Today I have started a 28 day vegan challenge so for the next 4 weeks I will eat as a vegan does.  Why?  These are my reasons, in order of priority.

1. to lose weight.  I have an exciting trip planned this summer and want to drop some significant weight.  Beinf vegan is no guarantee of weight loss.  Vegans can stuff themselves with cakes and bread and starchy carbs but I am not going to do that.  I am going to eat a healthy vegan diet, with plenty of raw fruits and vegetables, sprouted seeds, beans, lentils, seeds and nuts.

2. to be ethical and environmentally friendly.  It takes far less energy to provide a field of beans than to use that field to provide grass for some cows.  Or alternatively, a way to consider it is that one field can provide more people with vegetable protein than animal protein and less water.

3. to see what it is like.  How is life for a vegan?  How easy/hard is it to forego all animal products?

4. the be kind to animals bit i.e. don’t kill them and eat them.

I began my vegan adventure last night by making breakfast in advance.  In to my pot went 2 chopped up oranges.

Then some oats, chia seeds, a banana, soya milk and coconut water.

Then a handful of almonds.  I left it in the fridge over night.

In the morning, what was previously runny was now thick and creamy as the oats and seeds absorbed the liquid.  Delicious.

I have no excuse for not finding vegan food to eat at lunch time at work because just round the corner from the office is my favoured supermarket.  Outside are some market stalls which are always empty and they make the perfect place for photographs.  Not only are they exactly the right height, they are covered so even on a wet day like today, I can take some decent pictures.

For snacking, I bought a clementine and an apple.

A little box of vegetable sushi and Inari ( beancurd wrapped round some rice).  This was great but the wasabi was so hot I nearly uttered a very rude expletive in the middle of the office where I was eating it !  You have to read packets very carefully if you are vegan.  I nearly bought a different box which had some rice and vegetables wrapped in egg.  I very nearly forgot vegans don’t eat eggs.

This is a bad picture but I also had some vine leaves.  I am not a huge fan of these but they were ok.  Stuffed with rice, mint and lemon.

For supper I had a wholemeal wrap with some homemade guacamole (avocado, lime juice and coriander),

plus some roasted peppers,

plus some tomato and black beans.  This would have been better with sour cream and cheese, both of which were looked at fondly but ignored.  I didn’t need them and this was a tasty supper.  I had 2 of these as they were the smaller wraps and I was still hungry after just one.

So day 1 has gone well.  I walked from London Bridge to the office rather than stay on the train to Cannon Street ( I did get off by mistake, to be honest.  I was on auto pilot 😦 ).  That is 1.2 miles each way.  I drank water, black coffee and herbal tea.  Now I am off to the pub and unless I am very much mistaken, a glass of red wine fits in to a vegan diet rather nicely.  Especially at the end of a busy week.  Have a great weekend.