What did a big bacon sandwich teach me? The pandemic has massively weakened our willpower | Arwa Mahdawi

When my wife went into labour, I craved a BLT after years of vegetarianism - and I'm far from the only one whose best intentions have fallen by the wayside

I lost my veg-inity on a hard hospital sofa earlier this year. It was quick and messy and sordidly satisfying. The situation was this: my pregnant wife had gone for a 39-week ultrasound and the doctors made the unexpected decision to induce labour immediately. We had spent 24 hours in the hospital waiting for the baby to make an exit and the stress and excitement of it all had made me a little tense - and very hungry. Going in, I'd had the vague idea that the miracle of imminent birth would overwhelm me with beautiful feelings and wonder; instead, I just kept thinking about bacon. I hadn't eaten meat for almost a decade at that point, but I was suddenly overcome with the urge to abandon my vegetarianism and inhale a BLT. People respond to stress in different ways and instead of fight or flight it seems my body kicks into meaty sandwich mode. (My wife, who had been subsisting only on clear hospital broth and apple juice, gave me her blessing to go and get one, by the way. I don't want you to think I am a monster.)

Here's some free advice: do not eat an enormous BLT before your partner gives birth, particularly if your innards haven't dealt with meat for a while. Shortly after shoving the food in my mouth, my wife started pushing and I started feeling very queasy indeed. I broke out in a meat sweat just as the baby's head started showing; shamefully I had to sit down for a minute. I'm fine, I'm fine! I'm not squeamish, I promise!" I told every nurse who asked if I was going to faint. The thing is, I just ate a bacon sandwich and I'm actually a vegetarian." I kept on trying to explain this to everyone in the room until my wife told me, in no uncertain terms, to shut up.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist