Storm

I can still remember my family’s reaction when I first told them I wanted to become a vegetarian. As I come from a real meat-loving family without any vegetarians, the change was quite drastic to them. It was my new year’s resolution and my family instantly tried to tempt me with all kinds of deliciously prepared meats. However, I resisted and actually succeeded in becoming a pretty decent vegetarian (with the exception of some drunken mistakes). By now, my family has gotten used to the fact that I no longer eat meat and when I visit them in the weekends they always have a vegetarian meal prepared for me. Whenever we visit restaurants my dad still likes to make the occasional ‘damn this steak looks really good, too bad you can’t eat this’-joke, but other than that they do always make sure there are enough vegetarian dishes on the menu.

Pretty content with my previous dietary changes, I decided to participate in last weeks’ Vegan Challenge week. I knew what I was in for, as I had shortly tried to eat vegan last year. It was a rather poor attempt and lasted no longer than two weeks. Therefore, I was really determined to succeed the challenge this time around to prove to myself that I would, in fact, be able to switch to a vegan diet. Considering my current overall eating habits, not a lot of adjustments had to be made and I found myself experimenting with some new products that I had never tried before. Fellow students shared their own experiences during the week, which motivated me to continue and inspired me in  deciding what to eat. The week went by fast, and before I knew it, I had fulfilled the challenge. All in all, last week has definitely helped me become more aware of all the things I eat and what it all consists of, which is something that interests me a lot.

However, despite all the good results, I still decided not to visit my parents’ this weekend, still remembering the look on their faces when I solely said I was going to cut out meat, let alone all dairy products...