i realized that becoming a vegan was a missed steak

List: Worst things about eating vegan

1. Dealing with other people's reactions

This is by far the most negative aspect to being vegan. People are constantly bugging me and Zach about it. This is usually how the conversation goes:

Omnivore: "Where do you get your protein?"
Me: "Plenty of places, beans, legumes, nuts, green veggies. There's a lot of protein in vegetables."
Omnivore: "Hmm, I guess, but it's not complete protein. Well I could never be vegan, but I eat healthy. I had cereal and fruit for breakfast, and then a little bit of lean chicken with rice for lunch...you eat rice, right?"
Me: "I don't eat it often, but yes, rice is vegan."
Omnivore: "Ok, then for dinner I usually have fish, wait, do you eat fish?"
Me: "No, fish isn't vegan."
Omnivore: "What's wrong with fish? What do you eat?"
Me: "Fish is fine, I just don't eat it. I eat fruits and vegetables and beans and grains. There are plenty of options."
Omnivore: "I could never do it. Are you happy?"
Me: "Not in this moment, but generally, yes..."

And this conversation repeats whenever someone finds out I'm vegan. What I like the least is when people get very defensive about their own diets and start listing everything they eat. That gets old. And people look at me and Zach a lot with pity, which is also strange, since I don't think they realize that this is a choice that we're both okay with. We ate meat and dairy before, now we don't, and we prefer this way, end of story.

2. Eating away from home

Eating in an "uncontrolled environment" can be very tricky. When lunch is provided at work we usually have to bring lunch from home anyway, since the vegan option is generally a very tiny salad consisting of 1 cup of iceberg lettuce, 1 or 2 tomatoes, and a dressing on the side that usually contains dairy.

Eating out is also tricky. Most restaurants have salads, but once you strip them of meat, cheese, and dressings, they get boring. My favorite types of restaurants are Asian ones since they usually avoid dairy anyway and have a lot of dishes with tofu instead of meat.

Zach and I found that the worst place we've been while eating vegan has been France. I don't even think they had a word for vegan since butter and cheese are such staples in their diet. While we were there we had to stray from our diet while eating out since there really weren't any other options.

3. Missing comfort foods

The final worst thing about eating vegan is missing foods that's can't be veganized. Zach misses Reuben sandwiches and steak the most and I miss delectable baked goods and cheese. And holidays are especially hard since food is linked to tradition and social bonding during these times.

Notes:

Despite the negatives Zach and I still enjoy eating vegan foods. See this post for reasons why. As more people adopt this style of eating all of these reasons for why vegan-ism is difficult should get better. So spread the word!