My 12 Day Vegan Challenge

I just celebrated the end of my vegan challenge in style: with unlimited meat at a Brazilian restaurant celebrating my nephew’s 16th birthday. Much steak was consumed. I should note I didn’t do the vegan challenge with a long-term goal of cutting meat out – it was more of an experiment to see how I would cope without meat and dairy as a devoted lover of all things beginning with ‘ch’… chicken, cheese, chorizo, Christmas dinner, Chinese! I am convinced that this is a thing - anything beginning with ‘ch’ is the food of champions. At least the vegan diet still allowed for chips, chillies and (dark) chocolate.

Anyway, I was under the misconception that my diet would be seriously restricted and I would spend my days eating broccoli and mourning cheese. What I didn’t envisage was that it would be one of the easiest challenges I have ever done. It wasn’t intended as a weight loss activity and I wasn’t worried about what food I was eating, as long as it was vegan.

In some ways, it was the most chilled I’ve been about my food choices in a long time. I am a big fan of the fad diet (yes, I know fad diets don’t work and moderation is key and all that jazz, but people don’t change!) My usual go to is to cut out all carbs and alcohol for monthly stretches, where I always lose weight, get compliments on how glowing my skin looks and feel generally smug about life for a few days. Then, I celebrate my achievements by planning a few nights out, drinking all of the prosecco and eating prosecco-fuelled fried chicken, wondering why my skin has lost its newfound glow quite so rapidly.

The vegan challenge was different because I found myself eating all the things I usually restrict when I am dieting: bread, rice, potatoes - carbs in general. I also had some guilt-free G and T’s at the weekends with equally guilt-free vegan pizza. I love cooking, so I did whizz up some vegan delights, such as a sweet potato, chickpea and spinach curry; carrot and lentil soup and the ultimate gourmet dish: veggie burger, hash browns and beans. My sister generously indulged my temporary veganism and whipped me up a Bang Bang Mushroom dish, which probably took the title for my favourite vegan meal (mainly because it had Bang Bang in the name).

I did lose a few pounds whilst I was doing it, which surprised me based on the sheer amount of carbs I was eating. I didn’t find that I missed meat particularly when I was cooking for myself, mainly because the food I was eating was still really tasty, although I did get slight food envy when in the company of others chowing down on meaty delights. I did discover a variety of roast chicken crisps were vegan though which was a bonus for when I was getting meat envy - it was like playing a psychological trick on myself because I was eating something with chicken on the packet.
I also ate a hell of a lot of vegetables - and veg that I wouldn’t normally have eaten either, like capers and artichokes and chickpeas galore (all hail the hummus). I was pretty much pooping pure sweetcorn by the end of it, which I’ve decided must be a good sign.

Verdict: Whilst I was never intending for my vegan stint to become permanent, I do think I’ll be bringing a lot more vegan food into my diet purely for the variety of vegetables I found myself eating and also the cost saving implications. As a hardcore fan of the reduced section at the local supermarket, the carrot and lentil soup I made cost about £0.44. Bearing in mind I got four portions out of this, that’s a solid £0.11 a meal. I’m no mathematician, but by my reckoning, that leaves plenty of my weekly shopping bill left over to buy prosecco to celebrate the end of my various fad diets. Cheers to that!