Attempting veganism for Lent

By Lenya Aristotelous, third year Physiological sciences student

As a member of the Greek orthodox church I have undergone the ritual of lent for many years. To me, lent is a time for us to appreciate everything that we have by giving up things we take for granted.

During secondary school, my observation of lent started off quite small: giving up small treats such as sweets, crisps or chocolate. For someone who loves a good snack, this was indeed a struggle. However, as I got older I realised that I really wanted to challenge myself beyond obtaining from my favourite snacks and so, for the past 3 years, I have adopted an entirely vegan diet during lent each year. As someone who typically eats a lot of meat this has proved no small feat but this only makes the sense of satisfaction at the end even better.

Whilst still living at home, going vegan was initially quite challenging and I came to realise just how integral meat, milk and cheese were to mine and my family’s diets. However, my parents and brother becoming vegan too made it easier for me and meant that I could rely on them when it came to meal times.

Moving to university made this sufficiently harder. Adopting to cooking for yourself in First Year is a shock to the best of us, and come lent I found myself having to adopt for a second time, in order to cater to my entirely new diet. I came to realise that for a non-vegan who eats animal products a number of times on a daily basis, trying to find a variety of vegan meals proved extremely challenging. So many things that I hadn't considered actually contained at least one animal product. First Year of university was definitely the hardest. During lent my meals were very boring and the same throughout. I was not very adventurous and Linda McCartney vegan sausages and hash brown wraps soon became my equivalent of a gourmet meal.

Image: Epigram Food contributor/ Lenya Aristotelous

Suffice to say my first year at university attempting to be vegan was not a healthy one. Part of this was due to getting fed up of having to check every ingredient on the packet ,so resorting to the same meal each day. Despite this, I did also learn to identify the best vegan friendly snacks available - top tip: salt and vinegar and BBQ Pringles are vegan. You can also buy vegan rocky roads! On the split side, vegan cheese...not so great.

Second Year of uni ,however, proved slightly better - not only was I more accustomed to both cooking for myself and to scanning ingredient lists for non-vegan friendly ingredients, but my housemates came to aid and suggested some vegan recipes for me to try. This included vegan enchiladas which were surprisingly enjoyable for someone who loves meat. Three of them also went vegan alongside me - although did later admit to cheating when I was not around!

Although an improvement, Second Year was still far from a healthy balanced diet for me, consisting of a lot of carbs and not much of anything else. This year, as we reach the middle of lent, I am proud to be cooking a variety of balanced, healthy vegan meals and I’m ensuring that I get all the nutrients I need. I look forward to continuing the challenge and being able to appreciate just some of the things I take for granted on a daily basis.

Feature image: Unsplash/ Anna Pelzer

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