- Arnika Bhupal & Kristi Clark
- 14th December 2016
Working at BIDBI has raised our conscience about the environmental impacts of our daily life and carbon footprint. To try and reduce our own environmental impact we thought it would be interesting try the vegan diet. Throughout the whole month of November we stayed Vegan; Vegan Pledge Month happens every year and is called Veganember by some! What started off as a daunting challenge actually turned out to be a fairly easy task. Surprisingly we actually enjoyed the experience and explored a wide range foods and tasty substitutes that would have been ignored before. Most people who are contemplating going vegan are worried that a change in diet could cause fatigue and illness, however we found that our energy levels increased and our waist lines decreased (slightly). A lot of our friends recounted horror stories about individuals they know who had gone vegan and had been miserable or had no energy.
As many of you already know cutting out meat and dairy for even just one day a week benefits the environment. Cowspiracy is an excellent documentary to watch if you'd like to know more about how these two industries have a detrimental effect on the environment.
Coming out of Vegan November we felt glad we tried it, we have both cut down on meat and still use vegan substitutes for milk and butter, eating meat really isn't an issue for us (unless we’re hungover!) and our month of being vegan is something we will look back on as positive experience. Not to get all preachy but we would encourage anyone to give it a go, even if you try to be vegan/vegetarian a few days of the week. Being a full time vegan can be time consuming if you try and substitute everything you ate previously with vegan recipes; it’s a good way to try new recipes and new ways of cooking! Moreover we felt that the health benefits (the end of the day bloat, the afternoon slump, and sluggish feeling) outweighed the craving of eating that slice of cake.
Meat is Murder, By Arnika & Kristi
Vegan for November,
No meat for one month straight,
Chicken I barely remember,
Get that beef off my plate.
How dare you harm those animals
They just want to live their life
Aren’t all of us on this planet mammals?
When you're vegan you don’t need a knife
Being vegan is a way of life,
We are the rare minority,
Animals should be allowed to thrive,
Pigs are our main priority!
Put down your blood covered aprons.
Come and join our cause
Stop killing those animals with your guns
Didn’t you know murder is against the law!
