If first you fail, try, try, try, try again. That’s how the saying goes, right? In the last seven years I have removed meat or all animal products four times, with varying degrees of success.
I would not call these forays into veganism detoxes, as the word “detox” is too enmeshed in the vocabulary of toxic diet culture. These “experiments” are more resets that give my poor lactose intolerant GI tract a break from its masochistic obsession with dairy.
A comprehensive list of my vegetarian and vegan attempts over the years:
- July 2014 (vegetarianism)
- July 2019 (vegan experiment 1)
- November 2019 (vegan experiment 2)
- January 2021 (vegan experiment 3)
I embarked on my first Vegetarian Experiment during a summer home from college. This first attempt was my least successful and most miserable. I cooked very little of my own food (thanks, mom for indulging my whims and cooking me vegetarian food) and I was exhausted all the time. I likely did not eat enough diverse plant-based sources of protein (e.g. legumes) or enough calories.
Foolishly I attempted my first Vegan Experiment summer 2019 while living on Wayne State’s campus during an intensive entrepreneurship training camp through my Venture for America fellowship. My on-campus dining options were limited, and, two or three weeks into my vegan experiment, I gave up. I was simply too hungry mid-morning to focus on the day’s speakers.
I really committed to my second Vegan Experiment between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2019. Having learned from the hunger I experienced over the summer, I brought plenty of food to work (back when that was a thing I did) and stocked my drawer with lots of filling, healthy snacks to tide me over between meals. But… then I spent Christmas in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, a trip which abruptly ended my veganism. (Don’t at me but I was not about to skip eating sushi off a conveyor belt.)
We are in the middle of my third Vegan Experiment, which is going decidedly better than any of the prior iterations. COVID quarantine life has made this one the most successful and easiest of all. I make all of my own food at home. No one brings in tasty treats to the office that I have to refuse, and I do not have to navigate finding the one, underwhelming vegan item on the menu at a restaurant when out with friends. I am working from home right now and restaurants are out, for obvious reasons. (As is fun, but that’s another story.)
If you’ve tried and failed to stick to a vegan lifestyle, know that you are not alone!
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