Junior becomes vegetarian, changes outlook on life

The pop music in Sinos in Santana Row permeated the air of the restaurant. All junior Christine Wang could think about were the honey roasted walnut prawns in front of her. She desperately tried to convince herself that she could just begin vegetarianism the next day. She knew the meat in the dish was just too tasty. As the excuses to eat the oh-so-tasty prawns swirled in her head, she fervently ignored them. She told herself that she was a vegetarian, even in this moment of temptation.

Prior to this change, Wang had been experimenting with the type of foods she wanted to eat. She ate meat for some time, tried veganism and then went back to vegetarianism. Wang decided to stick with vegetarianism as her early New Year's Resolution at the beginning of October after staying up until 3 a.m. one night to research the positive effects of this life choice.

“Being vegetarian feels so good,” Wang said. “It naturally just becomes easier to be healthy because [I] have to eat veggies to fill [me] up. From that, I have more energy. It [also] feels good knowing [that I’m helping the] environment as well.”

Additionally, many of Wang’s friends are vegetarian. They aided in supporting and motivating her to keep up her resolution. In fact, one of Wang’s best friends, junior Danielle Berkowitz-Sklar, became vegetarian as well.

In fact, Wang and Berkowitz-Sklar worked with each other to figure out their food options. For example, Berkowitz-Sklar initially wasn’t sure how to  get her protein, so she began eating nine eggs a day. Wang quickly intervened and worked with her to figure out other options like having an egg for breakfast and eating grains, chickpeas and tofu to gain protein.

“A lot of people say that people who don’t eat meat are weak or don’t get enough nutrition for brain development, but I look at my friends and most of them are athletes and the brightest students in their classes,” Wang said.

Wang’s family — although not vegetarian — makes a substantial effort to eat healthy. Due to this, there are always a plethora of vegetable dishes at the dinner table. If Wang wants to eat part of a dish that has meat in it, she just picks out just the vegetables and eats them separately.

Wang also attributes her easy transition into vegetarianism to the many vegetarian options available in California.

Nevertheless, because Wang made a drastic change in her diet, she has had to look for vegetarian sources of protein. Wang also had to give up eating sushi, one of her favorite foods. Determined to find a way to eat it, she has settled for sushi made out of avocado and cucumber. In fact, at one point, Wang said she “went broke” buying sushi and Chipotle, with guacamole substituted for meat.

Additionally, Wang believes that it is much easier to keep a resolution if people have a genuine reason for changing their lifestyle.

“If you're really aware of how beneficial your new year’s resolution is for yourself it’s really motivating, and you don’t really want to go back to what you did before,” Wang said.

In Wang’s case, she wanted to be healthier and do her part to better the environment.

“I guess putting my New Year's Resolution in the school newspaper means there’s really no going back on it now,” Wang joked.