A week or so ago, the ever wonderful Victoria asked me if I would be up for participating in Veganuary this year and I almost immediately said that I wasn’t. She prodded me a little bit as to why and in all honesty I simply just didn’t have the feeling to do it. I liked how I have now gotten my diet back on track and how in January I was going to heavily reduce carbs such as pasta, rice and bread and basically go on a Keto style diet for a while. But then Victoria asked again and I began to think it over, why wouldn’t I try it and why was I so dismissive beforehand?
I already cook a lot of vegan meals
Victoria apparently really likes my cooking and with that means I cook almost all vegan meals for her and then I sometimes add a bit of meat or whatever to my dish after the fact. I would say since I started dating Victoria that over half of my dinners have been vegan (and gluten and soy free).
This, of course, is grand, one of my things with cooking for Victoria is that I want to create meals that I would normally have, but just “veganised”. So during the almost two years that we have been together, I have been able to conjure up well over a dozen different meals and I am pretty sure I have multiple recipe magazines around too for things I can also experiment with. It won’t be as if I am just going to be sat eating just veg… Though in saying that, I do love me a good bit of veg every so often!
Not eating meat will not be an issue for me
I am pretty sure for 31 days I can dodge meat and live on. 31 days is nothing when it comes to missing a food group. I will, however, be using the next few days before the month begins to research what foods I should have to make sure I still get the same nutrients as I am planning a lot of things next year and I don’t want to be struggling because I have removed a food from my usual diet.
Will I think removing meat will be fairly simple, removing everything else will probably be a lot harder. I am going to have to fully read the labels and see what is in each thing I purchase as I would not be as careful when purchasing food for myself. I fear that I might slip by accidentally eating or drinking something not vegan, but I have to hope that I have my wits about me to make sure. Luckily with this diet, I will be cutting out the little treats I had been having recently and with getting deep into packed lunches I will have no excuses to go out and have a nibble. Who knows I might actually save more money this month by bulk prepping again! Toes are now crossed!
I have already been scouring restaurants
I like to think that where ever Victoria and I visit that someplace somewhere will have something for her to eat. I live in an optimistic world sometimes and I love it when I find a new place in a town or village outside of Belfast that we can go to. It means we have our own little map of places we can visit if we are peckish. Look out for the first of that series during this holiday period.
I know of a few places in Belfast that we can go to so that is sorted, but as we get further out of Belfast the options become pretty thin and in some cases more so because of Victoria’s current intolerances. So although I have been looking for places that we can eat in Northern and the Republic of Ireland, being vegan for a little bit will help give me that little kick to look a tiny bit harder!
Will I keep it going?
I very much doubt it, I enjoy eating meat and pastries too much to stop. I know that is morally an iffy subject, but that is where I am with it. I am fine with eating meat and I do try to limit eating meat from just packets. I go to a butcher for meat that I eat. It isn’t perfect, but I am not going to change how and who I am because of it on the long term.
I think it will be a good bit of fun and I think will help me with cooking for Victoria in the future! So not all bad.
In January, I will post a little weekly update about how the experience goes, though I can’t imagine it going anything but grand! Are you trying Veganuary or did you do it previously? How did it go!? Let me know!
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Scott H Gilliland 