I drank more almond milk than I ever wanted to

DAY 1: Since I hadn’t eaten anything in order to prepare myself for the diet, I was very hungry. I ran to my fridge to discover the only vegan snack readily available was an apple. Luckily for me, my mom is Italian, Neapolitan to be specific, and almost every Neapolitan dish can be made vegan. This made things a little easier.

Lunch was a vegan spaghetti pomodoro with watery almond milk. Since I had almost no vegan snacks, my next meal was dinner. I had a vegan pizza, which is just tomato sauce on dough. This was again washed down with almond milk.

The next thing I ate came at around 11 p.m. Turns out potato chips are vegan! I wasn’t really eating anything vastly different from my normal diet, so I didn’t really feel that different yet.

DAY 2: My wonderful mother had made some vegan blueberry pancakes. Thanks mom! Love you! They tasted surprisingly normal. However, this would be the easiest part of my day.

My dad and I had tickets to a basketball game. I hadn’t eaten anything prior to the game just because I usually get some snacks at things like this. However, the only things there that were vegan were some candy, cotton candy, water and lemonade.

Instead of paying attention to the game, I stared off into the distance, trying not to focus on the overwhelming sight of nachos, the allure of Dippin’ Dots or the smell of soft pretzels.

When I got home I was even hungrier than when I left. However, there waiting for me was Pasta e Patate, another vegan Italian dish. I found myself hungry at about midnight, so I took to the freezer. Underneath countless frozen meals, I found vegan tikka masala, made with what was lovingly called “vegan meat substitute.”

DAY 3: This was the hardest. It landed on a school day, so the ever-present opportunity to snack on forbidden food was greater than before. I had to rush out that morning so I didn’t get to eat breakfast. By 10:00a.m. I felt pretty hungry, no matter how much I ate, and I finally figured out why.

You see, I’m not a big fan of seeds or nuts. so the only protein I consumed to that point came in my almond milk. To remedy this, I grabbed some vegan red bean chili. I’m sure the little boost in protein did not do that much, but the placebo effect sure did. Dinner was Pasta e Patate and ice water.

CONCLUSION: To be fair, being vegan isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I expected my days to be filled with raw veggies and water, but it turns out a lot of food is vegan. I’m sure if I just ate more beans and other protein-rich foods I would have been fine, but for now, I think I’ll go back to my normal diet. After all, it is egg nog season.

By Micho Matuszewski