Anyone thinking of doing Veganuary?

[DuggeesWooOOooggle]

Have thought about it the last few years but chickened out for various reasons (tea or coffee without proper milk being one!)

Now feel I ought to give it a go. We eat plenty of plant based meals as it is but hopefully doing it will widen the repertoire and help me reduce dairy intake by making me rely on alternatives for a month. Going without meat won't be too hard but cheese definitely!

However we are moving house mid month and I think I am pregnant (the test was very very faint so waiting til tomorrow to do another) so if I don't last the distance I won't beat myself up too much. Have a DH and 3 year old DS who won't be joining in.

Anyone else?

Ok so first proper day today as used up some paneer in a curry last night. On today's menu:

B: fresh pineapple, then 3 small banana pancakes (aka carpet underlay) topped with a dollop of soya coconut alpro yogurt, drizzle of maple syrup, half a sliced banana and a sprinkle of cacao nibs.

Miso soup mid morning.

L: avocado on seedy toast with chilli flakes and salt (would usually have scrambled eggs too). Half an uneaten slice of marmite on toast that DS left, which I shook some nutritional yeast over. Apple sliced up dusted with cinnamon.

D: will be leftover noodles with beansprouts and tofu (leftover from NYE - won't make me I'll will it?), with spinach, peppers, some carrot & red cabbage slaw I have in the fridge and toasted cashews.. Might make a peanut sauce to drizzle over to up the protein as not much tofu.

My only wobble might be some gingerbread flavoured rice pudding I made a few days ago that really needs using, made with cows milk. I hate waste but no one else likes it so might end up eating it

DH bought me some Booja Booha truffles for Christmas and I opened them last night. So lush! May have another tonight, trying to ration myself to one a day.

Welcome Steala by the way!

My only wobble might be some gingerbread flavoured rice pudding I made a few days ago that really needs using, made with cows milk. I hate waste but no one else likes it so might end up eating it

@DuggeesWooOOooggle I think it would be much worse ethicly to waste the cows milk rice pudding, than to eat it (sounds yum BTW)

Waitrose in Swaffham (Norfolk) is completely out of Oatly. There was one lonely box on the shelf this morning which I bought. I tried all of the alternatives a while ago and found the Oatly barista the best in coffee.

However, I noticed there is an almond breeze barista now so have bought that to try for our coffee this weekend.

Just tried the oatly after (sweetened) soya. By Gid it's good!

Thanks for the tip on Barnivore and the wine.

Got my Oatly via Tesco online.

Currently cooking red lentil pasta with some med veg.
Had avacado bagel earlier.

Have some Green & Blacks dark choc for later. Enjoyed the Alpro choc desserts yesterday too.

Can I just ask what everyone’s motivation is?

If it’s concern for animals then surely it should be a permanent change. If it’s concern for health then substituting animal foods with a load of processed crap isn’t going to work.

Ignore my user name

My motivation is neither of those things.

Just doing it as a bit of a challenge really.

My son had dairy and egg allergies so dh and dc are showing a bit of solidarity by doing this.

Family and friends have also said they will donate some money to charity if we make it to February.

My motivation is that I know I eat too much cheese and rely heavily on dairy. Taking a month out from animal products just highlights how much I use them and will hopefully give me the shove to try some new things which may become staples.

Some may want the change to be permanent Madness but feel like it's too big a challenge so try it for a month and then keep going.

But why is pouring this into your tea better than milk?

Oat Base (Water, Oats 10%), Rapeseed Oil, Acidity Regulator (Dipotassium Phosphate), Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Phosphates, Iodised Salt, Vitamins (D2, Riboflavin and B12)

For what it’s worth, I don’t drink milk so am not tempted by liquid oat either.

I'm going to do a week vegan just to reset where I am with food the same way as I plan to do dry January to reset my relationship with alcohol. I just really want a try a different approach for a while. I have no plans to stay vegan. I may do a veggie week and a pescatarian week too. It's good to try something new once in a while.

Madness in a way I agree with you. I think it's important to try to eat whole foods wherever possible and I went back to buying butter for that very reason - it being a much less processed food than a dairy free margarine. I don't really like my hot drinks without milk so I am trying these as an alternative while doing the veganuary challenge. I'm cutting down on tea & coffee anyway being pregnant so trying different herbal teas too.

I also have the environmental reasons in mind - cows release a hell of a lot of methane and you need lots of land for grazing as well as feed. But conversely you could argue that an avocado or almond milk is just as bad, needing gallons and gallons of water to produce, often in drought-ridden climates, and are then flown vast distances across the world.

It's hard to eat a 'perfect' diet that is healthy, locally produced, environmentally sound and has high animal welfare. Over the years I have kept coming back to a saying I saw back in 2009 I think (can't remember who said it):

Eat food
Not too much
Mostly plants

My main motivation is animal welfare - I could never treat a chicken or a cow the way they are treated to produce milk/eggs so I struggle with the idea of spending my money so that others will do it for me out of sight/out of mind. A secondary reason is health and weight. It's a lot to commit to stopping permanently so it makes sense to me to stop for a month and see how it goes.

Yes @DuggessWooOOoogle that is my approach, don’t eat meat, fish, milk, eggs. Just the occasional lump of cheese. But I don’t sub those things with processed stuff either. I became vegetarian before Quorn, Linda maccartny etc you couldn’t even buy tinned chick peas then so it’s never occurred to me to replace things I don’t eat. If I want an egg I will have one, not eat some weird concoction from the Netherlands

I just don’t really get the Vegan Madness trend.

It is definitely a trend and there's always plenty of companies that spring up to try and capitalise on that. And given you can't really make much profit by selling an apple, you can if you slice it, dehydrate it, put it in a plastic packet and sell it as 'raw apple crisps'.

I do like trying new things but I do try to be mindful of what's in it and how much it's packaged. Sometimes I will try to make my own. Lots of the bloggers etc out there have great recipes that don't overuse the processed stuff so I like to look at that.

I had wondered about your username StopTheVeganMadness as I've seen you post on another thread about vegans and again you said to ignore your username (why have it then?!). Which made me wonder what your stance was really - raging carnivore or someone against what for many is a consumerist lifestyle trend? I see it's the latter!

I see you have advance searched me! I cant be bothered to name change, it was just one that popped into my head. Perhaps I will now.

I’m not against anyone, even raging carnivores ( I am married to one and gave birth to two). Just curious about motivations.

For me, I just decided to stop, and I did. No trying it for a week or a month. Certainly not devout as I think that is impossible. (Plenty of nit killer has been used in this house)

There, is that better

No advanced search here Madness/Marvellous really wouldn't know how to!! I just remember seeing you saying the same thing about ignoring your username on another thread that's all!

Always good to question motivations, although sometimes I wish I could do a normal supermarket shop without the racking guilt. And shouldn't that be a local shop with paper bags rather than a supermarket....

What do you feel guilty about?

I don't expect perfection from myself (or anyone else of course), I just want to make better choices for a while in this particular area in accordance with my own beliefs and see how it goes. I don't know what could possibly be wrong with that!

But no one becomes vegan or vegetarian for a month - it is a long term commitment. I don’t often refer to my self as vegetarian because I don’t like the labelling /defining oneself.

I also think those who are vegetarian for animal welfare reasons are kidding themselves.

I feel guilty about food miles, packaging, buying meat that's probably not the highest welfare, fish stocks, fairtrade (or not), stuff that contains palm oil, additives, etc etc.

I feel guilty because I know what I probably shouldn't buy but then I sometimes buy it anyway because I like it/it's cheaper. And because if I didn't buy all the stuff I thought I shouldn't, mine and my family's diet would be pretty monotonous.

If you are avoiding dairy for animal welfare reasons only, have you looked at things like free range dairy? www.freerangedairy.org
Or even the calf-at-foot dairy? www.the-calf-at-foot-dairy.co.uk
Not trying to undermine the vegan lifestyle, just pointing out that there is more than one way to crack a nut.
High welfare, environmentally conscious livestock farming IS achievable, I often see it in practice. We, the consumer, just need to ask for it, and PAY for it. Producing animal milk in this country is a lot more sustainable than producing almond milk in California, or soy milk.

I also don't think it should really be called Veganuary - it's a sort of natty name (albeit a bit clunky) but really most of us are just eating plant based foods for a month which isn't the same thing.

If I was truly going vegan I wouldn't wear my suede boots or continue to use the lip balm that contains lanolin or my manuka honey handcream. Animal products are EVERYWHERE and it would require a huge long term lifestyle change to really be fully vegan. But this month challenge is almost like a taster and clearly the vegan society are promoting it as a way in to a lifestyle which is seen as a bit more hardcore.

I doubt I will carry it on long term and am also not mentioning it on social media as I like to think myself above such shameless trends plus if I give in to the call of the cheese I will definitely have egg on my face (pun intended ). But I'll hopefully try new recipes and find that I can live with less animal products in my life, if not none.

Well, good luck OP. I think most people would benefit from cutting back and eating a little more mindfully as a long term life change...

With the odd treat thrown in (I’m sipping champagne whilst stirring lentil bolognese).