The Kind Diet

My book finally arrived!! Last night, I spent over 3 hours reading it when I got home, as well as reading it on my lunch break as soon as I got it, and whilst waiting for the bus this morning (it was raining – I normally walk) but I was quite happy to get to spend that time reading.

Look at it, happily sitting on my desk at work.

It’s such a good read – and hard to tear your eyes away from. I found myself questioning the things I was eating and if I was to blame for my bad health? I wouldn’t say I ate badly,  I stayed away from processed things because I knew they were full of rubbish, but I didn’t actively seek out good things, either. I didn’t think about why we needed to eat our greens, and the importance of adding extra ingredients into our food in order to hit our dietary requirements.

I’d snack on chocolate bars – but why wasn’t I snacking on dried fruit? At least that way I’d still be snacking but getting some goodness from it.

So as of today – I am going 90% vegan for a month. I say 90%, because I’ll still be eating fish. Fish is the easiest ‘meat’ product for the body to digest – and hopefully that should help the phasing in process – going 100% hardcore might push the cravings a tiny bit and I don’t want that. Also, the fish dish I’ll be cooking is salmon, brown rice, and vegetables so it’s still good and healthy and something I cook rather often – great for the one night of the week when I need to not be concentrating on what I’m cooking too much!

So because of this transition, I had to shop online. I usually go to the Tesco down the road, but it isn’t a huge supermarket and doesn’t stock everything I’d like. Instead, I logged on to Asda online and bought my shopping from there. Vegetables, yoghurt, brown rice, salmon, spices, maple syrup and a few other treats. I tried to get organic wherever possible and was waiting for the huge bill at the end when I saw this:

Can you see that there? Probably not because it's tiny, but it says "£32.12" Can you believe it?! Just over £30. For organic vegan food. £32.12 for a week’s shopping!! I try and get in budget of £40 when I normally shop and more often than not I do not hit target. Sometimes I end up spending as much as £60-70 if we have a week free of veggie meals (which I’ll admit we haven’t been doing since Christmas!!) so a £32.12 shopping bill was a wonderful surprise. Even with the £5.50 delivery charge – I think I’ll be doing my shop on a Thursday evening more often to save both pennies and precious time on a Saturday!

So to break down the bill: here’s what I bought:

1 Mange Tout & Babycorn £1.50  

1 Clipper Fairtrade Green Tea £0.86  

1 Organic Salmon fillets £3.47  

1 Billington's Fairtrade Natural Golden Granulated Unrefined Cane Sugar £1.48  

1 Rhubarb £2.97  

1 Organic Red Kidney Beans in Water £0.55  

1.0kg Butternut Squash £0.97  

1 Courgettes pack £1.00  

1 Lemon £0.23  

1 Easy Cook Brown Rice £1.26  

1 Whole Earth Crunchy Peanut Butter £1.50  

1 Organic Watercress, Spinach & Rocket Salad £1.24  

1 Celery Sticks £1.00  

1 Garlic Granules £0.58  

4 Organic Chopped Tomatoes in Tomato Juice £2.28  

2 Alpro Soya Plain Yogurt Cultures £2.00  

1 Ground Coriander £0.32  

1 Vermont Canadian Maple Syrup £2.50  

1.0kg Sweet potatoes £1.18  

1 Curly kale cabbage £0.97  

1 Eat Natural Free From Almond Bars £1.98  

1 Morinu Silken Tofu Firm £1.00  

1 Strong & Absorbent Kitchen Towels  £1.28  

And with all this I shall be making:

Spicy Chick-Pea Stew with Brown Rice

Brown Rice Penne with Tomato Sauce, Kale & Salad

Kale, Sweet Potato & Peanut Stew with Brown Rice

Salmon, Brown Rice & Vegetables

Brown Rice Spaghetti with Courgette & Lemon

Butternut Squash & Chilli Stew

I bought some Alpro Soya Plain Yoghurt to go on my gluten-free muesli for breakfast, and I snapped up some rhubarb which I’m going to make into a compote by simmering it down with some organic unrefined sugar. This will probably make a lot of compote and if I have too much I’ll just bring it in to work to share with the girls.

Speaking of which – me chattering on about healthier eating has spurred on some of the others in the office to try it along with me! It’s great having the support of other people - especially when there so many negative connotations surrounding veganism.

And I hopped on the scales this morning – I’ve lost 4lbs! In a couple of days of not even trying and not even cutting it out altogether. Just eating salads at lunch time and snacking on healthier things. I’ve not had a glass of wine in over a week.

So I am completely sold. I’m feeling better, I’m losing a few pounds, and I’m saving money – what’s not to like?!

I’ll be sure to keep you posted on this journey as I go along and I hope to inspire some of you to consider even becoming a part-time vegan to make some pretty good improvements.