I Went Vegan For a Month - Here's What Happened
So, every year around mid-September to mid-October, the Tamil month of புரட்டாசி/Purataasi comes around. This month is observed for the Hindu god Vishnu by essentially, fasting for the month. This means being vegetarian Hindu style (i.e., no eggs) and doing prayers every Saturday (the day for Vishnu). Over the years, this whole fasting thing has been a bit of a roller coaster for me – from doing it blindly when I was a kid, and then not doing it because I was a kid and can be excused from such matters, and then rigidly following it during my hyper-religious phase and then doing it because why the Hanuman not. Which brings us to today. My relationship with religion has gotten a little rocky while my relationship with my spirituality has grown by leaps and bounds with time. I now see the opportunity to fast during Purataasi as exercising some discipline and mindfulness in my life – especially since I’m someone who eats what I like when I feel like it without much thought.
I turned vegetarian when I was 12 so Purataasi just means no eggs, and later, no chicken for me. My dad, on the other hand, laments about the lack of fish curry in his life from the first Sunday of Purataasi. So technically, it’s not that bad for me. But the thing is, not only do I LOVE eggs, eggs are something that ripple across many facets of my life. I can’t throw in an egg in my meals whether I’m making food at home or buying it outside for the protein. Forget vegan, even vegetarian is an option that many places have yet to offer. The chances that the vegetarian option doesn’t boast eggs is even slimmer so eating out can be a bit of an inconvenience and I become socially inaccessible. This is of course before you factor in how expensive these options can be. No Haagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerrys for the month.
Then things changed – for one, more affordable vegan and eggless vegetarian options have started to crop up in the last three years so I could still satisfy most of my cravings – I found Magnum ice cream. I also started to be more accepting of the month of vegetarianism and appreciative of it. So things started to get easy. In fact, a little too easy. So this year, I thought I would push the whole mindful eating a step further and go vegan. The idea came out of nowhere and while I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of a way to make things harder, I hadn’t realized how hard it was going to be. Apart from the usual no eggs and no chicken, this Purataasi for me meant no dairy and no honey. Which quickly meant I was forced to re-evaluate a good portion of my life – no healthy dose of cheese over my pasta. No quick guzzle of milk because the food I was eating was too spicy (this happens way more often than you would expect). No thayir satham/தயிர் சாதம், the ultimate comfort food. Once I hit no yoghurt on my list, I had to take a step back – I have an incredibly acidic stomach (stress + genetics + a love for spicy food) so I actually need yoghurt in my life. A quick search on vegan options for effective acid reflux brought up next to nothing. Well, there was something, but they weren’t worth the expense for a one-month gig. Plus, I’m broke. So I left the yoghurt in. If you’re saying at this point that technically, I’m not on a vegan diet then, I hear you. Fine. But do you know what it is like to give up milk in your morning coffee?
I did some evaluation of my meals and came up with the following plan – Most Indian/Tamil dishes are innately vegan and since this is what I primarily eat, that’s a good hurdle cleared – I’m not going to be starving or grumpy about eating “bad” food. Thai and Mexican dishes, my second favourite cuisines are or can be made vegan too. More good news. I decided I would just cut cheese out of my life for a month, that I’ll sub in brown sugar or maple syrup when the recipe calls for honey, and that I’ll use the small packet of coconut milk that’s available locally for 90 cents in my coffees instead of almond milk that costs a minimum of $5. I looked back at my plan and realized this is actually not too bad! In fact, this is more than doable and I’m going to be more than fine!
September 17 - the first day of Purataasi for this year rolled around. I woke up, showered, made my breakfast and without missing a beat, added coconut milk to my coffee. I was so proud of myself. I was going to kill it at this vegan game, I knew it.
Have you ever done one of those challenges where you are told not to smile and BECAUSE you were told not smile, you find yourself laughing until your stomach hurts when you see something that you would not even have reacted to on an average day? That was my brain/stomach. Within 24 hours, I had the WEIRDEST cravings. The chicken curry from the Malay stall when I was in primary school that I have probably eaten thrice or four times my entire time there. Nachos. Pesto. Nutella. All the chocolates, as a matter of fact. The cream of tomato soup I have eaten twice from a specific café that has since closed down.
And then these cravings started to haunt me well past a week. So, I started to look into substitutes. The cost of the vegan versions of many of these items made me say a few things that can’t be repeated so I decided to make them myself. And that’s my first suggestion if you are considering a vegan or any diet where you remove certain things you eat on the regular. You can make your own substitute at ANY price range for what you’re looking for. Just check the Internet – YouTube and Pinterest in particular. These recipes helped me with my chocolate and nachos cravings. And if your substitute looks expensive, there are substitutes for your substitute. Many recipes called for nutritional yeast when making vegan cheese which cost around $10. I didn’t see the need to buy such a gigantic amount when I was just going to be using a tablespoon or two. The Internet suggested subbing in with soy sauce at half the amount the recipe calls for nutritional yeast. Worked like a charm!
On that note, really look at what you eat and assess the areas you would be making changes before you jump in and buy everything with a vegan label and follow the guides that are out there on what should be in a vegan’s pantry and how you can get more protein. Many would tell you to invest in substitutes for seafood, meat, and poultry to help you with the cravings. This is not an area of concern for me at all because I stopped eating meat because I don’t like the taste, texture, and smell of meat and seafood. Like how I don’t like petai beans and celery. Take your time with substitutes as well. Lentils, legumes, and beans are friends of vegans but if you were not raised eating this group of food, you might experience a lot of discomfort, indigestion, diarrhoea and gas. So, don’t go cooking 4 cups of black beans to stock up for the week right from the get-go. Phase them in slowly. The key is research, research, research.
Another suggestion for you would be to take an exploratory mindset towards the diet you are taking, rather than OHMYGODNOCHEESEEEEE. Being open to things can help you find more exciting options as opposed to closing yourself off from the options that are there that you want. I’ve never liked soya milk but I had a soy cappuccino at a café and that was when I realised that Asian soy milk and Western soy milk have some difference in their flavour profile. I went through 2 litres of soya milk myself during this month.
My final suggestion would be for you to not be so harsh or rigid and throw everything that doesn’t fit your new diet pattern out of your home. And if you flounder that’s okay too. I had non-vegan meals twice. Once because my mum absentmindedly added ghee to our dish. Am I going to not eat it and waste the dish and her efforts? Of course not. My dad also turned 60 during this month and we all went out for a nice family dinner and ordered dishes for us all to share. And I was more than okay with it because what is more important here? My dad turning 60 or the butter in my dish? At the end of the day, you made the choice so the only person you have to please with your decisions is yourself. And if like me, you left something in your new diet pattern for comfort or medical reasons, that’s fine! Making some change or trying something different is way, WAY better than making no change or doing nothing different at all.
And before you knew it, the month was almost up! While it’s not like I lost a kilogram or slept better or had clearer, glowing skin at the end of the month, all of which would have greatly improved my stance on the whole vegan thing, it was a great experience for me. To be more mindful of what I eat, and to explore the vegan world. Maybe it’s not a big deal for someone else, but for someone who’s passionate about food, and who would very much rather pull a “Peace out, it’s been a fun ride” after eating everything the doctor says not to if placed on a restrictive diet, this was a little bit of a self-exploratory journey as well. Also, can someone please explain to me what exactly a coconut yoghurt is and why it costs $9?!
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