Vegan challenge - days 6-9

I’ve been back at work, and in control of what I eat. I put on a pound last week, even though I wasn’t tucking into toffee lumpy bumpy at any given opportunity unlike my travelling companion.

Breakfasts - have been a variation on my usual theme ie smoothies, peanut butter on toast, museli. I have started buying cheap-o home brand museli and then adding little goodies such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and goji berries. Yum!

Snacks - I have been drinking lots of water as it has been warm, and snacking on dried fruits/nuts. Except for one day where I bought a packet of ready salted crisps from the refectory.

Lunches - I take my own lunch to work anyway, and the weather has been glorious this week so I have been taking it to the park to eat. Sandwich fillings have been a variation of hummous, salad and Sainsbury’s Tomato and Chilli relish. I usually have a piece of fruit and a soya yogurt.

Evening meals - Hmmm, I had veggie burger in a bun with salad on Tuesday. One night I made broccoli and pasta bake using this fake cheese sauce (which didn’t really taste like cheese but was OK), vegetable stir fry with rice noodles, and Redwood fishless fingers with baked potato and baked beans and side salad.

I don’t tend to use a lot of eggs and dairy in my cooking anyway, but I have become more aware that vegetarian cooking by non-veggies tends to be stacked full of eggs and cheese (hey, you’ve got to get your saturated fat from somewhere!).

Last night I did the weekly shop at ASDA for a change. I haven’t noticed much difference in food bills, but now there are huge swathes of the store I don’t visit. I call it the Royston Vasey effect ie “there’s nothing for you here”. One thing that is nice there is there selection of frozen fruit. I bought some frozen mango slices, since mango is a pain to prepare and then you have to scoff the whole thing before it goes off.

One negative thing I’ve noticed is that I had a dull headache for about three days. It’s gone now, but I wonder if it’s some sort of detoxification effect?