Going realistically vegan

Lysander

Lysander

Lysander

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Over the weekend I had the idea of improving my diet for health reasons. I am not fat, but could lose a little weight. I love a health challenge and came up with the idea of going vegan because vegetarianism still allows you to eat cheese, dairy and all kinds of other stuff.

However, going from full omnivore to vegan is a bit much, so I originally thought of having three non-vegan meals a week [because of, e.g. socialising, the fact that I do love beef occasionally etc]. But yesterday, my plan hit an early snag. My wife and I were at a funfair and I got hungry. Of course, as you can imagine, there was no healthy food, it was all burgers and chips and candy floss, so I opted for chips. While chips are vegan, generally, it made me realise that being vegan could be hard when you 'find' yourself in certain situations.

So I am currently thinking of a 5:2 rule, so five days vegan, two not. This would make it easier to slide into the vegan 'lifestyle' while also not compromising too much about the things I like and not being that **** at a dinner party that only eats carrots.

My wife has decided to join in and go 'pesce-yogo-vegan' [her invented term] since she loves fish and yoghurt too much to give them up. I may join in this, we'll see.

I've started by making a list of foods I like and that I can easily get hold of, and recipes will come off the back of this. I had an Alpro yoghurt this morning which was nice but I prefer the real thing.

Any advice welcome :)
 
I think it's generally quite easy these days with most places catering for plant based diets and the sheer amount of vegan cafes popping up everywhere.

I guess there's always going to be the odd time like at funfairs, but i'd say 99% of the time it's easy now.
 
It's not that hard these days....if you're desperate you can walking into any MacD's/BK/KFC and get veggie options that are as good as the carnivore burgers. I doubt most food outlets are viable without at least some veggie options these days.

Going veggie/vegan certain days is a good way to start, you'll want to build up a good library of meals.

I've wavered between veggie and not for a while....but recently discovered I'm lactose intolerant which is a bummer as I love cheese.....so now I find myself eating more meat and zero dairy then before when I was nearly veggie!
 
Lysander said:
So you shouldn't be too hard on yourself, I imagine, if you're 100% vegan, starving, and the only thing to eat is e.g. a cheese sandwich at a work lunch buffet?
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Cheese Sandwich is not vegan ;)

I find it easier to go vegan if you think of a Med or Asian diet. Western diet with diary is harder I find.

I can probably do a Korean BBQ with all vegetable options, all the flavours are there, just missing the meat, which will be replaced by tofu and mushrooms instead.
 
I think i'd quite like to try it and Vegan First does sound like a good option.

There's always things like bacon/cheese/butter which is too delicious to give up, but aiming to generally have less meat is something i've considered for a long time. I think it helps make meals healthy too, because ultimately if your main food type is vegetables, you're less likely to accompany that with chips, and more likely to choose rice/noodles/pasta etc.
 
It's something I've considered but I don't think I could go full vegan. My goal right now is just to up my fruit & vegetable intake by having a decent dinner with at least 4 vegetable servings. I'm trying smaller steps first as most of the time I go in two footed and end up failing one way or another ha. Good luck with it!
 
It is really not that hard to find vegan options in most places. Othertimes a small bit of planning goes a long way, e.g. at the funfair you could have packed some vegan sandwiches etc.

Also, a lot of the vegsn alternatives work really well. E.g. coconut yoghurt, oat nilk etc. Others don't work so well, yet, like cheese so these can be used as yiur non-vegan cheat meals.
 
D.P. said:
Also, a lot of the vegsn alternatives work really well. E.g. coconut yoghurt, oat nilk etc. Others don't work so well, yet, like cheese so these can be used as yiur non-vegan cheat meals.
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Vegan cheese is pretty rubbish on its own, but it can be used to decent effect.

For example, I made a vegan Mac&Cheese with jackfruit, used soya milk, vegan "butter" for the bechamel base, Violife mozzarella and then flavoured it with some mixed herbs and wholegrain mustard. Turned out really good.

Somewhere near me makes vegan queso that's really good as well, will need to ask for the recipe.
 
D.P. said:
It is really not that hard to find vegan options in most places. Othertimes a small bit of planning goes a long way, e.g. at the funfair you could have packed some vegan sandwiches etc.

Also, a lot of the vegsn alternatives work really well. E.g. coconut yoghurt, oat nilk etc. Others don't work so well, yet, like cheese so these can be used as yiur non-vegan cheat meals.
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Fair point, thank you.

Today has been a bit of a fail so far. I have stuck to the vegan plan BUT consumed more calories that I would have expected in the process.

I have eaten

1 pot of Alpro yoghurt - 250 kcal
a packet of nuts - 300 kcal
A felafel salad - 300 kcals
A vegan rocky road bar - 300 kcal
A smoothie - 150kcal

I had to eat all that to feel full! That's nearly 1400 kcal by the end of lunchtime!

I have to sort out what I'm eating otherwise this is going to be counterproductive.
 
Vegan 'chicken kebab' wraps can be really good. I bought one from one of those trendy street food vans once, and it was superb, better than any regular spicy chicken wrap I ever had, and I'm not vegan!

I think it was tofu they used in lieu of chicken, but good fresh crunchy veggies, lettuce, chopped bell pepper and some other random veg, maybe some kale or spinnach or whatever...a good dash of chilli sauce in the dressing and it was bloddy lush.

The secret is a good salad dressing (which you can make on the fly and taylor to your own preferences).

Super easy to make at home too.
 
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I have yet to find a fake meat that tastes even remotely nice.
Personally I'd just ditch fake meat and have a paneer and beetroot burger.
So many lovely vegetables no need to pretend it's meat.
 
robj20 said:
I have yet to find a fake meat that tastes even remotely nice.
Personally I'd just ditch fake meat and have a paneer and beetroot burger.
So many lovely vegetables no need to pretend it's meat.
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It is bland, but I'm happy to use quarn for example in spag bol/ chili con carne etc, the rich tomato sauce and a bit of chilli/garlic and other seasoning and you can't taste any different really.
 
mattyfez said:
It is bland, but I'm happy to use quarn for example in spag bol/ chili con carne etc, the rich tomato sauce and a bit of chilli/garlic and other seasoning and you can't taste any different really.
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See for that I'd put plenty of veg in, and I'd be using lentil or chickpea pasta instead. Some crushed nuts on top as well.

I'm not vegan and wouldn't want to be fully vegan, we do eat about 80% vegetarian though, only reason is taste absolutely love vegetables.
Quiet happy with a paneer curry or mushroom curry.
It happened over years which I think it's the key, don't change all of a sudden do it gradually, need to pay attention to nutrition being vegan I would say in understanding what you need to replace vitamin wise, where to get good protein from.
 
robj20 said:
See for that I'd put plenty of veg in, and I'd be using lentil or chickpea pasta instead. Some crushed nuts on top as well.

I'm not vegan and wouldn't want to be fully vegan, we do eat about 80% vegetarian though, only reason is taste absolutely love vegetables.
Quiet happy with a paneer curry or mushroom curry.
It happened over years which I think it's the key, don't change all of a sudden do it gradually, need to pay attention to nutrition being vegan I would say in understanding what you need to replace vitamin wise, where to get good protein from.
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Oh for sure, make it to your own taste, that's the beauty of cooking! I prefer chunks of onion/pepper/tomato etc. rather than a smooth pureed sauce.
 
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