treyhunner

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

More on why...

In 2020 I realized I was living with some cognitive dissonance that I'd never seriously considered.

Namely, I believe that:

1. The outcomes of my actions are more important than my intent
2. Most animals likely experience pain & pleasure within ~2 orders of magnitude of mine
3. Most farmed animals greatly suffer for most of their lives
4. Through my habits, I implicitly accept this suffering AND signal my acceptance to the economy

And yet I eat any and all meat that I can. 🤔

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

My reasoning aside (always happy to chat about this though)...

How did this experiment go?

In short: it was painful (given the food that was around me) and I kept accidentally eating dairy!

First, the hotel breakfast... 🏨

I ate the free breakfast in my hotel on tutorial and sprint days. They had heated containers of eggs, sausage, potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. I assumed the biscuits and gravy both had milk and butter in them, so only the potatoes were likely to be vegan. 🥔

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

The hotel had some breakfast cereals that were likely vegan, but the only milk disperser was cow's milk. They also had a little fridge, but it had yogurts rather than non-dairy milks.

The vegan breakfast I settled on was an English muffins with peanut butter and jelly, oatmeal with raisins, and potatoes covered in hot sauce.

That wasn't bad, but I ate this same breakfast for 4 days, which got boring. If they'd had plant-based milk I would have loved to eat some bowls of various cold cereals.

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

What about at PyCon?

Well, during the tutorial days the lunch was chicken salad minus the chicken. 🥗 I ate 2 lunches one day. 😢

I would have LOVED beans, peas, tofu, or quinoa in the salad. Our bodies don't need a ton of protein, but they do need SOME!

Fortunately, lunch during the 3 talk days was much better. The 2 dietary needs tables at the end of the lunch lines had a mix of gluten free and vegan options and the vegan options often involved quinoa, black beans, bread, and other proteins.

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

Eating out took research, but the 4 restaurants I went to were fairly popular and had decent vegan options. 💗

The sprint days were a bit like the tutorial days for me. Free boring vegan hotel breakfast and unfilling vegan lunches.

Finding vegan food in spaces (like the hotel) that didn't label their ingredients and was very challenging and I found myself accidentally eating non-vegan foods. I ate cookies and other treats without thinking about the fact that they likely had dairy in them.

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

One of the most disappointing meals was in the airport. I ordered a Beyond Burger, which was the one filling vegan option I saw on the menu. 🍔

A few minutes later, I was informed that they had run out of Beyond Burgers. 😭

I ended up ordering a pretzel, a salad minus the meat and cheese, fries, and broccoli. The pretzel may have involved butter and the salad ended up having cheese on it, but I gave up at that point. There wasn't really even a vegetarian option on that menu besides the burger.

treyhunner, 5 hours ago

We live in a world of carnism & the 4 N's (eating meat is thought to be normal, necessary, natural, and nice).

I love the taste of nearly all meats and I've gone through my life eating animal products without thinking twice.

I'll definitely re-do this experiment at PyCon next year.

In the meantime, I'll continue my journey of modifying my eating habits by starting at home. It's easier to gradually remove dairy and egg products at home before I do so in environments I have little control over.

treyhunner, 4 hours ago

@mariatta I did not know about this! I'll definitely consider this next year during tutorial and sprint days. Thanks!