Part Three. The call of the wild(erness)
As I have made clear in previous posts, my conversion to veganism was for health reasons. I felt that a diet free from meat and dairy would be the best way to combat my existing health concerns, as well as addressing my growing anxiety over ailments and illnesses that my advancing years could bring (I know, I’m only 43…).
So, when lockdown pushed me to comfort myself with endless chocolate hobnobs and cheese-covered pasta, I (unsurprisingly) started to feel physically poorer. I wasn’t sleeping well, had regular headaches, and also felt grumpy almost every day. To be clear, I’m not asserting that this was entirely due to my diet; I’m aware this could all have been psychosomatic and I’d never suggest that going vegan would have the same restorative effect on anyone else, but living meat and dairy-free does make me feel better. Physically and mentally. (It could be said that it was less about eating dairy again, and more the fact I was frequently pigging out on high-sugar snacks that was the problem, but that’s for someone else to blog about).
So, it took a long time and an unfortunate regression into dairy-ness but I’ve come full circle. I’m plant-based all over again.
What’s interesting, is that rather than feeling like I went back to normal when I started eating chocolate and cheese again, I actually feel like that was a brief anomaly. My default status now is camping the wilderness – if there is a new normal for me, that’s it. It took the extremes of a global pandemic and the ensuing social paradigm shifts to shake my confidence. But having returned to my pre-COVID state, I can’t imagine there’s anything left to derail me again.
Well, maybe an incoming asteroid.
