I love a good challenge! When it comes to my improving my health, I love to try new things and see how my body responds. When I saw everybody raving about going vegan [1], I knew it was time to try eating a plant-based diet — at least for a week. Many people who go vegan or eat more plant-based diets say that they feel better than ever and lose some weight [2]. Some also report their energy levels skyrocket. Why wouldn't I want to try it?
Just seven days — how difficult could that be? No dairy, no meat, no honey, no eggs. Even though I eat meat every single day, I felt confident I would be successful and I was excited to try eating in a new way. Who knows? Maybe I'd go through some out-of-body experience that would transform my life. Or maybe I'd give up halfway through. Since I was so focussed on food for seven days, I thought it best to show you how I fuelled myself daily. Here what down each day.
Friday: Day 1
Meal 1: GoMacro High Protein MACROBAR [3]
Meal 2: Love Grown Chocolate Power O's cereal [4] sprinkeld with vanilla protein (my fave is Tropeaka) and cashew milk
Meal 3: Banza chickpea pasta [5] with vegan sausage, roasted veggies, and a delicious avocado cream sauce (just purée avocado with almond milk, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and garlic)
Saturday: Day 2
Meal 1: Vanilla and banana protein shake
Meal 2: Cereal with protein powder, bananas, blueberries, and cashew milk
Meal 3: Pasta with vegan sausage, spinach, mushrooms, and a red sauce
Snack: Nutiva coconut treat
Sunday: Day 3
p>Meal 1: No Cow Protein Bar [6]
Meal 2: Toast with lots and lots of smashed avocado to make up for the lack of eggs
Meal 3: You guessed it . . pasta with vegan sausage, veggies, and more avocado cream sauce
Monday: Day 4
Meal 1: Coconut chia overnight oats with berries
Meal 2: Protein bar and cereal
Meal 3: Tempeh [7] stir fry with coconut aminos, sesame oil, broccoli, edamame, carrots, peas, and corn
Tuesday: Day 5
Meal 1: Square Organics Protein Bar [8]
Meal 2: Pinch of Yum [9] Avocado Kale Caesar Salad and sweet potato fries
Meal 3: Leftovers from tempeh stir fry
Meal 4: "Unintentional" bite of a hamburger (whoops)
Wednesday: Day 6
Meal 1: Protein bar
Meal 2: Acai bowl
M3: Banza pasta with seitan, veggies, and red sauce
Thursday: Day 7
Meal 1: Chocolate protein shake [10]
Meal 2: Sweet potato toast two ways, one with almond butter and bananas, another with smashed avocado and tofu scramble
Meal 3: Courgette noodles with roasted tomatoes, pesto, and vegan sausage
Meal 4: Nada Moo dairy-free ice cream [11] (what dreams are made of!)
Friday: Day 8
(Did an extra day to make up for hamburger bite)
Meal 1: Chocolate oatmeal with bananas and almond butter
Meal 2: Vegan meatballs and sweet potato fries
Meal 3: Leftovers from zoodles last night
Final Thoughts on 8 Days of Vegan Eating
What's the conclusion after eating plant-based for just over a week? Well, even though I didn't stick through it all, I learned so much from it. The food was delicious but not what I was used to eating and digesting. It was very hard to avoid meat substitutes if I wanted to make sure to get enough protein, and I did not really enjoy it. The fake meat not only had a weird smell to it but also an odd texture that was hard to get past.
Eating plant-based for me meant eating a lot more carbs, especially gluten, which my body didn't like. Even though the food tasted fine, I never felt truly satisfied after a meal [12]. Maybe my body just needed more than a week to adjust to such a big change [13] but I honestly love chicken and eggs too much to go cold turkey (no pun intended). My energy felt fine throughout the week but sometimes felt more slowed down because the meals were so dense in carbs.
At the end of the day, this week-long experiment taught a great deal. I was able to avoid a lot of processed, unhealthy foods through the course of the experiment and also discovered that there are many dairy-free options available. There's vegan cheese, vegan ice cream, vegan (almost) everything! Maybe I'll try this out again in the future without slipping. More likely, I'll incorporate more plant-based meals into my diet, avoid dairy, and decrease my consumption of red meat.