Going vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or anything outside of the social norm is challenging.

Not only does it take self-discipline, but it’s also really expensive. With McDonald’s on every corner, you may think you’ve found the solution to successfully removing meat from your diet without breaking the bank. There is only one problem: McDonald’s does not have much of a vegan or vegetarian friendly menu.

Sure, vegetarians can feel safe ordering oatmeal and vegans can check their salads to make sure there aren’t traces of meat or cheese in them, but those are really the only options for herbivores at this fast food chain.

A statement posted to the McDonald’s website reads, “Many of our menu items can be customized without meat. We encourage you to order however you like — if that means without meat, we’ll gladly prepare that for you. However, we don’t offer any certified vegetarian options at this time.”

Does anyone really care to order a Big Mac minus the beef? Didn’t think so. That would be a cheese and condiment sandwich. You could make that at home.

Actually, not to diss McDonald’s, but you should probably make your burgers at home regardless of your food preferences. You’d probably live longer. Those burgers aren’t worth the added calories and subtracted years.

I’m still confused on my stance on their yummy fries. I’ll have to get back to you on whether that’s worth the calories and years.

Let’s get back on track. If you are vegetarian or vegan it’s your best bet not to eat at McDonald’s or any other fast food restaurant. If insects and rodents can end up in an entree, imagine how easy it would be to mix meat in with your tofu burger.

For the past five to six months I have been trying to become pescatarian, which I’ve found is a lot harder than it seems. It’s rather expensive for my part-time minimum wage campus job, but I’m going strong. It’s always tempting to save a few bucks by going to a McDonald’s and ordering fries or a salad, but I fight the urges.

I love McDonald’s fries because they are delicious and affordable, but I try to avoid McDonald’s all together because I’m still in the beginners stage of becoming pescatarian and it’s so tempting to go ahead and order the rest of the number three with my fries.

For those of you judging me for referring to the quarter pounder as the number three, no I wasn’t once a McDonald’s fanatic and I don’t know the menu from memory. It’s just the number three is just about the only thing I have ever ordered from McDonald’s. I swear.

My overall advice for beginners is to save your monies and go into your journey to vegetarianism, veganism or whatever is the healthiest way possible. It’s a lot easier to stay on track and fight temptations of visiting McDonald’s and other fast food chains’ not so animal lover friendly menu.

The hard truth is this just isn’t a vegetarian friendly world, yet.