The Vegan Experiment, and What Came After

So I failed. I hate failing. I failed for several reasons, but mostly because living a dairy and meat-free existence in a Western country is extremely difficult, especially if you have lots of other things going on in your life and eating becomes a quick refuel stop in between real work and derby work. However, living without animal products was a fascinating few weeks, and I've certainly learned a lot about diet, health and what we eat.

I didn't get it either.

Dairy gets everywhere. Really. It's amazing. Shopping became an exercise in small print, as I found whey powder, casein, and various other dairy products in all sorts of foods that you'd think had no relation to a cow at all.

Once you start reading labels, it's hard to stop. There's some learning to be had from starting to read labels. Like the amount of sugar that's added to things that again you'd think wouldn't need it. Since February I've become one of those people you see staring at food labelling, picking up four types of peanut butter and peering at the labelling.

Eating clean. After starting vegan February I was pleased at how, if left to my own devices and with a bit of time to cook properly, I do eat pretty well. Lots of whole grains, vegetables, nuts and seeds, very little by way of pre-prepared sauces or processed stuff out of a plastic box. I eat a lot, but it's quality. Once I started having to really look at my diet, it was nice to see that I do eat well.

Eating out. This was harder. The late night at work and going straight to training. Catching up with a friend for coffee and deciding to grab lunch as well. At the Tattoo Expo in Hamilton, I ate nothing but chips the entire day, and felt distinctly gross as a result.

Cooking. I live on my own, which is totally awesome, but does make trying out the recipes in the numerous cookbooks I was lent by various and wonderful people difficult. Cooking something I'll be eating for two or three days in a row  makes being inventive a gamble, and when combined with a lack of time makes it easier to stick with the usual variations on grain + veggies + peanuts in a stirfry. Though I did discover tahini and how to make it delicious.

Get about a 2/3 cup of tahini
Add 3/4 big sloppy teaspoons of lemon juice
And a couple of teaspoons of garlic (or a couple of cloves chopped up if you kick it old school)
Grind a load of salt in
Add some chilli

Mix together with a half cup of water, then pour over the aforementioned grain/veg/nut combo. Feast.

Gonna go here, walk that. Yeah.

So where to from here? Well, I drink less milk than I used to. Green tea is now my go-to at work (where the coffee is for emergency high-caffeine moments), there's no cheese in my fridge and I still buy vegan groceries. If I'm out and about then I'll eat dairy products if there's no other option, and my orders in coffeeshops are a 50:50 split between soy and trim. I feel like I've been eating more consciously, having also stopped buying products with palm oil in the ingredients list.

I'd like to say thanks to my good friend Jane who has been a smiling, encouraging vegan mentor throughout. She even bought me a copy of the Revive cookbook as a present after my month was up, which I can't wait to get stuck into! The fact she regularly runs marathons, multiple-kilometre swims and does it all eating the cleanest diet I know and with a huge smile on her face means she's an inspiration and definitely puts paid to the myth of vegans being unable to raise their hand to change the channel. We're travelling down to the central plateau in May to take part in the T42 race (she's doing a considerably longer distance than I mind!), and a weekend of delicious vegan food and (hopefully) glorious weather in beautiful surroundings awaits!