OK, so I made it all the way through my second day of veganism (and yes, it was only a half day, because I had been looking forward to dinner with my Dad for a while and didn't want to let a lack of dairy and meat spoil it)!
The one thing that's really hit me so far is how you can be a vegan and still eat unhealthily! I always associated vegans with a super-healthy, tons-of-vegetables diet, but it turns out that a lot of what you can eat as a vegan is super processed. In fact, if you want to eat vegan and still follow Michael Pollan (Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.), it's really difficult.
First of all, all of the meat- and dairy-replacement products go away (bye bye rice milk, soy milk, tofurkey, etc.). Then think of the choices that you make in order to avoid processed foods in a normal diet (i.e. butter instead of margarine), and they're all out too. Then, you put all of this in the context of Val, where a huge percent of the food is already processed, and things like bread are gone too. Suddenly, you're living in a world where things like french fries and coke are OK, but butter isn't? I've been doing my best to avoid the processed food and still be vegan, but it's been difficult to do for even two days and makes me really impressed by anyone who does this for real. Mostly, I've been sticking to the salad bar and the basket of fruit, supplementing with peanut butter as needed, but it doesn't really fill you up. I don't think I've ever been this hungry for this long.
On the other hand, this type of diet does make you feel really good. Yes, I'm hungry, but I'm also really energetic in the afternoons now (and I'm most definitely a napper) and I generally feel much more awake. It's not like I ever really felt "weighed down" by my food, but that is most definitely not the case now.
To sum it all up, day two is over and I am really in awe of vegans.
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