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.


If you would ever consider going vegan yourself - maybe even just for a week, here for a little inspiration a list of some amazing foods (just don't start counting calories) you can still have:

Ready salted crisps

• cassava crisps
• emping
• most peanuts
• all nuts
• oreo biscuits
• peanut butter
• (vegan) bread and hummus
• (most brands) dark chocolate

And with a little tweaking...

• pancakes
• waffles
• ice cream
• brownies
• etc. etc. 

Being a vegan can be as easy as living on crisps and pancakes. Who wouldn't be able to do that?

Of course I put a before picture of myself on this blog and I really want a better one to appear on the last day of my challenge so I'm skipping most of above products for health reasons.

Breakfast

I am really becoming a fan of oatmeal. I notice it easily takes me, without getting violently peckish, all the way to lunchtime. And did I mention I add cinnamon? It's also an easy dish to play around with. You can use soy milk, or almond milk, or rice milk, or simply water. You can add jam (yes this is often vegan too!) or agave syrup, flax seeds and vary with tons of fruit. Add apple with the cinnamon and it's pretty much an apple pie for breakfast.

Lunch

As if the sweet potato dish never would finish I still had a tiny bit of leftovers. As it was so tiny my boyfriend was so sweet to make me a nice healthy juice to go with that. If you own a juicer - the recipe is easy: 1 apple, 2 peppers, 3 carrots and 3 stalks of celery. You can add a little ginger with this for a little extra kick. Plus ginger is just really good for you. Do you see that delightful cheese platter on the left? I didn't even go in for a smell.

Dinner
I was so happy to be out of leftovers, I could finally cook something! I did, I made a recipe I found on pinterest. It was really delicious! To make it a bit more healthy I added a courgette. And unfortunately my avocados weren't ripe enough for that pretty display on top.
I have actually gathered quite some recipes here. Check it out - go crazy and find something you like - maybe you can try just one vegan meal today?

Running
I also started running - I'm as fit as a brick so I choose to follow a 0-5km scheme with a Belgium coach. She's on my MP3 player and she helps me get through my run. I had my first 'lesson' today and it was real fun. She starts with putting on nice music for you and you can switch running with a nice walk. She keeps telling you you are doing great and to focus on your breathing - what a nice lady. In 10 weeks I should be able to run 5 km straight!