HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Today I am celebrating 12 years of veganism and as I celebrate my
veganniversary, Mr Alien is starting Veganuary. YAY! I suspect a few of us
share a veganniversary and as someone about embark on Veganuary, I asked my
Mr Alien, AKA Simon, to say a few words about why he’s doing this.
Hi all, a bit of a different blog post today from Sal’s other half. As
I’m sure some of you know Sal married an omnivore and for the last five years
I’ve been quite happy with that…..well I say quite happy but I stopped eating
Pork, Lamb, Duck and fish as it didn’t seem right. Then last year I ended up in
hospital for a week, came out of hospital and had a recovery period of a few
months. I had found that dairy used to make me feel claggy in the throat, so I
experimented with different types and found that filtered milk didn’t make me
feel so claggy, so I moved to that. However, I still felt flat, lethargic and
had started to feel bad when I thought about the animals that were being used
in my food. So before Christmas, I had the following conversation with Sal:
ME: “you know, I think I am going to give Veganuary a try”.
Sal: “Really, or are you just saying that”
ME: “No I think I’m going to go for it”
Sal: “OK well think about it then”
So I did think about it and the more I looked into it and the benefits
it could have, the more it seemed the sensible decision to make. I even asked
comedian and Vegan, Michael Legge (@michaellegge on Twitter - if you’re not
following the Do The Right Thing Podcast you should; it’s brilliant) what he
would suggest, (not really expecting any answer at all let alone a serious
answer) but to his credit he suggested the following:
“Buy a decent flask, so when travelling you’ll have a readymade food
source from home, as the first few months will be finding out what will be
convenient for where you are and buy wet wipes.” *
(*I’m condensing and paraphrasing the tweets into one sentence!)
So here I am day 1 of Veganuary; I’ve had toast with peanut butter and
tea and coffee with no dairy in them (Oatly as the replacement). We have a meal
with in-laws later so I have found a pub with a vegan menu and we’re going
there and I’ll be spending the next couple of days using the book “Appetite for reduction” as a guide for vegan
meals to eat that are healthy as well.
I can’t guarantee I will stay vegan after January, but I am determined
to take it one day at a time and complete Veganuary. I strongly suspect that at
the end of it I may well be off meat completely, as I have been feeling that
way for a while now so let’s see where I am at the end of the month.
Simon
I guess this means I now have to share my booja booja chocolate with him? Shit.
Is anyone else doing Veganuary? if you are or if you are already vegan
and have some advice for Simon, let me know in the comments or come talk to me
on Instagram or Simon or I on Twitter (@SimonJamesEllis / @sal_on_toast)
Sal
xXx
Happy veganniversary Sal, and very excited to see Simon embarking on Veganuary!
ReplyDeleteYay I loved your YT videos so am excited for that! And Good Luck Mr Alien - you're in very safe hands I think :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure to go on, Simon! And with an experienced partner to guide you, no less. I think Veganuary is a good way to dip your toes in. I actually blogged my own transition in 2016, so I can at least look back and see how it was for me when I forget. Two big things jumped out at me when I was looking back at the posts I tagged "transition to veganism":
ReplyDeleteOne, I just ate a lot of the things I had eaten before, but vegan. I had loved pasta salad; I still love pasta salad.
Two, I let myself spend more money on food while I transitioned, knowing I would get the budget under control in time. I spent a year not depriving myself of any food I wanted. I tried all sorts of vegan substitutes for things and ate ridiculous quantities of chocolate. And I was right--after a year or so, I had a good sense of what I was doing, and now I spend less on food than I ever did then. So treat yourself! And have fun exploring!