It’s 2020 and to celebrate the start of a whole new decade, I decided to make some changes of my own and start by eating vegan.
At first, it seemed easy. I started each day with a big bowl of porridge, filled with fruit and nuts and this kept me going until the evening, bar a light lunch of something on toast.
Even after just a few days, I realised that I felt healthy on this diet, my skin and hair looked better, I felt less bloated and I was generally making better choices when it came to eating. What’s more, my friends were supportive and didn’t even bat an eyelid when we had to order vegan pizza’s and go out to a Chinese restaurant with lots of veggie options on the menu.
Then, about two weeks into my newfound veganism, I had a slip-up.
After a vegan pasta dinner at my friends and a few glasses of red wine, I came back home in the evening to find fresh almond croissants that my housemate had brought from work. They looked so gooey and tempting with their icing sugar-dusted almonds and frangipane piled on top. I couldn’t help but pull off a little bit, then a little bit more and then before I knew it, I’d polished off the whole thing.
In five minutes, I’d wrecked my vegan diet and I’d done so without really thinking about it. I felt awful.
The next morning I woke up feeling deflated. As I got into work and made my soy milk coffee, I felt like a fad. Here I was pretending to everyone that I was vegan when just a few hours earlier I had wolfed down a pastry ladened with butter.
I confessed my slip up to a colleague, who didn’t seem to take it as seriously I did. ‘It happens’ he said. which was true. None of us are perfect, and all of the reasons for me trying to eat vegan: for my health, for the challenge, for the planet, for the animals, weren’t going to be undone just because I’d eaten something with animal products in it.
So, I got to thinking and here’s what I’ve decided; we have to redefine what the term ‘new years resolution’ actually means. Surely it’s not a pledge of perfection but rather a pledge to try something new. So, perhaps if there’s one resolution that all of us should try to stick to this January, it’s this: to not be so hard on ourselves. This, I know, is probably the hardest resolution out of all of them, to keep.
What are your goals for 2020?
Happy January guys
Passport Please 