming in my comfort bubble.
Looking through the plans, I knew only strict vegan can shake me as much and off I went with that.

Reasons and Lessons

Starting this challenge, I had four major reasons, and the lessons I learnt came from taking action.

1. Escape boredom

“the enemy is not failure that we fear so much, the realer enemy is Boredom”.

There were times I just get up from my bed and decide not to take soda for a month, no sugar meals, no seasoning cubes in my food, the list goes on. This 2020, I look forward to more food challenges as intermittent fasting, no fried food, no spicy food, just stay connected to know more. I also love this challenges, as you never know how addicted you are to a thing until you choose to let go or take a break.

2. Keeps my finances in bloody check

As a medical student, I spend more hours of the day outside my house than I do in, so as a non-vegan, I can eat anything I see or place my hands on, and that reads a lot on my expense list at the end of the day.
Most times when I run my expense check on where I spend the most , I look through my wardrobe but I don’t find them because they aint there , I didn’t get new clothes. Then when it’s time for food , it’s the largest on the expense chart.
But been a vegan helped me regulate that and I realized I could spend way less than I did, on my non-vegan days.

3. Prepare my own meal

I love meals I cook myself a lot, but because of the nature of my job as a medical student, I fail at that most times. Being a vegan in a non- supportive non-vegan environment as the city I live in, Aba, Nigeria, this city where every good and bubbly food has animal spice or a part of an animal infused in it, from the famous Nkwobi which is cow leg to the Isi Ewu (secret ingredient = brain of the goat), and down to bistro foods where every meal had crayfish as an essential ingredient, it’s like an Ibo signature, I could not eat these meals that I did not prepare neither could I grab junk as they had milk in them, so I make my meals more often than normal, and this was an amazing thing to do.

4. Makes you Unique

Being a vegan makes you very distinct. It makes you feel disciplined, this is a perfect way to practice your discipline skill, controlling what goes into your mouth is a great skill to learn, as this is a very hard task but when you do this efficiently without breaks, you not only feel great about yourself but you would embrace the uniqueness of been vegan.

I can boldly say this as I’ve journeyed this vegetable road.

My journey in bits

I started the animal fast challenge, and then broke without finishing, the first failing was when I accidently ate the famous killishi meat (dried beef made with peanuts and pepper). One advice for beginner vegans is stay conscious of been a vegan else, when you see food you would totally forget, you should repeat this as a mantra, I can say it is super helpful and hence the need for an accountability partner. My friends took the lead here , few days before I started the fast I put up on my Whatsapp status “if you see me holding onto any animal food , feel free to snatch it from me , in love though” and I got a lot of my friends up and ready to snatch food from me for their own gain but then their gain was a plus for me.

Keep reading for my journey review in detail.

Day 1–7

These days were the sweetest and hardest, I still had the sugar rush motivation after watching lots of vegans talk about their first days, and I still had that joy you always have when you are trying out a new activity.

I started by incorporating more vegetables to my meals, this I did by going to Salad Market. This is a market in Aba , Nigeria, where you can find all kind of vegetables that you can’t find in your normal Nigerian food markets. You find vegetables as broccoli, cauliflower, radish, zucchini, spinach, beetroot, eggplants, any kind of vegetable.

My shopping list:
-Green beans.
-Bell peppers.
- Beetroot.
- Irish potatoes
- Egg plants.
- Carrots
- Lots of banana
- Apples.
- Cucumber.
- Peanut
- Spaghetti.
- Yam
- Habanero pepper.

And other miscellaneous.

This week I drank garri (cassava flakes) and peanut a lot, with no milk in it. I ate more fruits this week than ever before, banana especially, it was my happy fruit. I got hungry most times of this week, as the food I ate either had a lot of fiber, so I had free bowel movements and feel hungry again or the food is too light and I scream hungry after few minutes of eating.

Having free bowel movements for me was a plus and a minus thing, reason is as a normal eater I consume lots of dairy product and most times end up constipated, but during these 21days I never complained of constipation. So if you have issues like this, being vegan is one of a thousand solution for your problem.

I made lots of fruit smoothies, trying to gather up vitamins.

Towards the end of the week, I started getting compliments on my sudden skin glow, some called it pregnancy glow …

But here comes the bad part,

Day 8–15.

I lost some healthy pounds. I started to trim as well, believe me when I say it was never part of my plan. I just dropped another solution for you, if you are looking to lose some weight and the gym is not your friend, staying vegan does the magic.

It took conscious efforts to deliberately stay hungry, cook large food quantity so I would have food around and no need to eat out. This week I had more food temptations. Quick story: I run a food service business and I went to vendor for a Christmas party. I made finger foods; Asundodo (goat meat and fried plantain), hot peppered chicken, and sautéed peppered beef, I made all these in large quantities and I didn’t taste any, and these are meals that require lot of spice in the rightest quantity else it would be in ruins. I had to trust my friends to help me with the tasting. I had to take that risk of preparing food for a large crowd without tasting any, and it was my first vendor job. I never thought I could pull this off but I did brilliantly.

This week I started to have lots of bodily reactions, starting with the weight loss that wasn’t my intention and other bodily reaction such as skin changes;

I looked sunkissed all through my first week and then kaboom, week 2 was a hell of a week. My skin work took a different dimension and I couldn’t understand what I was lacking, so I increased my fruit intake. Then the worst of them was the mouth sores. This one took it’s toll on me. They were quite painful and mouth sores are signs of deficiency of vitamin B. Then I started to have sensitive teeth, calcium store levels slowly deteriorating.

Day 16–21

I was constantly snacking on my no-milk cracker. If I took count I might have eaten a carton of Kemps cracker biscuits. I wanted to eat salad so bad, but then mayonnaise is an animal product. So I just looked forward to finishing up. But then, the last days of been vegan were so easy, as I already got used to not taking milk, fish or meat. But I can’t lie that I did not miss eating animal products. My subconscious got acquainted with the vegan rules, I was even getting happier by the day to not salivate when I see non vegan meals.

On these last days It was strange to even think of milk or meat. I assumed if I took milk I might just puke (that did not happen anyways).

Dos and Don’ts

1. Start gradually, by incorporating more vegetables than normal, before cutting out animals entirely. Don’t try to replace meat for carrot instead consciously put in more vegetables.

2. Get accountability partners, else you would fall face flat on your own thoughts and temptations.

3. Get supplements as Vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 which can only be gotten from animal source is quite an essential vitamin for normal body metabolism and if you turn deficient, you would start having glossitis and mouth sores as I did.

4. Get soya milk and other plant based product to make up for the vitamin you are missing from animals.

In total honesty

I wish I could say I hate Meat, but no I do not.
I certainly won’t see a hot roast or grill and look in disgust. Never you won’t get me.
But I honor and respect vegans and their choice of life pattern, I tried it and I have told you my story.
Is it an activity I want to stick to? Nope, not now maybe when I’m older.

“an unexperimental life is not worth living, take up a challenge for this new year”

Goodluck, ciao.