For the last couple of years, Bernie (my long-suffering wife) & I have talked about going vegan. We have experimented vegetarian for a couple of weeks a couple of years ago. But as a full time head chef at a large hotel, the thought of being vegan didn’t seem realistic or doable for us. My main concerns were not how we would cope at home, but more how I could, in good conscience serve food to my customers knowing that I cannot taste any of the meat, fish or diary! Unfortunately, I love cheese, so this could be beyond me!
Bernie’s reasons for wanting to convert to veganism has far more to do with the ethics of routinely consuming meat and dairy. Animal husbandry has a dramatic effect of the health of our planet. It’s not just the sheer volume of natural resources required to produce animal products. It’s also the deforestation of land that is needed to raise cattle, this has far reaching and devastating consequences to our planet, and being part of a society that normalises and profits from the exploitation and cruelty to animals has always weighed heavy on her conscience.
My reasons are more singular and closer to home, I want to feel better, both body & mind. I’m sure I am not alone in saying that most mornings when I wake, I feel pretty terrible. A combination of a lack of sleep most nights, 20 years of playing rugby and working long tough hours. If I can find some benefits to cutting out animal products, then I’m willing to give it a try.
As an avid sports fan I always look to sports professionals do to stay in shape and there are plenty of world class athletes that are advocates of veganism, often attributing quick recovery times and lack of injuries to their plant based diets. (not sure if “veganism” is an actual word, but I like it so I’m going to use it). For example we have:
Alex Morgan
Two Women’s World Cup Medals
Novak Djokovic
17 Mens Tennis Grand Slam Titles
Thomas Brady
NFL's Greatest ever player still playing at 43
Venus Williams
22 Women's Tennis Grand Slam Titles
Lionel Messi
Arguably Football’s Greatest Ever Player
Lewis Hamilton
Formula 1’s Greatest Ever Driver
Also football’s Sergio Aguero, Hector Bellerin, Jermaine Defoe and UFC's Nate Diaz have citied that veganism, at least in part is responsible for their overwhelming success.
In 2010, Forest Green Rovers have become the first ever football club to convert to veganism. So, all the staff, players and fans only receive vegan food at the training ground and stadium. It is their view that from a performance perspective, vegan food is becoming the diet of choice for athletes. More and more sportspeople are choosing a vegan diet because of its health benefits and finding that it improves their athletic performance.
In 2010, Forest Green Rovers have become the first ever football club to convert to veganism. So, all the staff, players and fans only receive vegan food at the training ground and stadium. It is their view that from a performance perspective, vegan food is becoming the diet of choice for athletes. More and more sportspeople are choosing a vegan diet because of its health benefits and finding that it improves their athletic performance.
WEEK 1
One thing we learnt from the vegetarian attempt was that you needed to be organised and prepared or it became hard to conjure up some appetising dinners that didn’t make you wish you weren’t a veggie. After a, sometimes hard, day's work and with hungry kids to feed, you would end up with something uninspiring and insubstantial.
So, I browsed some vegan cookbooks online and settled on Dirty Vegan by Matt Pritchard. You’ll probably know him best as one if the nutters from the Welsh version of Jackass; Dirty Sanchez, hence the Dirty Vegan title. If the self-proclaimed bad boy hellraiser could turn vegan, then surely, we could!!
As I mentioned you need to be organised. So, I read through the Dirty Vegan and chose a few recipes that I thought we would both like and that looked different and exciting. Bernie has never really been that crazy about eating lentils and different beans, but I have, so I wanted to find some recipes that she would enjoy with lentils and beans. I then set about writing a shopping list with ingredients needed for the recipes and any vegan staple foods that we didn’t already have in the cupboards at home.
A lengthy trip to the supermarket followed, but I love having the time to go round all the food aisles and seeing what they have and reading packets/ingredients. It’s actually surprising how many products have milk or milk products in. But on the plus side, the supermarkets are really well stocked now with vegan products, they even have their own little section! I bought a lot of different vegan cheeses, well it is for research purposes!
I bought a lot of snack type products, as I’m a bit of a grazer in that I love to pick at food and snack between meals. I didn’t want to be famished searching the cupboards for snacks whilst trying to build up enough will power to not eat the cheddars and sour cream pringles, my two all-time favourite snacks, that I can’t take my eyes off. I think this would be one of my main tips. Make sure you have things in for when you get that sweet craving or for that in-between snack.
I made a quick mental weekly meal plan and worked a day in advance, to make sure that Bernie had lunch to take to work with her the following day. I found it enjoyable to be trying new exciting, innovative recipes and cooking with some ingredients that I wouldn’t normally use. I would say that the majority of the recipes were a hit and I’d happily cook them, even if we weren’t vegan.
WEEK 1
One thing we learnt from the vegetarian attempt was that you needed to be organised and prepared or it became hard to conjure up some appetising dinners that didn’t make you wish you weren’t a veggie. After a, sometimes hard, day's work and with hungry kids to feed, you would end up with something uninspiring and insubstantial.
So, I browsed some vegan cookbooks online and settled on Dirty Vegan by Matt Pritchard. You’ll probably know him best as one if the nutters from the Welsh version of Jackass; Dirty Sanchez, hence the Dirty Vegan title. If the self-proclaimed bad boy hellraiser could turn vegan, then surely, we could!!
As I mentioned you need to be organised. So, I read through the Dirty Vegan and chose a few recipes that I thought we would both like and that looked different and exciting. Bernie has never really been that crazy about eating lentils and different beans, but I have, so I wanted to find some recipes that she would enjoy with lentils and beans. I then set about writing a shopping list with ingredients needed for the recipes and any vegan staple foods that we didn’t already have in the cupboards at home.
A lengthy trip to the supermarket followed, but I love having the time to go round all the food aisles and seeing what they have and reading packets/ingredients. It’s actually surprising how many products have milk or milk products in. But on the plus side, the supermarkets are really well stocked now with vegan products, they even have their own little section! I bought a lot of different vegan cheeses, well it is for research purposes!
I bought a lot of snack type products, as I’m a bit of a grazer in that I love to pick at food and snack between meals. I didn’t want to be famished searching the cupboards for snacks whilst trying to build up enough will power to not eat the cheddars and sour cream pringles, my two all-time favourite snacks, that I can’t take my eyes off. I think this would be one of my main tips. Make sure you have things in for when you get that sweet craving or for that in-between snack.
I made a quick mental weekly meal plan and worked a day in advance, to make sure that Bernie had lunch to take to work with her the following day. I found it enjoyable to be trying new exciting, innovative recipes and cooking with some ingredients that I wouldn’t normally use. I would say that the majority of the recipes were a hit and I’d happily cook them, even if we weren’t vegan.
WEEK 2
The first week seemed to go really quick and we both enjoyed having good fresh homecooked food, we had both enjoyed the variety of recipes that we had tried. The challenge now moving into the second week was to keep the food interesting and to hopefully stop us longing for animal products. It hadn’t really been an issue during the first week, but maybe the novelty would wear off and Bernie would come home from work and find me in a catatonic cheese state.
My plan for the second week was to keep trying a few new recipes that I had from the Dirty Vegan and to have one or two of the dishes that we really enjoyed from week one.
Again, I set out a day where I could go shopping and get what I needed for the week, this organisation is crucial for me, so I can plan the lunches & dinners for the week. Not forgetting the vital snacks! I found that getting into a routine of knowing what we were going to eat the following day just took away some stress and any excuse not to remain vegans.
By the end of the second week, we had both become quite used to not eating meat products and it was almost the norm for us. I did have one slight wobble when I made chicken & chorizo fajitas for the kids one night and the smell of the meat cooking just got me! But the chickpea & veg fajitas that we had were just as nice.
We hadn’t really discussed how long we would be vegan for, I think we were both just seeing how things played out and to see if we would feel the need to return to meat or maybe settle with being vegetarians or even just having a couple of plant based days.
And so, we just rolled on to week three.
WEEK 3
I think in my head I had us down to do two weeks as a nice little social experiment, cleanse the body and feel all new and invigorated and all that, but I can honestly say it’s been good, not too stressful or too challenging. I do miss cheese and cheese products, vegan cheese isn’t quite the same, although I have found some vegan feta cheese that’s actually nice, so this has helped with salads.
We made homemade pizzas and there is a grated vegan cheese that you can buy, which is ok, it doesn’t quite have the elasticity of mozzarella, but the fact that you can make such things as vegan pizza is such a forward step for this country as there is more of a demand now.
Week three was about finding meals that didn’t take too long, a bit more convenient, you don’t always want to spend hours cooking away every day in the kitchen, seldom do you have the time.
We had baked potato, beans & veggie sausages one night and pasta with some fancy beetroot pesto & tofu another night. Both were good meals, very easy to prepare and just what we needed after a busy day at work.
Then, before we knew it, the week was over and we were into week four, which is where we are now as I write this.
WEEK 3
I think in my head I had us down to do two weeks as a nice little social experiment, cleanse the body and feel all new and invigorated and all that, but I can honestly say it’s been good, not too stressful or too challenging. I do miss cheese and cheese products, vegan cheese isn’t quite the same, although I have found some vegan feta cheese that’s actually nice, so this has helped with salads.
We made homemade pizzas and there is a grated vegan cheese that you can buy, which is ok, it doesn’t quite have the elasticity of mozzarella, but the fact that you can make such things as vegan pizza is such a forward step for this country as there is more of a demand now.
Week three was about finding meals that didn’t take too long, a bit more convenient, you don’t always want to spend hours cooking away every day in the kitchen, seldom do you have the time.
We had baked potato, beans & veggie sausages one night and pasta with some fancy beetroot pesto & tofu another night. Both were good meals, very easy to prepare and just what we needed after a busy day at work.
Then, before we knew it, the week was over and we were into week four, which is where we are now as I write this.
Conclusions
For me, the big question was: Would I feel any better physically and within myself, just on a vegan diet? Well the answer is, I’m not sure!! 22 days in and I don’t have a conclusive answer for you. Physically, I don’t really feel any difference, which I suppose you could look at in two ways. I don’t really feel any better, but I don’t feel any worse either. This was a concern of mine going into this, would I be able to still get enough nutrients from a plant-based diet and the answer is yes.
I think where I do feel a difference is mentally. I know that I am putting lots of good things into my body, lots of vegetable, fruit, seeds, pulses & tofu. I know that I’m helping my digestive system by not having any meat and it has seemed to be working more efficiently.
I have asked the same question of Bernie and she has gone from feeling bloated in week one, from her body adjusting to a change in diet, to now feeling much better physically & mentally and has currently no desire to return to eating meat.
Would I stay a vegan for the foreseeable future? I’m in no rush to go back to eating meat, maybe we could have meat more as a treat, Maybe we’ll end up being vegetarians, just for the cheese! We both do miss having a cup of tea or coffee with cow’s milk. We have a fridge full of different milks, oat, almond & soya, but it’s just not the same.
