I fell off the vegan wagon and went on a cheese bender during dinner with Nick Clegg

And what a cheese bender it was: three courses - grilled halloumi to start, risotto with a big slice of goats cheese for main, and a selection of Cornish cheeses for desert.

I made it from Sunday (1st March) to 8.30pm on Thursday (5th March) without any meat, fish or diary before I succumbed to an excess of cheese.

I'd been invited to a Lib Dem dinner in St Ives on Thursday by Julia Goldsworthy (Camborne and Redruth Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) with Nick Clegg as the special guest.

The Deputy PM had spent St Piran's Day on a tour of Cornwall, and the dinner was too good an opportunity to miss.

The restaurant was able to provide a vegan option, but at the point in time I sat down at the table to check the menu, I was absolutely loathing this particular #40before40 challenge.

And, I didn't really care that I had broken the plan - the cheese was so good. 

My fellow dinners seemed to revel in my delight at being a rogue vegetarian for the evening. 

Falling off the vegan wagon in style - grilled halloumi

Mmm goats cheese risotto

Cornish cheese with frozen grapes....

So, how was the challenge for me?

Well, during the week it felt bad. I went into it feeling unwell anyway, but spent the first five days being ill and feeling nauseous.

I had to take time off work, I struggled to concentrate and I didn't want to eat what I was meant, or had to, in order to get enough energy on board. 

I also started to feel resentful at the cost of vegan-friendly food.

Cutting meat and fish was never the issue for me.

It was eggs and cheese that I missed the most, especially as I've attempted to eat more protein and less carbs over the last year.

Mrs P provided brilliant support, did the research, produced a meal plan and cooked up some amazing vegan food (she actually faired a lot better than me).

My snacks during the day were fine for a vegan diet, so I carried on with those (although I seemed to enjoy them less than normal), but I just couldn't get enough energy from my breakfast or lunch.

It got even harder when the girls both wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Bryher enjoying scrambled egg for breakfast

Olivia enjoying scrambled egg for breakfast

While the girls were eating scrambled egg, I was eating scrambled tofu

During the week there was a lot of debate and comments on Facebook and Twitter with vegan friends, as well as people we'd been recommended to follow.

And while I totally understand the ethical and sustainable reasons for being vegan, it was never the driving factor for me with this challenge.

It was to see if I could do it, as well as see if there were any health benefits.

It's difficult to tell if there were any health benefits. I did lose weight in the first couple of days, but that was probably from being ill, and it was back on by the third day.

I didn't have the energy to get out to do any training during the week, but I found I ran out of steam playing football on Saturday and when I went for a run on Sunday.

And I didn't enjoy having to go back to eating more carbs and sugar, and think that left me feeling drained.

I was also a bit unsure about the processed nature of a lot of vegan foods, and was slightly baffled by a recipe I found that called for vegan chorizo.

To me, it seems to defeat the object to eat vegan chorizo or Quorn chicken pieces.

I also felt annoyed by the cost of vegan-friendly food - this small piece of vegan flapjack (below) was priced at £2.50.

Okay, so it was homemade and did taste good, but it is possible to buy a piece of homemade flapjack from the Saturday farmers' market in Truro that is double the size for half the price (I know it probably has butter in it).

An expensive piece of vegan-friendly flapjack

One of my friends, who is vegan, commented that a minor suffering in my wallet or diet is nothing compared to the suffering of the animals used in food production.

And while I applaud his commitment and understand where he is coming from, I actually think that the high cost of vegan / natural food is a big issue, and one that potentially puts people off, especially those with families.

And while I've generally grumped about this challenges, there were some great food moments (as you will see from the pics below).

Farrinata

Vegan chocolate torte

Homemade dairy free pizza with beetroot, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, olives, rocket and pine nuts

Some of my homemade vegan flapjack

However, the flat white with soya milk was slightly unusual.....

I wasn't sure about the flat white with soya milk

What next?

This was probably the toughest, and least enjoyable, #40before40 challenges that I've undertaken in the last year. Running through mud and diving into a skip filled with iced water during the Rock Solid Race was more favourable!

But despite that, I've actually had a vegan lunch and dinner today (Monday 9th March).

It was good to have eggs for breakfast this morning, and I felt so much better for having the protein. My energy and concentration levels were much better and back to normal.

We're also considering some of our buying habits - we already get the bulk load of our eggs and meat from the Cornish Food Box - but we will now look into getting locally sourced milk from there as well.

On top of this we're also going to try and eat more vegan / vegetarian food.

So, we didn't make two weeks, but there is a good chance that some of the changes we made will continue for the foreseeable future.

Blog hijack: Mrs P’s take on the Vegan Challenge

I have been watching Mark’s 40 before 40 with mild amusement, and of course, encouragement -  I’m a nice wife like that. And I’ve been happy to sit on the sidelines, until the vegan challenge came along. I was intrigued. I’ve been happily tucking into meat, dairy and eggs throughout my 32 years – yet I find vegetarian food really tasty. It would broaden our eating horizons, be better for the planet. Plus I thought it would re-boot my diet and lifestyle and get me out of a weight loss and fitness plateau.

Mark and I approached the challenge in our usual style. He told anyone who would listen what he was up to (just as well he’s in PR), while I, being the strategist, did a LOT of reading. Meal planning, research, shopping lists, thinking about what I could eat for different meals.

And this is what I discovered – the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good:

My skin feels so much better. I suffer with stress, and it shows in my skin – beauticians have been horrified at how dry it has been this winter. Not anymore – take a bow, avocados, nuts and seeds.

I felt my energy levels were up. I was the sprightliest I think I’ve ever been on the school run!

A rainbow of colour on my plate. I finally was making my 5 a day! A full spectrum, from beetroots and carrots to leafy greens.

Reduced caffeine. Bog standard PG Tips tastes a bit gross with almond or oat milk. Plus I work in an office of 9 people – whilst they don’t all make tea, there are at least 6 tea runs on an average weekday. So I stuck to the odd cup of earl grey and hot water and lemon. And I haven’t missed it.

Not missing meat at all. That was surprising.

God bless Archie Browns – the ultimate veggie café where I could have a working lunch and feel normal. My fellow diners loved it too.

Discovering some great bloggers with inspirational recipes.

The bad:

Not particularly a cheap week on the food bill – nuts and snack things plus anything you might need to boost nutrients are ludicrously expensive. I wanted to get Chia seeds, swayed by the likes of Millie Mackintosh and her Instagram diet, to go in a nut roast and my breakfast smoothies. Not happening at about £12 a bag. That’s more than I pay for wine!

At least two slip ups involving dairy. Some contraband goats cheese on Wednesday night at a PR dinner. Mark also smuggled me some cheese-board remnants from another dinner, probably because he succumbed too and wanted an ally. I also snuck some cow’s milk into a single cup of tea on Saturday.

Loop holes. I am a professional diet cheat – did you know that curly fries are vegan? And Tesco value falafel? I suspect processed frozen food isn’t really in the spirit of things.

Late night toast binges with avocado or humous. Because if you’re used to high protein, lower carb, you never quite get the same “full” feeling.

Nothing to report in terms of weight loss – call me vain, but I was expecting some sort of action there. Probably explained by the two points above.

Discovering some smug bloggers. And as much as I’ve loved Deliciously Ella, she’s a bit too sunny and positive for this cynical, frazzled mummy.

The ugly:

I ended on Saturday night with an intensely bloated stomach. I’ve not eaten this much carbs or sugar for a long time. I looked pregnant again. All this gas can only emerge one way….

The conclusions:

I’ve taken a break from the vegan challenge today to take stock, and it’s been lovely. I’ve had eggs, smoked salmon, cow’s milk in my tea, all enjoyed mindfully, and I’m about to tuck into some amazing sausages from pork reared by friends of ours.

I’m really happy to cut down on my meat intake – for environmental and sustainability reasons more than anything. I also feel the milk industry is totally unsustainable. The girls drink a LOT of milk so we currently buy 4 pints of semi skimmed from Tesco for £1, which is kind on our household bills, but how is this kind to the farmers, much less the cows pumped full of hormone to produce it? For less than a price of a bottle of wine, I’d like to start sourcing our milk at a fairer price.

But in the medium and long term –I feel empowered that I can actually give something up (meat particularly) for a week without thinking about it. I think my efforts are best spent cutting down on my wine intake (sad but true).

I reckon clean and lean is the way forward for me. I’m thinking a kind of 5:2 vegan/veggie diet is the way forward. A couple of days a week vegan, a few veggie and a few with a bit of high welfare, decent meat. Minimal wheat and less alcohol.

I think that’s what old-fashioned dieticians would call a “balanced diet” and “everything in moderation”. Funny, that.

Going vegan: Day 2

Today has been a struggle. 

When you considered I'm only 48 hours into this challenge, then it is a slight concern. 

I've felt hungry most of the day and feel like I really missed my eggs for breakfast. 

Breakfast:

Porridge with linseeds, sunflowers seeds, pumpkins seeds, maple syrup and oat milk. 

Before the more protein diet, this is pretty much what I had everyday for breakfast for about eight or nine years (swap maple syrup for honey and oat milk for soya milk). 

Even on honeymoon in America when Mrs P would be tucking into quesadillas, I'd be having oatmeal. 

I always got hungry fairly quickly after eating porridge, which seems to go against what people say, but since starting the day with omelette I can last longer before needing to snack.  

Well, by 9am this morning I was starving, although I managed to keep going until 10.30am on water and green tea. 

Snacks during the day at work are the same as before. Morning: peanuts and then celery with peanut butter. Afternoon: oatcakes with peanut butter. 

Lunch:

A Rick Stein-inspired stew with chickpeas, potatoes and tomatoes. Normally we have this with salted cod, but we replaced the fish with tofu. We also added spinach. 

It was lovely and tasted great, but again I was pretty hungry soon after. 

Despite snacks and copious amounts of green tea, I had to make an emergency dash to local veggie shop, Archie Brown's, to pick up some vegan chocolate. 

And while the 'chocolate' did the trick in giving me an energy boost, it did have a negative impact on my wallet: £5.68 for two small bars. 

There does seem to be a common theme with the cost of vegan-friendly food. We'd been recommended chia seeds, but at £11.99 for a not very big bag, I gave that a miss. 

Here comes the non-science part

Really struggled today with being hungry. It affected my concentration at work, which was not ideal as I had a lot to catch up on. Still not 100% recovered from the bout of manflu. 

I really want to eat eggs in the morning!

I'd like to order the vegan option please......

Sunday 1st March

A phrase I've already started to use, and am probably going to be uttering a lot more over the coming two weeks / month (not fully decided on the timescale yet) of this vegan challenge.

Despite this blog being called #40before40 and the fact that I turned 40 just over five weeks ago, I am carrying on with some of the tasks I didn't get round to before the big day.

I am being joined on this challenge by Mrs P, who has done a lot more research than me and sorted out a meal plan for the next fortnight.

It's great to have her support and she is going to be contributing to this blog along the way.
How she will cope with at least two weeks off the cheese will be an interesting social experiment......

I had a bit of a meat and dairy blowout yesterday on the last day before becoming a temporary (probably) vegan: American pancakes with scrambled egg for breakfast; flat white; leftover Chinese for lunch with pork, beef and chicken; and chicken fajitas for tea.

Mmm American pancakes with scrambled eggs and honey

Flat white with real milk

Chicken fajitas.....

What am I going to miss the most?

Well, I eat a lot of eggs and cheese.

As part of my bid to tone up (see last blog entry), I attempt (and often fail) to have a diet that is more protein than carbs. As a result of this, we get through a lot of eggs each week.

I also like to snack on cheese during the day and night.

I've probably being eating more meat since I altered my diet about a year ago, but in the 10 years Mrs P and I have been together we've never really had a weekly menu that is heavy on animals.

We've generally balanced it out with fish and veggie food.

How's the first day been?

It's been pretty good, although I have had bouts of hunger.

I went out for an earlyish run and then attempted to recreate my normal protein breakfast, but instead of omelette I opted for avocado and sunflower seeds, with a bit more mushroom than normal.

At least Nando's garlic peri-peri sauce is vegan-friendly....

Attempting a 'normal' breakfast sans eggs

I probably should have gone for porridge, but as we were having wholemeal pasta with homemade (vegan) pesto for lunch and wild mushroom risotto for dinner, I didn't want to have too many carbs.

But I found myself getting really hungry after lunch and started to snack on fruit (apple with cashew butter, as well tidying up one of Bryher's half-eaten bananas).

I've really enjoyed eating less carbs over the last 12 months and do feel better for it.
I've also cut out a lot of fruit, as prior to my personal training sessions I could eat around five pieces a day, every day, which is a lot of sugar.

Biggest obstacles

Not going overboard again on carbs and fruit
Not eating the girls' leftover ice-cream
Not tucking into some cheese and cream crackers with butter (right now)

At least the vegan-friendly snacks seem okay

Here comes the non-science part

I weighed myself this morning and was 13st 1lb.
Generally feel okay, but getting over a bit of sickness / manflu from Thursday and Friday