Going from Zero to Vegan.
My month in a house of carnivores.
“So you don’t eat meat anymore?” My friends and family ask me this question every time I inform them that I have decided to change my lifestyle and become vegan. At least for the next month. In my family and in my household, meat is big part of our daily meals. I come from a family who grew up on farms in the middle of nowhere, South Carolina. They raised the animals they would eventually kill for food. Because of this, breakfast, lunch and dinner meals at my house have from one to three meat dishes.
I have to explain to them that it is not just about eating meat, I have to be conscious of everything that is a byproduct of milk. While explaining this, they become very defensive of their choice to eat meat and drink milk.
“It’s not like they harm cows when they get the milk from them.” That’s my grandmother who was born and raised on the farm in the middle of South Carolina. She a stick-in-the-mud and stuck in her ways including what food she puts into her mouth.I keep hearing non-vegans say animals are around for this.
I’m not just becoming a dietary vegan, I am becoming an environmental vegan. I have always been curious about being a vegan. I constantly see memes about no one caring if you’re vegan or not and I want to know if that is true. Will people care if I become a vegan? Will they just say okay and move on?
I need to watch more than just what food I put into my body but also what I wear and any products I use. My favorite hand soap my mother just bought? I have to get rid of it because it contains hooves of animals. My favorite shoes? Well, they are made of sheepskin so I’ve got to get rid of those.
I want to drink some soda? Nope can’t do that if it contains ester gum. What is ester gum, you ask? It a chemical used to thicken food products and it usually contains animal origins. Gross, right? But what if the soda doesn’t contain ester gum like some do? Then that comes down to where it comes from. Can I stand behind a company that uses ester gum in other sodas just not in the particular one I want to drink?
First things first, I get rid of everything I own that isn't vegan friendly and throw it out. I go to Lush to get some soaps and toothpaste since I know most of their products are vegan. While there I meet, Rachael, who is also a vegan. She tells me she’s been a vegan for a little over a year and the first month was the worst for her because she could remember the taste of everything she could no longer eat. We talk for a while and she introduces me to Sam, who has been a vegan for five years.
Sam tells me she’s been a vegetarian her whole life so making the decision to become vegan wasn't hard choice for her. She gives me hope that this won’t be as hard as I’m thinking. Going from zero to vegan is going to be pretty hard though.
Inside, I’m crying and debating on whether or not I want to quit this. On the outside I smile and ask her for advice. She gives me book recommendations and website where I can put in a food that I’m missing or craving and it shows me a video of how the food is prepared. I go home feeling hopeful about my new lifestyle.
I live with my mother and older sister and Sundays at my house mean one thing: grocery shopping. This Sunday is different because instead of throwing random things in the cart, I pay close attention to what I can and cannot have. It’s been one week since I started my lifestyle and this is the first time shopping for meals for the week. Oreos for instance, are vegan because it’s not made from real cream.
It’s become easy finding things that are vegan with a new app I downloaded. It’s called Is it Vegan? All I have to do is scan the bar code and the app tells me if it’s vegan, vegetarian or neither one of them.
Finding food that is vegan isn't as hard as I thought it was. The hardest thing for me was finding good recipes that didn't taste too bland. My first week I decided that if I was hungry I was just going to eat snacks that I knew I could have. I needed to make actual meals because my first plan, just snacking when I needed, wasn't as smart as I thought it was.
I hate cheese and I miss it. It’s like when you have a sore throat and you constantly feel the need to swallow when there’s nothing to actually swallow in your mouth so you put yourself in pain for no reason. So my pain today, two weeks from my start day, is knowing I hate cheese and I miss it because I can’t have it.
“What did you do that for?” My mother, hands on her hips, wearing a Betty Boop apron gives me a dirty look before turning back to her food.
Lots of reasons actually, I think to myself. “You’re contaminating my food that’s why.”
My mom is making dinner tonight and she always is trying new recipes and tonight is not different. She announces what tonight’s new meal is: buffalo chicken lasagna. Now I feel the need to cry my mother knows how much I love chicken and spicy things. Putting this together as a meal is true torture.
Within hours of her announcement, the house is filled with this wonderful aroma and I know I won’t be able to try it. Everyone in my house is eating the lasagna my mother has made and I’m eating some fried cauliflower drenched in hot sauce that I cooked. I mean if it’s spicy enough I can pretend its chicken I’m eating right?
Almost every night as my mother makes the family their meals I’m standing next to her making mine. I’m a simple person I like chicken and I can eat it thousands of different ways but I still like chicken. I went from chicken to cauliflower. One night I’m eating it boiled, the next fried, the next steamed and so on.
My mother stands next to me as push the cauliflower soaked garlic and vegetable oil in the pan. Her voice over powers the sizzling of the oil as she tells me about her day. Suddenly I notice the gleam of the fork she was currently using making its way to my pan. Smacking her hand and the fork away from my dish I yell at her to not try doing that again.
“What did you do that for?” My mother, hands on her hips, wearing a Betty Boop apron gives me a dirty look before turning back to her food.
Lots of reasons actually, I think to myself. “You’re contaminating my food that’s why.”
I watch as her eyes move from the fork in her hand, my food on the stove, to my face. She makes the circuit three times before she says anything.
“I just wanted a taste,” and adds a pout as she finishes her statement.
As if I could just turn my head as she contaminates my food. We continue cooking food next to each other while she tries to get a taste of it for the rest of the week.
My uncle’s birthday passed a week ago. He wanted to have a barbecue and a fire, which is no problem for my family since we love grilled food. I watch with envy as my family fills their plates up with grilled chicken, steak, loaded potatoes, while I eat my three-bean chili. The chili is good, but I know how good my aunt’s potato salad, made with mayonnaise, is or my cousin’s dry rub for the ribs. So I stew as my mouth waters at the smell of the food.
By the end of the month I’m coming up with so many different meals that everyone in my family is coming over for dinner and sometimes lunch. Except for tofu night, no one came for tofu night. My aunts and uncles are calling me asking for the recipes some of their favorite dishes because they loved it so much. My meat-loving family are now fans of vegan dishes. I never thought I would see the day where they would change their stuck-in-the-mud kind of ways.
I can eat meat again and I don’t know how I feel about it. The Lexi I was a month ago would have been so excited and called up the closest pizza shop to deliver a meat lover’s pizza. The Lexi I am now doesn't feel the need to eat meat for every meal. I have realized that I can survive without meat and, dare I say it, cheese.