I went vegan for a month at Ohio Northern University.
The best way to describe this experience is through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). This article concerns the third stage, bargaining.
The truth about veganism is that it gets easier.
Not after the first day, and not after the first week, but sometime within my month of veganism, the days got easier.
Part of it is finding your groove in an entirely different diet. Part of it is the incredible innovation of vegan food in the modern era.
The first vegans must have been undoubtedly brave individuals. Just like sending someone across the Atlantic for the first time, we had no clue what was going to happen to those people. We probably didn’t expect them to survive.
Without the modern comforts of B-12 vitamins and tofu, veganism must have been an astonishing feat. Vegan pioneers paved the way for veganism to almost be… enjoyable? Maybe that’s an oxymoron, but let me explain.
Bargaining is a beautiful thing in vegan culture. They say that necessity breeds innovation, and after a few days of being vegan, my necessity to consume butter was through the roof. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to discover this, but vegan butter actually exists! Believe it or not, they don’t even keep that stuff locked up in Fort Knox; you can buy it at any Walmart!
Vegan butter might seem trivial, but it’s the equivalent of giving a chainsaw to a lumberjack in the 1600s. My entire vegan existence accelerated from the stone age to the modern era with one little yellow tub.
That’s not all, though. When my vegan friend introduced me to vegan ranch, I felt my soul leave my body and do a lap around the room. Elated is an understatement.
I wish I would have recorded the way my jaw bounced off the floor when I discovered vegan ice cream. Vegan ice cream is genuinely the greatest win for vegans since… honestly probably ever. It’s our first and only dub.
The vegan existence is full of bargaining. You don’t have to give up every food that you like; you just have to negotiate some kind of method to recreate that food without the animal products. The substitution might not be as great as the original, but after a few days of being vegan, you’ll start to forget what the original tasted like anyways.
Bargaining was actually one of the most exciting phases of my veganism journey. If you’ll remember from my last article, food holds a lot of deep emotions for me. While it’s true that I expressively missed some nonvegan foods, I will never forget the joy of finding a vegan alternative when I thought there was no hope.
I’ve been an avid butter lover since birth. However, the only time that I will ever distinctly remember the joy of butter is when I had vegan butter for the first time after being deprived for two weeks.
It’s no secret that I love ice cream. I have a lot of fond memories tied to ice cream, but a memory very close to my heart will always be my friend and me eating vegan ice cream straight from the tub on my dorm room floor. This is a pretty regular occurrence, but something about not being able to eat regular ice cream really made this a special vegan memory.
It’s the little things.
It’s bargaining.
Veganism is about finding joy within the challenge, and it helps to be grateful for every win, no matter how small. You might have to bargain, a lot, but once you find that perfect negotiation, you’ll wonder why you didn’t go vegan sooner.
All of that being said, veganism is still an uphill battle both coming and going. While there are celebrations and triumphs, there are also new lows and tough battles. Even with vegan butter, ranch, and ice cream, there will still be days that you really want to give up. We are approaching the depression phase of my veganism journey.
Tune in to my next article to continue my veganism journey and hear about the fourth stage: depression.
If you want to watch my tiny vegan victories in real time, follow @sunnygoesvegan on Instagram. It won’t disappoint.