Personal Inquiry Assignment

Liz Pham-Ta

Baldwin

November 18, 2016

English 101

For a week, I lived on nothing but vegan foods and drinks. The majority of the drinks came from Starbucks, due to the fact that I am obsessed with their “pink drink”, but instead of the having the pink drink with the usual coconut milk they have in it, I opted to put soy milk instead. The pink drink, ingredient by ingredient, is strawberries, various fruit juices (apple, strawberry, and raspberry), and coconut milk. The drink with the substitution was $5.89. Getting that two to three times a day, especially over the weekend (State Swimming in Topeka, I stayed all day every day), was very costly. In all, it pretty much cleared out my entire paycheck ($150).

For food, I basically lived off of fruit and salad. At one point on Sunday, I broke down and went to Wendy’s and bought fries, but since fries are potatoes with salt, I wasn’t too worried. Going to a restaurant, though, on Monday, proved to be hard. I had a date, and I almost rain-checked him just so that I didn’t have to look at meat and absolutely NEED to have it (also, I’m a baby and I was nervous for the date itself). Anyways, I got up the courage to go, and just ended up getting a salad, much to my date’s teasing me for the rest of the night. After I explained to him what exactly I was doing and how I would NEVER order a salad at a restaurant, even on a date, he ended up joining me in my experiment and so now he’s trying it for a week.

On Tuesday, I had a super busy day of studying and catching up to do, so I ended up just going to Starbucks at 7 am and studying until I had to go to Italian, which is at 1 pm. I left around noon so that I could catch the bus to Italian, but in the morning I had a blueberry muffin and a pink drink. That evening, I studied some more and got ahead for the long weekend ahead of me, that way I didn’t have as much to do for break.

On Wednesday, I went to the store and picked up soy milk (which, by itself, tastes disgusting) and of course, regular whole milk for after my experiment. I picked up a crap ton of apples and a couple bags of grapes, as well as some pre made salads (no cheese, just vinaigrette). Living off of all of that for a week was not a huge challenge, as I do not usually eat anyways, and if I do, it is not a lot (unless I have not eaten all day, then it gets bad). I live off water and coffee pretty much every day.

On Thursday, all I had was a salad and a pink drink from Starbucks yet again. I had a ton of stuff to do to get ready for my weekend at the swim meet, so I wasn’t exactly free to make anything special. I am definitely thinking of making quinoa tomorrow, though.

On Friday, all I had today was a salad and a pink drink from Starbucks yet again. I had a ton of stuff to do to get ready for my weekend at the swim meet, so I wasn’t exactly free to make anything special. I am definitely thinking of making quinoa tomorrow, though.

Over the weekend, I was at the state swimming meet for the entirety of it, so I essentially was running around trying to organize heats and events and getting everything settled so I wouldn’t have to stress as much. I brought a couple bags of fruit every day, mainly just grapes and some apples. I made my own pink drink later Saturday night, but I’m never doing it again because it tasted absolutely disgusting. On Sunday, I ended up breaking down and going to Wendy’s and buying french fries, and honestly, I have no regrets.

The reason I wanted to try this experiment is because one of my best friends is vegan and she’s very skinny and very healthy. I called with her before I started the experiment and had her give me a run down on what her first week was like becoming vegan, and for some reason, it wasn’t as hard in action as she made it seem.

My initial questions were: What would it be like? How would I feel before, during, and afterwards? Is it disgusting? How restrictive must I be while doing this? After my first week, which ended yesterday (I actually went for two weeks instead of one because I broke down and had a burger at the Casbah), I felt less bloated, skinnier, and overall I felt “glowy” in a sense. I felt healthy, and it actually felt pretty amazing. Becoming vegan for a week, or even two, was not as hard as I was expecting it to be, but there are quite a bit of restrictions within it. For example, you cannot have regular milk, even skim, at all. The hardest part was having to figure out or inherently know what was or could be in foods and make the assumption that you cannot have it.

Overall, I would definitely try this again, considering it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would. Next time I try it, though, which will not be for a while, I will definitely have to try to not break down, especially since I was so close on the second to last day.