Monday morning energy always inspires me to do something proactive with my life. For a long long time I have wanted to try out going vegan - I was vegetarian for 10 years, and briefly again for a stint this summer whilst travelling in India - but for about 5 years I have been an intermittent and indifferent meat-eater. Recently, however, I have been more poignantly alerted to the negative effects of eating meat, which are so alarmingly widespread, and many of which also originate in the farming of other animal products such as dairy and eggs. My beautiful best friend Hannah Bateman has also really inspired me to try out veganism, and I have dabbled with it on and off but never managed to make it much more than a week. However, today, I really feel like I need to push myself as I am spending way too much money in the library café and eating way too much shitty food and consequently feeling shitty and stuck in this cycle of comfort eating -> requiring more comfort -> comfort eating some more. So, as of tomorrow, I am going to challenge myself to four weeks of veganism!
This will amuse some people, as I began February proclaiming that I was going to eat no meat for the month with a couple of my flatmates, and subsequently completely forgot my vow by 10am on the 1st, and it came back to me as I was half-way through a chicken mayo sandwich. So naturally, in completely Jade-esque fashion, I am going to reset myself an even more extreme challenge. And I am completely aware that this will indeed be a challenge, as I rely so much on my indulgent snacks to ease the pain of my frequent fourth-year fuelled 18-hour library days - and these stints themselves sap so much of my motivation that I’m not sure I have any reserves left for dietary self-control. However, I also have read widely on the relationship between food and emotions - a topic that I find greatly interesting - and completely recognise in myself how much better I feel when I have eaten cleanly. There is a lot of controversy over the nutritional-quality of vegan diets, and although some people may disagree, everything that I have read indeed indicates that it is the diet to which our bodies are naturally disposed, favouring digestion, absorption of nutrients and consequently boosting the energy left for other bodily processes (such as rejuvenation of cells or the functions of mental capacities). And I completely recognise that even immediately after eating something indulgent I feel disheartened and demotivated to do anything positive with the rest of my day, so I am going to strive to remember this while riding out the fast-food cravings (and I don’t mean to sound obsessive - but by indulgent here I mean more than an acceptably-portioned treat, as when I indulge I INDULGE).
And of course, I am hoping to find this all the more easier due to the sense of making a tiny positive shift in the world, or at least somewhat undoing the negative impact of my prior food choices. Whenever I look into the altruistic benefits of vegan diets I am almost surprised that they’re not legally-mandated. In addition to paving the way for a better treatment of animals and a more loving and compassionate world, abstaining from the products of the meat/farming industries also frees up water, land, and energy, which could be put to use in the production of sustenance in third-world countries.
So, having enunciated and publicised my motivations, it is time to commit myself to the challenge. As of tomorrow, Tuesday 6th February, for four weeks, that is until Tuesday the 6th March, I will be starting all my conversations with ‘Hi my name is Jade and I’m a vegan’ - and then of course proceeding to inform my interlocutor of my gap year and yoga instructor qualification. Just kidding… but I will be eating vegan. And I will be incredibly annoying in regularly posting my struggles and successes on various social media platforms, in order to prevent myself from secretly hiding away with a burger. Ideally, this lifestyle will prove rewarding enough to become my default. But i’m just going to start with 3 weeks for now.
- On a completely irrelevant sidenote, I have to confess how much it unsettles me to be beginning this on a TUESDAY, which is nowhere near the beginning of a month - or a year - or a lunar cycle - or any other calendrically-dictated beginning that I usually rely upon to procrastinate or validate my self-inflicted pledges. However, this just provides me with a little supplementary challenge to shake my obedience to measured time and just go with the ebb and flow of my own motivation and energy.
