After 426 days without pork, 395 days without beef, 365 days without chicken, and 335 days without fish, seafood, or any kind of meat at all, I am done with my challenge!
I went to two whole meat-filled weddings and I soldiered on (s/o to Mrs Silin Lee and Mrs Sarah Birdsall!). I am proud of myself but even more than that I am so incredibly grateful for all my friends who have so faithfully walked this journey with me. My friends have all been so kind as to make sure there are vegetarian options whenever I was at their lunch or dinner parties. More often than not they have prepared purely vegetarian meals for my benefit. Every single one of our Saturday dinners has been vegetarian (even vegan in September!). I honestly want to cry thinking about how loving my friends are.
Shout out to Nardos who has been there every single day and step of the way. This girl has essentially just been vegetarian with me this past year! When I told her I was considering extending my vegetarianism she cried out, “No, Joy!” because she knew I’d be taking her down with me. Shout out to Phyllis, one of the best chefs I know, who has prepared such yum dinners, including these incredible plantain boats such with soy meat and, in her words, “!!!”. ~Nardos & Phyllis, best housemates ever~! Shout out to Naima, Theresa, Mohit, Eunice, Nadia, and Joe. These are people who have (regularly) prepared meat-free meals with me in mind. Shout out to all our dinner guests! I think at some point we counted 33 guests this year alone (and 40 since we started hosting).
The end of this challenge has not been the smoothest. I wish it could have been more ceremonious, especially in my own mind. My mind has just been occupied by too many other things. I will try and make a separate life-update post on this, but I have been applying to Ph.D. programs and my first deadline is today. You might also be wondering why I am ending this challenge at the end of November rather than the end of December. Back in June, I booked my flights to go home to Zimbabwe this winter break and I decided then that I did not want to be vegetarian while in Zimbabwe. That meant ending my challenge early, so to try and make up for the lost month, I chose to “double-up” and be vegan for a month. That meant no animal products at all; no dairy and no eggs, which was a big deal since my breakfasts were mostly yoghurt and eggs. I had one major Achilles heel as a vegan, though: the spicy mayo at Pokemoto. I refused to give that up. Otherwise, I put up a real effort. I switched to vegan snacks, got vegan protein powders to supplement my protein intake since it was mostly dairy up to that point, began using vegan baking recipes, etc. So I did that and that was fun. I was ready to go home for carnivore December. Unfortunately, as some of you are aware, many countries, including the US, imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa in the last week due to concerns over the spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, meaning I will not be travelling home this break. I will not be having those sizzling gochi-gochi pork chops after all. This was why I was considering extending my vegetarianism to the end of the year, but I have decided against it. I may not be going home, but I have put in my vegetarian and vegan time, so I will be enjoying my meat again now.
Tonight, I will be going with some friends to bbq chicken, one of my favourite chicken spots, to have some Korean fried chicken and break my “fast”. Mai vangu muera shumba, and it has been a full year since I have had chicken, so the shumba in me is ready to go!
CANDID SHAR'N 