VEGANUARY: MY EXPERIENCE

Hello everyone!

Today I thought that I would share my experiences with Veganuary that I took part in last month. This is something that about 3 years ago, I would never have thought I would have done, however after coming across a lot of bloggers, vloggers, documentaries and my own research, I have seen that there are lots of benefits to becoming Vegan. I won't delve into them now, but I will leave some resources at the end of the post. In August 2016 I tried being vegetarian for a month and actually really loved it, and whilst I hadn't been strict for the last year and a half, I had dramatically decreased my meat in take. After really over eating at Christmas, January was the perfect time to start Veganuary. 

Vegan breakfast at Conto Lounge

Meals at home

I was so excited to do my first vegan food shop. I came home with so many veggies and beans to try as well as cool vegan alternatives. I was also surprised to see how much of the stuff I loved already was vegan. My house mate was also taking part in the Veganuary month with me and we tried so many new meals and was excited to cook them. This was definitely the easiest part of veganuary for me. I found that I wasn't really tempted by non vegan foods and if I was it was a fun challenge to make vegan alternatives. It really sparked my interest for cooking and helped me to experiment - so I have definitely found a new hobby that I love!

Eating Out

This was definitely a lot easier than I thought it would be. I only ate out about 4 times during january but I managed to have a plant based meal each time. I'm lucky that I am not a fussy eater and found all of the vegan options delicious. We also tried out our local vegan restaurant which had the most amazing food, and I was sad I couldn't try it all! I will definitely be making a trip back there. The only hiccup I had was when I ordered a vegan burger, they unfortunately run out of ciabatta bread which is vegan so had to give me a brioche bun which apparently is not vegan. 

Friends and family

As I said previously, my housemate was doing Veganuary with me so it was great for me to have support there. Most of my other friends were really supportive as well and to be honest I didn't get any negative backlash like I thought I would. Generally, I just didn't mention it unless it came up, but I'll admit I was probably a bit more nervous for it to come up than I should have been. Overall though, most people didn't really have any opinion on me trying it out.

Carrying on?

I have been still trying to eat vegan since Veganuary ended, but I have slipped up a few times. I haven't intentionally eaten any meat or dairy, but I have slacked with checking ingredients. I am getting back on track though and am going to try and make sure that I am vegan in my diet as far as I can be! Personally I think the diet has been so good for me and made me feel so healthy as I'm just eating so many vegetables and fruit and healthy stuff, and it has made me cook so much more so it is something I want to keep up!

Thank you so much for reading! Did you try veganuary? Have you got any tips for me carrying on being vegan? 

Love Yasmin xxx

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Resources

https://veganuary.com/

https://www.vegansociety.com/