Weds 3rd Dec.

Okay, life as a non-vegan has continued for a couple of days now. I’ve been having soya milk in tea and coffee still until today, when we ran out of it. There was enough for Sally’s cereal, but I had toast rather than have cereal with dairy milk. The coffee I had with dairy milk was good, but not significantly better than with soya. I think I’ll have mainly soya milk in coffee from now on apart from when I’m away from home. I’m not sure about tea. I think I’ll try to keep on having soya.

Oh yes, and I had egg mayonnaise for yesterday’s lunch. I wasn’t craving this as I’d thought I might be; it was just convenient as there wasn’t much else in the fridge.
What about cheese? Hmm. I did give Sally cheese in today’s sandwiches. I’m planning a cheese free meal tonight, but I’ll probably use Quorn, which isn’t vegan.

I did have horrible indigestion yesterday afternoon. I tend to get this quite often at around three o’ clock, but, looking back, I think it may have been absent whist I was vegan. There’s a thought.

Generally, I’ve felt healthy over the month, and I haven’t really felt too deprived of any particular foodstuff. It’s been easier than I thought, even from the point of view of eating out and having takeaways. However, I like the thought that life will now be even easier. It’s not so much the obvious stuff such as not having a cheese sandwich or omelette; it’s more having to avoid, say, sausages or biscuits or cereal bars which contain egg/milk/honey. These are the things I’m pleased I no longer have to think about.

On the whole I think a vegan diet is healthier, a better way to feed the world, kinder to animals, and better for the planet. I think I’ll be compromising though. I’m not going to go vegan, but I’m going to retain more of a vegan slant in my diet (and what I cook for the family). I’ll try to stick with soya milk in drinks unless I’m away from home. I’ll use less cheese. I’ll sometimes use vegan “cheese”, especially the garlic and herb soft one. I’ll continue to use vegan foods I’ve discovered or used more during the month. I’ll experiment with the egg replacement powder I bought and haven’t used so far.

So there we are. Did I lose my jelly belly? Nahh. But I’ll keep working on it!

One last thought occurs to me. Sally and I did this for a month, I suppose as a challenge, but I feel it’s important to remember that there are thousands of vegans out there, leading healthy lives in which their diet is simply a fact of life, not an issue and certainly not a challenge or gimmick. If you want any more information, I recommend the Vegan society website (www.vegansociety.com/home.php), the Vegetarian Society website (www.vegsoc.org/) or the Animal Aid website (www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/AA/HOME/).

Well, that’s it. It’s lunchtime now. Ooh, I don’t know what to have!