I am applying to about 12 colleges, work at least 20 hours a week and occasionally need sleep and exercise. To say simply, free time is scarce in my schedule, yet here I am, taking on another lifestyle change just to spice things up a bit. Starting Oct. 1, I am deciding to completely reinvent my diet and become vegan.

The week before, I started telling some of my friends and family members this decision. My grandparents were pretty supportive, only mentioning warnings about protein/vitamin deficiency. I was confronted, however, by “Is this a joke?” “You can’t do that, you love meat” and “why?” by my friends. I wasn’t too surprised. Of course my friends would be a lot more candid and frank about what they thought.

I didn’t take them as insults at all. Being overly sensitive about a plan that I am not certain I can even go through with might not turn out so great later on. Instead, I thought and asked myself the same questions. After recently watching many documentaries and reading a vegan book I told myself I would be vegan for environmental reasons, for animal rights and for the choice to live a healthier lifestyle. I’ve always said I would try to be healthier; maybe making such an extreme change would actually work this time. We’ll see.

I was quickly able to wrap my head around not eating meat and any other animal products such as dairy and eggs. On Thursday night I was eating a salad with grilled chicken, the chicken tasted rubbery. That was weird because I usually love that salad from work. For breakfast I’d been drinking chocolate soy milk. Thursday morning I bought regular chocolate milk and it tasted disgusting.

This Monday will be the first official day of my lifestyle change. I’m throwing away my chocolate and replacing it with better moods and healthier choices.

Follow this blog to watch me either just continue being vegan or become a complete failure.