Veganuary – Going Vegan For January

Veganuary?

Veganuary is a charity that encourages people Worldwide to eat a vegan diet for the month of January.  They are dedicated to changing public opinions whilst supporting people to change the way they eat.  Making this change can improve your health, help the planet and reduce animal suffering.  You can read more in-depth information about it on the Veganuary website here.

My Veganuary Reasons

I think humans consume far too much meat.  As a family, we rear a lot of our own meat.  If we only ever consumed the chickens we raised, we definitely wouldn’t eat chicken on such a regular basis.  Rearing them ethically and with kindness takes time and space.  Mass produced chicken is produced intensively in a small space and goes from chick to table within just a few short weeks.  Our chickens take months.

Meat is consumed with almost every meal now in the UK.  When raising animals healthily and with kindness, keeping up with the demand at which we currently eat surely isn’t sustainable?!  Some of my sheep are coming up to a year old and are very free range (they’re somewhere within 126 acres, sometimes I feel like Bo Peep with my missing sheep!) and still aren’t all at a size where they’d normally be slaughtered.  The sheep in the picture with the black face is called Nala.  She thinks she’s a dog!

With Brexit, the whole sentient law really worries me.  I am realistic about animals and I am capable of slaughtering and processing my own meat (I think I’d feel hypocritical if I couldn’t do it myself).  However,  I don’t want to be consuming meat if it’s being imported in from who knows where.  What will the life of those animals be like?  What will they be fed with, injected with?  Opens up a huge can of worms.

Humpy Dumpty

2017 has really been my fat year.  I look like Humpty Dumpty’s twin!  I’m heavier right now than I’ve ever been and I really hate it.  I’m looking forward to going back to basics as I did when I was clean eating.  I felt so much healthier when I was clean eating and filling my body with whole nutritious food rather than convenient crap.  That’s not to say I eat particularly badly, but I don’t make good choices in the evenings.  Also, I love cheese.  Love it.

Oh cheese, I’m going to miss you.  I love brie, edam, cheddar, red Leicester, stilton, baked camembert, boursin, smoked cheese.  Oh, cheese…

Planning

I’ve been planning what I’m going to be eating this week.  One wouldn’t want to go into battle unprepared.  I’ve had some really helpful advice from some lovely people in a Veganuary facebook group, which has been invaluable.  Louisa has some great Vegan recipes on her site.  Shopping has been purchased and meals have been planned.  I’m really excited to start!

I’ve got vegan spread to replace butter, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, tins of beans and pulses, vegan cheese (wonder what that will taste like) and vegetable crisps (yummy!).

I’ll be sharing my journey on Instagram so do pop along and check out my story here.

If you have any tips on going Vegan, I’d love to hear them.  Thanks for reading.