February Challenge Preparation: The Community

The season comes ever closer to starting up (can't...wait....) but until it does there's not a huge amount derby-related to really talk about. I'm still running off-skates fitness in the park every week (though bad weather saw only four brave souls make it out last time), still working out most days (though this week I've been a bit slack, been fighting off a bug I think?).

I was invited to The Vegan Society of Aotearoa's monthly pot luck dinner last night by my friend/Feb Challenge mentor Jane, as an opportunity to see what kind of food is available to those on a vegan diet. I've been reading through a few cookbooks and the like but to actually have a huge spread of savoury and sweet dishes available to try was great. My contribution was a satay noodle salad (first time I've made a sauce from scratch in ages) and I'm pleased to say that most of it got eaten and I actually saw someone go for seconds!

A lot of the savoury dishes were as you'd expect, a nice mix of salads, stir-fries and even a pie (which straddled the line between sweet and savoury, in a tasty way!). It was the sweet stuff though that really impressed me.

Raw food puddings. TASTY.

Chocolate and coffee tarts that tasted like they had been made with heavy cream (actually tofu), a chocolate birthday cake that was as moist and tasty as anything out of a good bakery, cookies and peanut treats. I was really impressed at how food that you'd never associate with veganism was indistinguishable from the "real" thing.

The vegan community (at least, the part of it I met last night) is an interesting group. There's a popular image of vegans as being white, middle-class, pasty-looking, skinny individuals with an overabundance of political t-shirts and patchwork pants. The room I was in had those people, definitely, but also people from pretty much across the social spectrum. The table I was sat at had some fascinating discussions going on, from the merits of home-schooling to guinea-pigs to Dumb Things People Say to Vegans (and vegetarians). I like being in company where people aren't afraid to ask each other questions and challenge their attitudes so I was a very happy (and full!) person.

Now, I appreciate that so far, I have been extremely pro-vegan in my preparation for the February Challenge. There's a few reasons for this:

• No point in going into something like this with a negative attitude. If you decide to do something for a month, six months, or forever, you can't look at it like a punishment. To look at this (or FebFast, or whatever you might be doing) as a denial won't get you anywhere.
• It's something that interests me, and it wouldn't interest me if I dreaded it!
• I'm still on summer holidays (just) so my mealtimes, meal prep, and time has been entirely my own. I've not had anyone give me stick or be negative at me thus far, or been in a situation where I've had to defend myself or turn down an offer of food from someone. I imagine when I start the challenge and go back to work that it's going to get harder. 

 For the purposes of SCIENCE I'll do a weigh-in and take some measurements on the 31st January, and again after the challenge. I'm not expecting to radically change but it will be interesting to have a comparison. For Science. Delicious science.

Right, I'm off to the gym. It may be raining but that's no reason to stay sat on the couch, wearing my warmest dressing gown (damn you weather!) and watching the rats making a nest.