I am very good at starting a vegan diet. I’ve tried it at least once a month in 2017. I usually give up on the 3rd day.
So you can image how much experience I had when I started to plot for Veganuary. I’ll start with what to avoid first, learning from the 2 biggest mistakes I made in the past:
- I did not have a plan. I would simply wake up and think: I am going to be vegan today. (Clearly, I needed a more foolproof plan to prevent getting sidetracked.)
- My kitchen was not prepared for a Vegan overhaul. Just deciding not to buy meat for a month was not enough.
First, I started looking at how others live without meat, dairy and egg. Being Chinese, I gravitated to soya and thought if Shaolin Monks could survive on this stuff while doing some ass-kicking Kung Fu, then I’d have a slight chance.
Like in marathons, establishing milestones throughout the running route has proven to be a key strategy to keep the runner on track and focused, so I drew up a plan to set myself up for the same success marathon runners are primed for:
Week 1: Pure vegetable & fruit based diet, strictly NO meat/dairy/egg alternatives.
Week 2: In case I find my will power slipping, I can treat myself to egg alternatives.
Week 3: In dire moments of weakness, I could allow dairy alternatives.
Week 4: If I was hanging onto dear life, bring on the MEAT ALTERNATIVES.
Armed with soya and my 4 week vegan strategy, I started my Vegan challenge on the 4th of Jan.
Week 1:
Straight to online shopping with a full basket of tofu products. The most satisfying discovery I made was smoked tofu. It is dense, aromatic and filling. Sadly, it quickly became an addiction. I was gorging through 1 block per day. On day 5, when I was having dinner at home I realised how bad my addiction had become. I was having miso ramen with smoked tofu and edamame beans topped with soy sauce. Here is why it was bad:
Miso = fermented soya beans
Smoked tofu = coagulated soya milk
Edamame beans = young soya beans
Soy Sauce = fermented soya beans again
I was literally eating soya on soya, with zero variety.
That weekend my husband took me to a South Indian restaurant, and for the first time, I tried medu vada (lentils donut) and idli (rice cake). It tasted heavenly after my week long soya binge. I’d found a cure ,albeit temporarily, for my addiction.
Week 2:
My original strategy of surviving on tofu was not working out, so I adapted to an emergency one: Indian vegan food. It didn’t take long before I had reverted to the soya bean situation all over again. There was too much lentil and rice and they were everywhere. Dipping lentil donut in lentil sauce and having it with rice cake was not ideal. A carb on carb diet is tedious. To make matters worse, the egg alternatives were not delivering what it promised tastewise. 90% of the egg replacement powder is still sitting in my fridge.
I started to make roasted nuts to snack on when the weather was getting colder and I was found my body craving high energy food. It helped me massively to stay away from the free chocolate chip cookies and jellybeans at the office.
Despite being the only person in my circle of friends on the vegan challenge, everyone was surprisingly supportive. When we were out for dinners, they would pass vegetables onto my plate to help me fill up. They probably were secretly chuffed that there was more meat to go round between themselves!
Week 3:
What I really missed was eating different cuisines,dishes and ingredients. Finally, I reached the ‘vegan cheese allowance’ week. Vegan dairy products were fun and convincing. I had been experimenting with different vegan dishes and began to alternate between my favourite tofu, lentil, and pasta dishes. Suddenly, I felt a lot happier and that gave me the confidence to try out more vegan dishes. Roasted butternut squash with quinoa and sweet corn is so good, filling and light!
Week 4:
Finally the week I could add in fake meat and meat substitutes. I have seen fake meat in the temples in China. Heads up they are essentially tofu shaped like drumsticks that you dip in soya sauce. This memory did not instill much hope in me, but trying new food was always exciting. I went for some vegan “chicken” nuggets which, to my surprise, were not bad. They were a little bit dry on the outside but it was a filling and tasty meal. There were other fake meat products on my list if I got really desperate. But I did not go that far, because eating wholesome, non-processed food in general was still my priority.
Day 29 -31
I started the challenge on 4 Jan, so to stay true, my finishing date was to be on the 3rd Feb. The last few days were hard. I went to a friend’s birthday in a restaurant, To make it even more difficult, one of the guests owns a bakery and brought their best selling cake as the birthday cake. The restaurants vegan option was very disappointing and their blanched Jerusalem artichoke made me lose control and reach out for a slice of the cake. It was the best Mille Crepe Matcha cake I’ve ever had.
So I slipped once during the challenge.
The biggest surprise during this time was that my husband, a guy who has fried eggs with steak for dinner, bought carrots home from his trip to the supermarket because he felt there was not enough variety of vegetables in the fridge. Perhaps after all, my month of veganism made a small impact.
2 things to do before starting a vegan challenge:
- Draw up a diet plan
- Stock your kitchen with the right food
During the challenge, these 3 things really helped me.
- Having my vegan go to dishes — the ones I truly enjoyed and didn’t feel guilty after eating
- Snacking regularly, keeping a few fruits or roasted nuts in my bag at all times in case I needed an emergency boost
