It's all about baby steps....

From cooking at home, to traveling in trains, planes, and roadtrips through France, speaking first and foreign languages, translating, playing charades with waiters and using sign language to broken languages to express dietary concerns. Finding moments to make it through the frustration, and having friends go from convincing you to quit to sharing your dietary preferences. Too many moments ordering french fries, and worrying about the ingredients and reading between the lines - this is all part of the process of challenging oneself to be vegan in a globalized, ever-changing world.

Experiencing the unexpected...

The really unique thing about my 22 day challenge is that I had to learn the ins and outs of veganism from many different life obstacles, locations, and perspectives. Back in NYC I have a few vegan friends that would have totally been a support system, but in my UK life I dont have that support network. What was cool about it though is that because of living and traveling in different countries with all different people in the same 22 day span, I learned so many different reactions, situations that I wouldn’t have if I was just at home cooking the entire time. For example, one of my colleagues bonded with me over dietary differences because he doesn’t eat pork, and my colleague I met up with in Montpellier, France was a vegetarian but not vegan - we kind of bonded over those. And I met some French people who didn’t even know what veganism was! (Maybe because of the language barrier - still not sure). But I know my family who are from a small rural town in Ohio have probably not all heard about veganism and if so don’t know anything about it in detail (for example, the reasons why or including avoiding things like honey:))

And between traveling internationally, living internationally (I’ve only been in England three months) with many cultural differences, and in France I couldn’t speak the language at all - plus add on top of that I was road tripping across parts of Europe in a car in a tent with a Peruvian and her British fiance who were big meat eaters and were constantly trying to tell me its not a big deal or to break the challenge - especially because since we were camping my diet affected theirs! When we would grocery shop we’d have to buy things that didn’t have meat inside, and then they would add things in extra after serving mine. It was pretty challenging - but I’m really happy I stuck it through because the length of time does really start to wear down particular cravings and such.

Normally I eat a fairly healthy diet (lots of fruits and veggies), but I also do eat meat especially at a restaurant. I don’t like salads unless they are loaded down with lots of heavier veggies or toppings, so seeing a menu and only being able to eat french fries and salads (and sometimes a soup) was really hard! But I made it through - and that’s what matters:)

What I learned about me over the course of 22 days

I learned a lot of things about myself over the 22 days of the challenge. I learned a lot of new dishes and concoctions for being vegan, and everything about the daily habits it takes to form in order to build that overall habit - from investigating labels for having separate meals from others at dinners. But I also learned how much I changed over the course of the (almost) month. I learned about my tolerance levels, and how to be more conscious of what I ingest - the foods that I am putting into my body. It really makes you realized how little we think about the ingredients that we put into our bodies every single day.

I learned that people will have very strong opinions, whether good or bad. But that also their opinions may gradually change. For example some of my friends were upset or annoyed at times with the dietary restrictions affecting our entire group meals, but then softened sometimes, even to the point of them acknowledging (somewhat begrudgingly) that it was good for their diet/health. It was moments like that that made me smile :)

The effects of traveling on a vegan diet

There are some situations where traveling has little or no effect on a vegan diet - with many restaurant options. I’ve traveled a lot - and I know from personal situations and scenarios I’ve been in that sometimes upholding a vegan diet would not be possible in many situations - at least entirely or consistently.

For example, I spent three weeks in the Amazon jungle back in 2014
where you can only traverse via river. You travel from boat to canoe and stop along tiny remote villages - villages only accessible along the river. There are no roads and the only import is by boat.

There weren’t really restaurants or hotels or normal places like that which would make options possible, and in fact the only meal often available was a jungle meal called “ “, which was a ball of fried rice with pieces of chicken, an egg, wrapped in a leaf ball.

I think because of traveling I understand that it would be extremely difficult (if not entirely impossible) to maintain a vegan diet in certain places, cultures, or scenarios.

Things I wish I knew earlier (and great tips for future vegan newbies!) / In summary....

• Checking and reading ingredients on everything you eat is extremely insightful but time consuming
• Language barriers make things much more complicated (tip: write down the words "vegan" + "vegetarian" and "no aminal products please" in the language of the country you are traveling in on a slip of paper before going out during the day! I wish I'd thought of this sooner!!!)
• A French diet is not at all vegan friendly
• Friends will probably be annoyed but you will find support systems! Join vegan groups (try Meetup.com to meet in real life, Steemit of course ! as well as a ton of Facebook groups:)
• Making your own meals is so much easier and becomes much more fun! Experiment and have fun!
• When you are just eating mostly veggie meals, eat much larger portions or many small meals throughout the day
• Carry a stash of healthy granola bars in your bag in case you are ever in a situation where there are no vegan friendly snacks/meals around
• Know the reasons why you're doing it! (People will ask you constantly! And its just good to know/be sure of it:))
• Sharing food with others (like offering to cook a new recipe for them) is the single best way to get others on board or at least on your side :)

That's all I have because it's really not that bad ;p

RIP to the food I had to pass up and wrap up :(

I had to give up a lot of foods at the start of the challenge, not to mention passing by all those amazing tarts in France where taste testing became window shopping (drool).

I even had to leave notes to myself on the first few days to remember not to drink milk with my cereal first thing in the morning!

And the sweets in France!![IMG_9006.jpg]

No more carrying around and losing small papers!

So happy I dont have to document every meal I eat more. Or keep track of what day it is 3-4 times a day ;p

To be honest, the documenting part has been just as hard, if not more difficult, than the entire diet-changing process. At times my food got cold by the time I was done setting it up to take a picture, writing the date down, and taking a nice photo - and there were some occasions I wasn’t home and didn’t have my paper or any pen to write down the date (it only happened a couple of times tho). Also, I’m not a huge “take pictures of my food at restaurants” kind of person, so I felt a little silly at times documenting things when I was in public (ESPECIALLY when it was at 2 am after a night out dancing, and the people around you are wondering why on earth you’d want to document a fast food veggie kebab wrap hahaha). ;p

The BIG QUESTION

Will I be vegan forever? Am I turning vegan?

This is a tough one, because I think its a much more gray area for me. I think even vegetarians and vegans mess up sometimes, or some Ive even met are vegans but still would eat some products like honey in oatmeal or tea etc. I think there is always a scale, a spectrum where each and every one of us decides to places ourselves - and this scale can also slide as we ourselves change each and every day. I definitely think I will align myself to a much more vegan and vegetarian friendly diet - and one thing I will definitely take with me from this challenge is how considerate and conscious I am now and will to be of the foods, the ingredients, the processing, and when animal products are being used because it really has changed my overall perspective. I am and will definitely continue to make bigger efforts, have more consideration, and be extra thoughtful and thankful of the foods I eat in hopes of making this world a better, brighter place for all living beings:)

A HUGE "thank you" to everyone involved

I can't thank my dear Peruvian friend, Karen, enough for helping to make sure our shared camping meals were vegan based and going out of her way with her fiancé , Chris to make sure I was eating enough, helping to find vegan friendly options (or at least attempting and helping). Here is a photo of us in backerpacker camping mode in my favorite place we visited along our adventures:

Also a thank you to my fellow Steemians who have read along my lengthy posts and made supportive comments along the journey - I had a lot of virtual support! @eonwarped, @crytosharon, @maverickinvictus, @dawnsheree, @osm0sis, @kubbyelizabeth, @plantstoplanks

Thanks and kudos for the other contestants - @paolapaopoly, @splendorhub, @kubbyelizabeth, @iseeyouvee - who have gone through this journey with me!:)

And of course a huge thank you to @heart-to-heart for hosting this on Steemit and introducing me to the world of veganism, as I don't think I wouldve ever made the leap to try it without her!

Thank you all for the support! I've been in a vegan vacuum during this challenge as i have no vegan friends where i am and am constantly being "that person with the special diet" , but really love coming here and reading all the comments from you all <3

You can read more about the challenge hosted by @heart-to-heart here:
https://steemit.com/contest/@heart-to-heart/eatlikeasuperstar-100sbd-giveaway-challenge-starts-now

Are you vegan? Have you ever thought about being vegan? I would love feedback from others who followed along with the challenge, who are vegan, if you learned anything or have insights to offer, or just want to make fun of all the highs and lows of my vegan challenge journey!