7 Struggles of Being Vegan

A little over two months ago, I came across an interesting Twitter thread someone I follow retweeted. The feed was a lengthy list of reasons why you should be vegan. Typically, I avoid long threads like this, but this one drew me in. As I read on, I became very intrigued by the facts presented. I did some research to fact-check the information and find out the truth. As it turned out, most of the information was correct.

After learning veganism has many health benefits, animal agriculture is a huge cause of climate change and rainforest deforestation and eating animal products is far from sustainable, I decided to be the change and go vegan. Since that day, not only do I feel better physically, but morally. Veganism isn't all sunshine and rainbows though; I have encountered many obstacles in this short time as well. These are the biggest struggles I have faced thus far in my journey as an herbivore:

1. Starting out is HARD

I went vegan cold. Many other vegans start out as vegetarian and transition by cutting out dairy and other animal byproducts slowly. I don't regret jumping right into it but I do think transitioning might be an easier way. Starting as vegetarian would allow for a slower, but smoother transition to vegan and allow for more time to inform yourself. The best way just depends on the person!

2. People will criticize you

Even though your choice to eat a plant-based diet has absolutely no effect on the way others live, people will still slam you for it. I think it's safe to say that veganism is not very popular and the way society promotes eating animal products makes understanding veganism very difficult. Many people don't even know what veganism is, but misunderstanding doesn't justify criticism. If you're vegan, you more than likely chose this lifestyle for one of three reasons: to help the environment, to help animals or improve personal health. All of these are pure motivations so it doesn't make sense to me why trying to improve ourselves and the planet is so awful.

3. Most restaurants don't have vegan options

This is the hardest part for me and if you're a fellow foodie I'm sure you can relate. I eat out more than I should. While it's true some menus do have a vegan or vegetarian section, the vast majority of them don't and many restaurants seem to only offer meaty dishes smothered in animal byproducts. Some restaurants I've found to have a variety of options include Mellow Mushroom, Chipotle and Panera.

4. You have to cook for yourself more

I used to absolutely despise cooking, but cooking for yourself is essential if you're vegan because of the restaurant dilemma and the increased need to know what you're putting into your body. Surprisingly enough, I've come to enjoy cooking with the help of Pinterest and an app called Lighter.

5. A lot of seemingly dairy-free foods actually contain dairy

I'm still finding out that certain foods I thought were vegan-friendly actually have dairy or hidden animal byproducts in them. Who knew pasta was made with egg? Not me! Moral of the story here: do your research and always check the ingredients.

6. You will be stereotyped

Crazy. Pushy. Skinny. These are just a few of the stereotypes and in most cases, they aren't accurate.

7. You will feel pressure to be perfect

This relates back to number five. Sometimes you eat something and find out later that the food contained an animal product. This has happened to me many times and I always find myself feeling like I've completely failed afterwards. This said, it's important to remember that perfection is extremely difficult and you're still doing good by eating a minimal amount of animal products.

I still have many things to learn and I'm certainly no expert on veganism, but if you are interested in the lifestyle or just a curious about it, I hope this was helpful! Comment your thoughts on veganism below.

See you next post,

Casey