By: Jamal Smith Sports Editor
Knowing that I was about to embark on one of the most difficult challenges of my life, one week of eating vegan, I decided to head to Fogo de Chao, an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse in Portland to fill my belly up on a week’s worth of meat.
As I sat at the table devouring mouthfuls of scrumptious prime cuts from beef, chicken, and lamb, I questioned whether I had bit off more than I could chew. Was the next week going to be a complete failure? After a night of drinking, could I avoid Taco Bell, and replace my familiar drunken meal with a vegan burrito or a vegan meatless patty that sat in my freezer?
Deep in thought, I was interrupted by a waiter who came to my table and asked, “Would you like a brandy marinated chicken thigh wrapped in bacon?” Ashamed at my reliance on animal flesh, I nodded in approval, for my mouth was full of prime rib.
To say that I love meat is an understatement. For me, a meal is not complete without some sort of meat. Then there is dairy: ice-cream, butter, milk, yogurt; all important foods in my animal-reliant diet.
By now you may be asking yourself, why then would you put yourself through the torture of eating vegan for a week? The answer is simple: I am appalled at the exploitation of animals for human consumption.
My conundrum started when one of my vegan friends posted a video to her Facebook feed of animals being mistreated in slaughterhouses and it opened up a Pandora’s Box of savagery. After watching other online videos concerning this subject, I felt sick to my stomach. It was then that I decided I would eat vegan for a week.
To prepare for my week of veganism, I stopped by Whole Foods to stock up on vegan delicacies. I plundered various fruits and vegetables, almond milk, meat substitutes, and other items lacking animal byproducts. My normal five minute trip to the grocery store took nearly an hour as I carefully examined the ingredients on the food labels.
The first day of the challenge was by far the most difficult. For breakfast I ate a banana with a bowl of cereal — with of course, almond milk. At lunch I heated up a vegan burrito which was mediocre at best. For dinner, I ate a vegan bagel and a salad medley which I smothered in caesar dressing. It wasn’t until I had half consumed the salad that I realized that the dressing that I liberally poured on the vegetables violated the challenge. I took a mental note of my indiscretion and vowed to be more careful for the remaining six days.
The next three days came and went without any hiccups; however, on the fifth day, in a drunken stupor after a night out celebrating my friend’s birthday, I stopped by Wendy’s. I’m not sure if it was the lack of meat, or if it was from all of the vodka Red Bulls that I had consumed, but their Baconator was to die for. Strike two.
When I awoke the next morning and saw the empty Wendy’s wrappers scattered on my coffee table, I have to admit that I felt a little ashamed. The caesar dressing fiasco was an honest mistake, but indulging in a greasy bacon layered burger was self-sabotage. At that point I could have given up on the challenge, but I already had a few more days left of vegan food, and my momma didn’t raise a quitter, so I decided to continue.
I finished out the challenge strong, and despite the two mess-ups, I would consider my overall results successful. The challenge wasn’t nearly as hard as I had expected; I felt great at the end, and I consumed more fruits and vegetables in a week than I had over the course of the entire year.
My advice for anyone who is thinking about eating vegan is to realize that if you make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world. Just put down the meat and try again.
Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportWOU
