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HSOrlandos 2013 Journal: Being vegan in a non vegan world


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After a very long time away I am back. It has been a very interesting year. I got my Associates degree last Spring, and now am working towards my BA. My continuing road to fitness, has been a challenge, sometimes good, and sometimes not as good. Here's a brief recap of the past year that I've been away.

From Fall 20012- Spring 2013 I finished going to a college in Orlando, and graduated in May. All that time I was going to the gym a lot. The only time I missed was when I was on an abroad to London,where it was easy to be a vegan.

After I graduated in May I said farewell to Orlando, at least for awhile,and put my belongings in my family's garage and poolroom in Delaware.

Then I had an internship in Boston, where though and was busy I joined a Y, but it was under renovation, and not good. I had an internship, and walked the city of Boston for the summer. Being vegan was tough there,and I was surprised!

Since August I have been at my next college, which is in Illinois, and very remote. It is very very very hard to be vegan here. On the other hand though since I've been here I have gotten back on a somewhat regular schedule for exercising. I get to the gym three times a week,and last week began running a bit,which is hard up here on the bluffs of the Mississippi, because I'm not used to hills.

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Finals Suck!!! At least for getting to the gym. I was going consistently,even though I haven't gotten much cardio in I was starting to see some progress in how heavy my weights were. I started with like 15-20 for chest,but managed to get up to 50 I think for a couple of sets, but then my wrist started to feel the weight so I lowered back down to 25. I have 99% made up my mind that I am not coming back to this college. The main reason is that like I said in the above post being vegan is incredibly difficult. I secretly think the dining staff was waiting for me to eat something that wasn't vegan,but I haven't at least not consciously. But I think there were a couple of times where they said some of the food wqas vegan, but it had egg whites, egg wash in it. There was a decent salad bar, but economically I couldn't afford to pay for food that goes by weight, whereas the buffet is less costly. Anyway I will be finished in two weeks, and with my family,and have access to a Whole Foods. I may never leave, lol. Leaving Orlando was more difficult than I ever thought it would be, and I don't think I realized until now that I really enjoyed life there. I had a gym-membership I used extensively, great vegan food choices,a wonderful vegan community,and it was warm! I still want to get my BA in English, because I think it would be useful, but I also want to enjoy the experience, and right now I am not at all. I am thinking of taking the Spring term off, going on the Vegan Cruise if I can find the funds under a rock somewhere,lol, and then start at UCF in Florida in the summer maybe.I might even be able to do some online classes and move back in the Fall. Anyway I will probably scope out cheap, but efficient gyms in Wilmington, and hopefully do a month to month while I'm there.

 

Not much exercise news since October 4, like I said I was going three days a week, and doing full body workouts, and changing it up a lot. Sometimes I used the machines, sometimes free weights, and sometimes barbells. I didn't do much cardio, only 15-20 minutes to warm up on an elliptical or bike, since I walk everywhere on campus, and the treadmill is boring. In my defense this school is so rigidly structured that I felt guilty for even taking 1-1.5 hours off three days a week to exercise. It is difficult to explain, but every other academic situation I have found myself in I knew I could succeed and get through it, but here I completely felt the opposite, and that was not alright withe me.In fact another student said she had the same problem and an adviser told her to just focus on classes that would go for her degree,and just not to work as hard on the others. I can't do that,and I find it extremely disrespectful of the other professors that are teaching. Anyway nough of a rant. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Since I am literally flying home 10 days after our break is over it seemed silly to go home for one meal. So I have my Gardein vegan turkey item, and will just make do here. Of course there are people getting together on campus, but I begged off telling them I didn't want to look at their turkey on the table.

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Still figuring things out, but I think I have an exercise plan. Joined Anytime Fitness, which is where my brother works out. It is small, but clean, and not crowded, and close enough to walk to in warmer weather. Only downfall is that they don't offer many classes, and you have to pay extra.for them. Anyway I pla to go at least three times a week in the morning with my brother and then walk around the neighborhood twice with my mom to help her on her fitness journey.When the warmer weather comes I plan to walk or run to the gym which is 1.5 miles and then back, and continue walking with my mom. As far as my diet goes, going to eat less processed food, and more veggies and fruit.

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