Checking in to talk about my week being vegan! On a side note, it feels weird thinking that this is something that can count as activism, because it felt like such a small step. Personal activism is still activism though, as it is important to hold ourselves accountable for our daily actions. They all add up to have a big impact! Being vegan for a week was a lot easier than I was expecting. As somebody with Celiac, I am used to constantly checking ingredients and being very conscious of what I can and cannot eat, as I can never have gluten. A lot of meat substitutes are made of straight up gluten, so I mainly avoided those and went the tofu/carb/veggie route. I think that being home in quarantine made being vegan a lot easier, as I wasn’t eating out at all so I had direct knowledge of what was going into all of my food.
The biggest motivation for me to keep going while I was avoiding animal products was doing research on the impact just me being vegan would have. As I included in my last post, I saved EIGHT animal lives just in a WEEK. It is so weird to even conceptualize, as I would never think that my daily eating habits affect other living creatures that much. That is more than one animal a day. I think my biggest takeaway from this is that I can make an easy adjustment to my diet and literally help save lives. It made me feel like a hypocrite. I love animals. I have three little dogs. Yet, I choose to continue eating animals which is literally killing them. If I choose to go even one day a week more meat-free, that can save an animal’s life. That is good to know and a lot to consider, and I think framing it like that for others will make an impact too.