Hello everyone.
I’m about to finish my vegan challenge and I will be honest: I CANNOT WAIT TO TASTE MY BELOVED BRESAOLA AGAIN. I’m not the kind of person that eats a lot of meat, but bresaola is something that I can’t explain. Imagine having a big plate with bresaola, rucola, parmesan and some oil on the top. Imagine having it after 14 days with no meat, no dairies etc. I’ve been dreaming about it since day 1 actually(the proof is written in my first post), but now it’s getting real!
Apart from this craving, my 14 days went pretty fast, and this challenge was not as hard as I imagined at the beginning.
I’ve just been very upset when I had to refuse a Kinder Maxi from a friend at uni. Or when I had to choose a pizza with no mozzarella on it. But also that pizza was not too bad: I went to a place where clients can make their homemade pizza, so I could choose all the ingredients I wanted. This was very convenient for my vegan diet. I chose a pizza with just mushrooms, olives and rucola on it. It was a very simple one but quite tasty (obviously the REAL pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella on top is better).
I went out for lunch/dinner twice during this challenge and could come up with one reflection: nowadays it’s really easy to be stuck to a plant-based diet even when you’re eating outside because there’s always a way to choose a vegan option. So if you ever try to change eating habits, be aware that you can also go out to eat and have some vegan alternatives.
About my “schiscette” for uni lunches, as I said in the previous post, this challenge helped me get better organised about meals since every night before going to sleep, I think about what to prepare for lunch for the following day. The other day I made myself some spinaches, with kidney beans (I found out that have many benefits for the body) and some tofu (that was not as bad as the one I used to make that terrible vegan ricotta).
Anyway, I’m very satisfied about the “schiscette” I made these past few days.
Now some reflections I came up with after these 14 days.
First of all, being vegan made me understand that I, as an individual, can make a strong impact to help reducing climate change. I went deeply into this topic because I wanted to fully understand why people choose to become vegan (some because have a strong relationship with animals, others because of the planet, others for health reasons). Being vegan actually decreases CO2 emissions that are caused by the production of meat, among other factors. So I realised how important it is to take decisions and do simple actions day by day to create a big positive impact for our planet. I got told many times, why do you do this? do you think that if you become vegan you will really help the planet when anyone else keeps eating animal products? The answer is no obviously, just me alone cannot save the world. But one of my favorite quotes is: be the change you want to see in the world. This sentence is not just about eating habits or choosing to avoid plastic or eating local. This sentence should inspire us to take decisions or a position in smaller and bigger issues of our life or regarding what is happening around us. This challenge taught me how important is to grow awareness of what is sorrounding me and take daily actions in order to pursuit what I believe in.
I leave you with a meaningful quote that I love, from a Native American proverb. “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money”.
