Day 26 - the vegucated challenge

You may have noticed by now I'm not a morning person. Today I was - I had the best morning ever. My brother came for dinner last night (that epic lasagne) and he motivated me to have my next run in the morning. I was all ready for it, my alarm set at 06.20 in the morning and went to bed extra early.

Day 25 - the vegucated challenge

One of my favourite dishes in the world is lasagne. Next to cheese fondue I find it the most comforting food in the world. Had a bad breakup? Don't worry. Lasagne. So now it was time to find out if there was any comfort left in my life by making a lasagne that's just as good as a meaty cheesy one. I was pleasantly surprised and my brother was too, he couldn't wait to get the recipe.

Day 24 - the vegucated challenge

Yesterday my friend Gerda gave me a bag. Not just any bag. She has been making these herself from bedsheets she bought in a thrift shop. The best part is she has been handing them out in supermarkets to people who are using plastic bags. You get the idea, plastic bag bad, bed sheet bag good! And now she had one for me to keep! How sweet.

Day 23 - the vegucated challenge

This Sunday was one of those days that turned into a big social calendar. A few days ago my diary was clear and suddenly I had a lunch, a language group (where my boyfriend learns Dutch, two friends learn Swahili and I learn Spanish via an app called Memrise), and then I had drinks with a friend who I hadn't seen in a while because she moved to Melbourne. And then I was suddenly on a surprise party from an ex house mate who was leaving town to travel Asia.

Day 22 - the vegucated challenge

It's saturday! (It's really already Tuesday but I'm a bit behind with my posts). I decided it was a good day to invest in some running shoes. I am now in my third week of running and been doing so on tennis shoes. A nice investment to keep me motivated and without injuries.

Day 21 - the vegucated challenge

''A bee isn't even an animal'' - a colleague. I'm pretty sure a bee isn't a plant though. People are often surprised when they find out vegans don't eat honey. Don't they make honey anyway? Who cares about a bee? I myself was a little gutted to find out that the delicious treat comes from an industry that is often very cruel to bees. I've been googeling and found that I was OK with removing honey from my diet.

Day 20 - the vegucated challenge

You are fine finding your milk, butter, cream and yoghurt replacements at your local supermarket. Vegan egg-replacements, meat replacements, gelatine, mayonnaise and even cheeses are a bit more rare. So I did some shopping online and will soon be able to make pretty much everything.

Day 19 - the vegucated challenge

I am so happy that my colleague told me about this fact: figs eat bugs. Ha! Who knew those innocent looking bastards would be killing wasps. Question is though, do they fit in my vegan diet? I can't really protest outside of a fig tree and tell 'em to stop doing it. But the fact I would be eating digested wasps (fig-poo) really killed the joy of eating the murderous fruit.

Day 18 - the vegucated challenge

This comment keeps cracking me up: Why don't you help people instead of animals? .. really?
As if in the Matrix I had to pick between the red and the blue pill. Because I care for animals doesn't automatically mean I don't care for people. Ha- you'd be surprised the amount of times I hear this. I don't eat animals but I sure like to murder little children. (Not true by the way - don't send the police).

Day 17 - the vegucated challenge

I love my Mondays off. It gives me time to work on my business and to visit people I never see and to work through my to do list. I had a big list this Monday and was running around the house and through Utrecht to tick of all the boxes. (I estimate that I burned 1 million calories doing this).

Day 16 - the vegucated challenge

We slept at my mum's last night and she made us breakfast. My boyfriend had his eggs but my mum made me her favourite way of eating oatmeal.

Day 15 - the vegucated challenge

Today we went to my family in my home town Vlissingen. Lunch at my mum's and dinner at my dad's. I promised to arrange the ingredients for dinner as cooking vegan can be quite a challenge if you're not used to it.

Day 14 - the vegucated challenge

I hope you all had a happy Valentine! Today was my two-weeks-in and I could celebrate- because I lost another kilo. Two kilos in two weeks, not too bad. I am glad my boyfriend didn't buy me chocolates, but he did make me a nice curry and bought me a rose.

Day 13 - the vegucated challenge

Today was the day of vegan jokes. My friend sent me this one: Why does vegan cheese taste bad? It wasn't tested on mice. To be honest, a little lame, no offence, I just thought it was my responsibility to collect a few better ones. 

Day 12 - the vegucated challenge

I actually got told off by a colleague for eating a juicy pear at my desk - it made a squishy noise and she couldn't stand it. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't eat it without making a noise. So I went to the coffee-corner to have my breakfast. And then I thought, while I'm here I might as well eat two.

Day 11 - the vegucated challenge

I stayed home ill today, I woke up with a headache and felt too weak to go to work. No exercise today. It's evening now and I feel loads better and will go back to work tomorrow. I had some real great news though. My sister and her boyfriend watched Vegucated (The documentary that inspired me to go vegan, you can find it on Netflix). She told me she doesn't want to eat meat any more, and her boyfriend is in too - except for the occasional fish.

Day 10 - the vegucated challenge

HA! I can feel my muscles aching and am really pleased with that. I'm doing something right :-) I was well prepared for today. But then everything went wrong, I overslept so didn't have time to make breakfast, and in the hurry I forgot to take my salad for lunch. 

Day 9 - the vegucated challenge

Day 9 and not very impressed with the results I'm seeing in the mirror. I can't expect miracles but I did decide to turn it up a notch. Every day I want to add 100 jumping jacks, 100 sit-ups and a 100 squats. Next to my running every other day. I can do them whatever part of the day I want, as long as I do it before I go back to sleep at night. Really hoping to not end up with two identical pictures on day 30.

Day 8 - the vegucated challenge

This was my planned in - cheat day. Today we had dinner at Da Rosa, an in-house vegan Italian restaurant in Utrecht. A very unique concept where you eat at the chef's house. To celebrate my brother's birthday (from months ago) my sister and me treated him on a nice dinner here. 

Day 7 - the vegucated challenge

WOOP! I lost exactly 1 kg. If I loose this every week I should have dropped back to 57 kg by the end of the month. What a nice benefit of this challenge. But the main reason for me going vegan is something nothing to do with my weight - but more the weight on the world. It's fun to share what I eat and that I started running - but beneath all that there's a bigger reason for doing this. A non selfish one.

Day 6 - the vegucated challenge

As I have been coming in the office with my own lunch boxes the last week, pretty much every lunch I get support from my colleagues. The responses are a lot more positive than I expected but mostly result in 'I could never do it'. But I have found this challenge to become easier and easier. And I agree with the vegan lifestyle more and more. I really think anyone would be surprised how easy it is to give up on meat and dairy - and how tasty vegan food really is.

Day 4 & 5 - the vegucated challenge

Because my boyfriend is not eating with me - he is still juicing along - I am stuck with so many leftovers! Luckily my brother, who joined me in this challenge, came over to eat them all with me. So tomorrow I can start cooking again!

Day 3 - the vegucated challenge

Today was my Monday off from work so I had lots of time to cook. When I'm typing this it's 22:40 in the evening and normally I can't wait to get some sleep. Not today! I have more energy then ever. I really hope this is the effect of my new diet!

Day 2 - the vegucated challenge

Day 2, I did probably the worst thing you can do when you're eating on restrictions - I took my boyfriend to a theme park, de Efteling. Happy birthday Will! It was probably the busiest day of the year, plus my poor boyfriend was on his second day of his detox which is the most difficult one of all.

Day 1 - the vegucated challenge

My boyfriend borrowed a juicer from a friend to do a 10-day juice detox. Believe it or not, this was also inspired by a documentary on Netflix: 'Fat, sick and nearly dead'. If you're starting to feel I am here to promote Netflix - I really have no shares in this company.

I thought it was going to be tough for me, now I see what he will be eating (juice and water) I feel pretty confident about my own challenge.