Months of anticipation (mostly from my husband) led up to the past Saturday night where “The Notorious” Conor McGregor challenged Floyd “Money” Mayweather to a duel! Okay it wasn’t a duel, but a girl can dream, right? Anyway, we had to throw a party! Friends, family, fighting, and FOOD! Oh crap… food. What were we supposed to do? Force our loved ones to eat vegan foods?! Nah, we decided to tell everyone to bring whatever food they wanted since we were splurging for the Pay-Per-View and just have some accidentally-vegan Heat Wave Doritos, pistachios, and a vegan pizza available for ourselves…

Split Decision

…That is until my dad messaged me saying we should make a totally vegan evening of it. I was torn. I loved the support and enthusiasm my dad was presenting me with. This is exactly what I wanted! But what would the guests think? I feared that the night that was supposed to be dedicated to the huge moment we’ve been waiting for since January would instead shine the spotlight on our recent dietary change and be filled with a chorus of “Oh, this is vegan?” and “This doesn’t taste like cheese” and “I’m going to need some chicken wings after this”. However, I could not pass up someone’s willingness to eat vegan with me so we planned a menu of Hawaiian BBQ Jackfruit Pizza and Killer Vegan Chili accompanied by a variety of snacks (veggie tray with hummus, Heat Wave Doritos, fruit, chips and salsa, and pistachios).

As much as I believed in a night where McGregor would destroy Mayweather while my friends and family enjoy food that doesn’t contain animal body parts or secretions, I was equally expecting both McGregor and myself to get KO’d.

Bob and Weave

Fast-forward to the day of the fight where my mother-in-law agreed to give me festive boxing braids for the event. Although I have always liked braids, I was convinced I had a bad case of weird head shape that could not possibly be paired with braids. As if I didn’t already have enough anxiety about McGregor and the food, why not add to it the fear of looking ridiculous, right? So she finishes my braids and I take a look in the mirror and politely say I love them secretly thinking that I need an unbiased opinion before believing it didn’t accentuate my weird head shape. But as the day continued and the fight inched closer, I started loving my braids more and more. They weren’t weird at all! They were normal and, dare I say it, pretty badass! No second, third, or fourth opinion needed. I adored them and that’s all that mattered.

Roll With The Punches

Our party began and the vegan spread was released to the public. And just as my

belief in McGregor did not turn out the way I had hoped, neither did offering vegan- friendly food as the majority of options to my non-vegan guests. As much as I tried to ignore it, my ears would perk up when I heard “fake/real cheese” and “vegan/normal pizza” and the cringe was especially real when it was shouted across the room. It was just about as unrealistic to expect someone who has never boxed professionally in his life to knockout Mayweather as it was to expect a bunch of people who have never (knowingly) eaten vegan in their life to eat it without any questions, comments, or concerns.

TKO

Not the happy ending you were expecting? Don’t be sad. The happy ending is there if you just take a closer look. McGregor’s loss was not as devastating as I built the possibility up to be and the blatant skepticism of “fake” cheese was equally not as devastating as I thought it would be. Nobody bashed the food. Lots of people tried it. Some people even said that it actually tasted good (which is saying a lot really because I have little to no experience making pizza nonetheless a pizza with a foreign contaminant such as dairy-free cheese). And, much like my braids, this experience helped me toward the ideal attitude of not worrying about others’ opinions of how I do my hair or what I put into my body.

Post-Fight Press Conference

McGregor in a boxing ring; Braids on my head; Vegan cheese in the stomachs of my loved ones. All examples that it’s okay to do whatever you want and to not care about what others think (as long as you’re not hurting anybody). Whether the outcome is what you had hoped for or not, you did it and that’s all that matters. Plus, you might just find out that 1) your family and friends won’t shut you out; 2) the guy you wanted to win is actually just as good of a loser as he is a winner; and 3) you can rock a badass boxing braid.