Supporting Veganuary?

Happy 2019! To kick off the New Year and to detox after the festivities, a lot of people have pledged to take on the Veganuary challenge. Veganuary is a charity inspiring people to try vegan for January and throughout the rest of the year.

Our resident vegan shares her top tips for adopting a vegan diet from her own personal experiences, to help you navigate your Veganuary challenge:

Eating Out

Luckily for you, veganism has been on the rise in recent years and eating out has become a lot easier! Most restaurants will cater for your needs and some even have a full vegan menu. This is not always obvious from their menu they advertise either via online or posted outside the restaurant, so it is always worth calling ahead or popping into to ask the question.

If in doubt, download the Happy Cow app – a vegan and vegetarian restaurant finder to locate restaurants near you that cater to your dietary preference.

Find exciting recipes

I tried Veganuary back in 2016 before I was vegan and didn’t do much prior research and lived primarily off salads for the month. I really struggled and couldn’t wait for January to be over! When I went vegan later, I done a lot of research into exciting recipes so that I was enjoying what I was eating, and It didn’t feel like a chore!

Tip- there are a lot of vegan chefs/ internet gurus to get some inspiration from. My personal favourite is the Avant Garde Vegan- a vegan chef who shares his recipes veganising your favourite foods!

Eat More

When you eliminate meat and dairy products from your diet, you will likely find you are eating a lot more fruits, vegetables, legumes and foods that are naturally lower in calories. To avoid feeling tired and lacking energy, you might need to adjust your portion sizes to accommodate the lower calorically dense foods you are consuming to ensure you are not left with low energy levels.

Be prepared

Always bring a snack with you. Although vegan options are growing, there will be situations where you get caught out and be tempted to grab whatever is available when you are in a pinch! I love Nakd bars, and always carry one in my bag and has been a life saver for those times I have been caught out by train delays/ overrun meetings etc!

Find accidentally vegan foods

It may feel like a vegan diet is quite restrictive, and you have to live off of tofu and beans for the entire month, but a lot of your favourite foods are already ‘accidentally’ vegan.

My favourites include: peanut butter, Oreo’s, bourbon biscuits and Fox’s Party Rings!

Visit https://veganuary.com/ to make your pledge to take part in the Veganuary challenge, or to donate to support that amazing work that they do!