One of my most recent experiments as a health blogger was to challenge myself to eat a strictly vegan diet for one month. There were a number of motives for why I did this, the main one being that I was interested to learn from first-hand experience if this could be a healthy way to eat.
During the challenge, I had a few temptations to go off of my vegan diet. These temptations weren’t very strong and I fended them off without straying from my prescribed diet, but nonetheless they did arise. The question of why the temptations were there has to do with the phenomenon of want.
What is the phenomenon of want?
Anyone who has cut themselves off from anything or “deprived” themselves—of a relationship, of a drug, of food, of entertainment, of shopping—for whatever reason—will come across the phenomenon of want, or the want factor. The main premise of the phenomenon of want is that as soon as we deny ourselves something, even if it’s something we wouldn’t have much desired anyways, we suddenly can’t think of anything except for it. We want it, for the sole reason that it is unattainable.
Seeing other people eating non-vegan foods during my month of veganism was a typical trigger for want. It didn’t matter so much what it was; the fact remained that I had to eat a specially-prepared meal different from everyone else at the table.
I didn’t eat anything non-vegan on my first day after completing the challenge.
The next day, I ate a poached egg on toast. But I didn’t eat it because I really wanted it: I ate it because I thought that I wanted it, and because I could eat it.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that I really don’t care for many non-vegan foods. I can easily do without them. I don’t actually want them; they are simply foods that we are trained to think we want. This is key in the phenomenon of want.
Ice cream is the most stereotypical comfort food for women. It’s almost assumed that if a woman is stressed, she will dig a spoon into that pint of ice cream to feel better. But do we really want it?
There have been many times when I have indulged in food or drink because I “would be crazy not to want it.” But when I really listen to my body, it turns out that no, I don’t want it.
I don’t feel jealous, now that the Vegan Challenge is over, if I see people eating meat or cheese when I’m not eating it. This is because it’s a choice. I don’t really care so much for eating those things regularly. If I find myself really wanting to have it, then I will—but if I only want it because everyone else has it, then I know that I need to stop following the herd, and start listening to my body.