5+ years on, the one thing I never expected to happen coming from going vegan is the way like 90% of the time I forget that I’m vegan. I cook my own food and when I go out to eat I’ve got my go to orders at like my top 3 places (subway, gyg, grill’d for anyone curious) as well as my top 3 sushi orders and my go-to Oporto order for travelling and my top 4 dishes when I get Chinese as well and my pizza order and it’s just. Normal food. Not a niche thing?? Like I just go and eat food and I don’t think twice about the fact that I haven’t eaten an animal product in over half a decade, it’s like animal products for eating don’t exist unless I consciously think about the fact that some people eat them (which I honestly rarely pay attention to). And I have to say that having absolutely no guilt or cognitive dissonance about what I sustain myself with, having only to think ‘does this taste good and does it meet my nutritional needs?’ is something I really welcome, after so many years where this wasn’t the case and I felt like I wasn’t living my true self, as is the lack of thought I have to put into it (also, finally, it’s taken a while but I’m finally eating enough consistently and I think I’ve cleared enough space in my schedule to do so). I’d definitely say it’s an unexpected benefit of veganism but it might just be for me because I’ve wanted to not consume animal products for the longest time, to me what others consider restriction is actually liberating and that’s not going to be the case for everyone. but it is for me and it’s exactly what I needed, and the fact that I forget that life wasn’t always like this most of the time I think is just a really good thing
