THE VEGAN DIARIES - WEEK ONE

as per my goals update at the start of the week, i'm taking part in veganuary this year. i wasn't vegetarian before, but i wouldn't say i ate a lot of meat anyway, but dairy was a big part of my diet. i took milk in my cereal and coffee, cheese in my pasta, yoghurt with my fruit - chocolate with my chocolate, so that was going to be the toughest part. but, i did a lot of research and educated myself on what dairy alternatives there were available to me, then did a big clear out of the stuff i had in the house, and a big shop to replace it all, and was raring to go. so, one week in, how do you think i've gone?

breakfasts

this one's been the easiest of all the meals to make substitutes to. i've swapped out regular milk with almond or oat milk (i prefer the latter but bought a lot more of the former - it's cheaper, and it's uht so i can store it in the cupboard until i need a new carton) in my coffees - and am still leaving out sugar, as per my resolve from last year. i'm having porridge for breakfast with cinnamon, chia seeds (whatever they are!), and the milk alternative, and that keeps me pretty full until lunch! if not, fruit.

lunch

this has been one of the hardest, i think. not because of the meals, but because of the constant offer of goodies around the office. when i'm home, it's fine. when i'm out and about, all i want to do is eat stuff that i shouldn't, and that's a hard instinct to curb! i've mostly been eating leftovers for lunch, or the falafel and hummous meal deal from tesco when i forget, and.. it's ok. i stay mainly full, but if not, more fruit, or salt and vinegar rice crackers are a good filler too.

dinners

this one's been the most time consuming for me, as it's taken a lot of trial and error to work out what tastes good, as well as what's filling enough to sustain me through 'til bedtime without having to resort to toast before bed. i mean, toast has been a saviour, honestly, but it's not ideal. my fave meal so far has been a straight up veggie green curry - subbing in potato instead of the usual chicken, and that filled me no-end. someone suggested cauliflower too, so i'll try that next time. the other thing i hoped would be a winner was veggie sausage with sweet potato mash and greens, but.. i don't love the texture of the sausages (and, annoyingly, everything veggie has onion in it so it's hard to find stuff that's not going to harm me in other ways!), so.. i need to work on that one. 

there has been one faux pas that was totally out of my control, and that was with some ridiculous quorn mince. i ordered it in my big fat vegan shop, but they must have sent a substitute when the vegan version was out of stock; they sent the veggie one, which is bound with rehydrated egg whites. i don't believe in food waste either, so i will use the rest of the bag up, then i'm done with quorn. super annoyingly, the spaghetti bolognaise i made with it was one of the best things i've eaten this year, ha. the other massive winner was an old sweet potato and spinach curry recipe that's been stuck to my fridge in over a year. it totally came in handy this week, and will be a regular for sure.

snacks

other than toast, i've been feasting on my old fave: fruit, but there are some excellent accidentally vegan snacks out there that i have welcomed happily to my diet. salt and vinegar snacks mostly, but also oreos. the cream centre has nothing cream about it, apparently, and that's been a damned godsend when i want something chocolatey to snack on. so, yay for oreos!

i went out for dinner once last week, to zizzi's. i'll do a post on it separately, because i learned a lot that night - about eating out as a vegan, and the options available, but truth be told: it wasn't as hard as i thought it was going to be, and with a little bit of preparation, i think i'll be able to do this more often. i have had to turn down two opportunities for review, though, because the menus of those restaurants had hardly aaaanything vegan on the menu, and in one case, not even anything vegetarian. this isn't something i've really considered before, which is definitely a bit shit.

details: jumper : primark | dress : dorothy perkins | shoes : new look | bag : skinny dip

so, it's been a week of learning, and to be honest, i feel no different - except for sometimes less full that i normally feel. i am going to be doing a weekly weigh in for my own benefit, just to see if it's actually making a difference to the waistline; i suspect that with all the toast it probably isn't, but, time will tell. if you're doing veganuary too, i'd love to hear how you're getting on?