Y’all, I thought I had this in the bag.
Firstly, we don’t eat meat in the house. So making the switch from semi-vegetarian to vegan was supposed to be a breeze. Well, get ready for an honest and thorough look into vegan November.
Normally for breakfast, I have two pieces of cheese, ryveta bread, and matcha tea. Easy switch I thought, I’ll make matcha chia seed pudding with almond milk. Recipe Here. I subbed out all of that sweetener for a teaspoon of raw sugar. I’d take sugar over sweetener any day of the week! That’s a rant for a different day…
Anyways, fast forward to chia seed-filled teeth to start my morning at work. Not my best look, but I rocked it and made sure to check my mouth every morning after eating it. For snacks, I made apricot oat energy balls and skipped the condiments/spices the recipe calls for- because #lazy. I love these balls, I’ve been making them for a few months.
For lunch, I had arugula salad with quinoa, cucumber, peppers, apple, almonds, and sunflower seeds. I paired this with a dijon mustard vinaigrette (Olive oil, dijon, and lemon). This is a typical lunch for me, but before veganism, I’d add feta cheese. And yes, I eat relatively the same thing every day. There may be mild variations, but I’ll have some type of salad and grain for lunch.
Truthfully, I felt pretty great with my day-time eating. I had a good amount of energy and I was full. Stay tuned for my fiber amount, because I’m sure it contributed to my satiety.
For dinners, things got more challenging. The first three days were great: I made a lentil soup, a minestrone soup, and a vegan shepherds pie. Even with Pinterest, I struggled to pull in ideas that were balanced and satisfying. The thing is with vegetarians and/or vegans, there are good ones (wide variety of foods, a good amount of protein) and there are ones that live on carbs (pasta/rice/bread/potatoes). I didn’t want to be the latter. After about 4 days of soups and salads, hubs was looking for something a little bit more exciting. I found this great Pulled “Pork” recipe, that left us both feeling like it was a fatty Friday type of night. I topped it with caramelized onions (done with olive oil) with a side dish of black beans
Although the first week was relatively easy, it got complicated eating out. In the first two weeks of veganism, I had brunch with my mother in law at the Latvian club in Toronto, where I basically had salad and potatoes. It was definitely a challenge navigating a pre-built menu. At work we had a team lunch catered in, they had rice, potatoes, and veggies and since it was delivered by uber, the driver didn’t know if any or all of the food was cooked with chicken broth. These are the hidden ingredients I hadn’t accounted for before choosing to go plant-based.
I was averaging about 75 grams of fiber per day. To put that into perspective, the average person gets less than the recommended 25 grams per day. Fiber is great, it keeps you regular and it keeps you full. Just make sure you are drinking enough water! I generally drink about 4 liters of water a day. Great news! I maintained regularity with this diet but started to feel bloated specifically on nights that I had beans in my dinner.
Originally I thought that I would maintain this plant-based diet for two months, but I ended up keeping it to the month of November. I’ll definitely maintain keeping up with vegan meals throughout the week in December/January, but if something has cheese or eggs in it on the weekend, I won’t write it off- especially if I’m out.
All in all, I’m happy I have been doing this, it’s a way to challenge myself and lower my carbon footprint. Hubs has been a good sport about it too, he has been following along at dinner time.
Have you tried veganism? What were your biggest challenges? If you have good recipes PLEASE leave the links to them in the comments!