Happy Vegan Journal

This is a vegan lent sample – all the food I ate for 7 consecutive days.

It tastes better than it looks. And it feels great.

The less you eat, the more you appreciate the food…the more you appreciate everything.

Body changes? Few. My skin looks better. My body feels lighter, I lost about 1 kg. My intestinal transit is excellent, no matter if I am stressed or not.

I did not experience any brain fog, extreme hunger or energy drops during the day. So far, so good: this can be very enjoyable 42 days. Even one vegan day makes a difference. It is a change, an experience, and it can be a good one.

Though this is a very down to Earth, simple, easy, and made-to-nourish-not-to-impress menu and exactly what I ate 7 consecutive days (that means a lot of leftovers, I avoid throwing food), I hope you will get some inspiration from it and will help you in your own discovery journey.

Let me share succinctly with you my experience and few impressions.

First Day

I had to eat out and I chose a restaurant likely to have vegan food. Turkey’s food tradition is defined by few famous vegan dishes. I was not disappointed, the food was cooked very well, delicious and I enjoyed everything. It also inspired me for future meals.

Vegetarian Kebab with eggplant, roll of rice and pine nuts in grape leafs, humus and figs with walnuts and a minuscule coffee, sweetened with a bit of sugar. That was the sugar that I had for the whole week. I skipped breakfast, I was not hungry. And for dinner I had lentils.

Day 2

I skipped breakfast.

I had for lunch lentils, beetroot soup, an assortment of roasted vegetables and my choco-nuts dessert. At dinner I could eat only little of the ultra nutritious Chili I made based on leafy greens and beans, I was not really hungry.

Day 3

If you think that for a vegan day you have to eat all day long because the food is not nutritious enough, this menu is something that can make you reconsider. This was all the food I ate during third day, one meal, at lunch time.

I carefully chose the ingredients for a maximum content and good proportion of essential nutrients, and cooked it by all traditional guidelines to make them as bioavailable as possible.

I had in mind to keep the carbohydrate load and insulin discharge to a minimum. The result: I was not hungry for dinner. I slept before 10.30 pm and slept very well.

Day 4

I thought I could go with one meal the second day as well.

Well,  I changed my mind in the end. The sourdough bread, ready in the evening, was just irresistible and I had no intention to resist it. I was also a bit hungry then; my menu was slightly poorer in nutrients than the day before, and the carb load slightly higher (I had rice and fruits).

I enjoyed my bread so much that I forgot to take the picture. I took the picture the next day, trying to keep the food record as exact as possible.

Fresh sourdough is a blessing. Just sourdough per se feels like a wholesome meal. I didn’t miss the butter that I usually have on top of it. I didn’t really miss anything.

Day 5

A blessed sourdough and (half) avocado morning.

I carried my lunch with me but I wasn’t hungry, so I ate it in the late afternoon as dinner.

Day 6

Blessed weekend – having my meals with my family, being under “social pressure” – having a few meals/day now. (In the picture it is not orange juice, it is orange water which I drunk over the next few hours: the fibers from my son’s freshly squeezed orange with water. Instead of having soup, he drinks sometime an orange.)

Weekend – applying the usual policy: eating raw food, cooking simple, finishing leftovers. They are still good.

Being vegan for a while it is not hard. I do apply the points I shared in my last article.

I usually don’t warm up this food. There is no need. Also the vitamins content goes down. For example vitamin C – goes down to half,  every time you reheat the food, also most of the B vitamins suffer, too. Room temperature is fine, especially because this food is cooked without any oil.

The taste is simple, sour. When I cooked the food, I used a huge amount of lime juice. The sour taste brings the feeling of satiety faster than salty and spicy food and the taste is mild and pleasant even if the food is served cold/room temperature.

I added one table spoon of oil on the germinated cargo rice (I usually add butter and is yummy), but it wasn’t really necessary, it is better without. Somehow my taste buds are reacting differently to food.

At the supermarket I wanted to buy organ meat to cook it for my family…and I couldn’t…I realized I can not handle it right now, maybe later. Vegan awareness 🙂

Day 7

I didn’t eat the pear.

Feeling good, happy and grateful.

Trying to speak less.  🙂

If there would be one thing to highlight in the end, would be this: vegan (or not), eat only when you are hungry and eat a proper, very well balanced meal. Eat food very slowly, chew extremely well. Bless the food and those who produced it and brought it to you. Enjoy.

And the journey goes on…