February Health Challenge!

So I've been mulling this over for a few weeks now, about the idea of doing a February Challenge. Why February? It's the shortest month of the year so if it SUCKS when I'm only in it for 29 days. Also, I'll be going back to work and whilst that might seem like the WORST time of year to do something like a challenge, it'll give me something non-work-related to do and the return to a real structured timetable makes a challenge easier.

So, here we go. In the month of February 2012 I shall...

Eat an exclusively vegan diet. 

Yup. No cheese, no milk, no eggs, no slabs of Dairy Milk. Vegan. Like the hippies eat.

BUT WHY, YOU IDIOT? I hear some of you ask.

Several reasons.

1) It'll be a challenge. A proper one. I find vegetarianism difficult from time to time, so waving goodbye to feta for over four weeks will be a real test of my resolve.
2) I'm curious. I used to wonder what vegetarians ate if they couldn't have steak, now I know a heap of awesome recipes that don't require any meat or meat substitute at all. Throughout most of my veggie-ness I've wondered what those in the dietary hinterlands eat, and this is a chance to test my culinary skillz and see what's out there.
3) Everyone seems convinced that vegetarians are incapable of getting off their hessian-covered couches due to being so malnourished, yet I know a guy who can deadlift 160kgs on a veggie diet, and a vegan who runs off-road marathons. OK, so the woman I spoke to in the Cruelty-Free shop in town today looked like a McDonalds caricature of a vegan, but I know that's not the rule. I want to see if switching to veganism affects my training, my energy levels, mood. It's SCIENCE!

It's hard finding vegan images that aren't horribly twee

So, the rules:

• Avoid animal products in food at all costs between 0:00 1/2/12 and 23:59 29/2/12
• Check all labels when out food shopping (and report back on any interesting findings)
• Try different recipes and vegan-friendly foods (don't fall back on peanut butter and porridge unless absolutely necessary)
• Blog progress at least twice a week, including any failures ("the cheese straw just fell in my mouth!"), successes ("I made hummus!") and observations ("My rats are disgusted at the lack of feta in the house")
• Try and eat out at least once during the Challenge.
• Maintain a sense of humour!

See what I mean?

I'm not treading any new ground here. Lots of journos who've run out of inspiration have turned to going vegan for a month (I know, I linked to the Daily Mail. I'm sorry), and some of their articles are actually readable and informative!  I'm posting this now so I can spend a bit of time researching and reading up on how to keep myself healthy, as a lot of newbie vegans remove nutrient sources from their diet without replacing them successfully. My friend Jane (the aforementioned vegan off-road-marathon runner and inspiration for the challenge) has offered me some cookbooks and advice, it's great to have someone handy to turn to with questions!

I've been asked about consequences for slipping up and rewards. As far as rewards go, the challenge and completing it is a reward in and of itself. I also know that if I intentionally fall over (as opposed to, say, missing something in the small print) I'll beat myself up over it enough.

So yeah, that's the February Challenge. I'm considering setting a fitness one too, maybe save it for March?