30 DAY VEGAN CHALLENGE // WEEK 1

Yesterday marked my official one week of going vegan. What I originally wanted to do was blog everyday about it, but truth be told, life always happens and it’s busy. I knew I had to carve out some time to document what I’ve ate, felt, and learned though. It’s been pretty real.

My reasons for taking on this 30 day challenge are simple:

- I needed a kick starter to get back on my healthy track.
- I’ve always been intrigued by the vegan lifestyle, but always said I could "never” give up cheese.
- I needed something concrete in telling me what I CAN and CAN’T have.

So I challenged myself to the whole month of June and this is what I have discovered after my first week:

Whole Foods is a vegan’s dream! There’s so much vegan approved deliciousness going on that you forget about any kind of meat or cheese! It’s pretty amazing, but pretty expensive. Meal prepping is a must.

I stopped feeling bloated when I woke up in the morning. For the past month or so, even when eating healthy the night before, I was waking up feeling sort of gross. My stomach felt as though I had ate a heavy meal or tons of carbs, even when I hadn’t. That feeling went away all together.

I don’t crave or need coffee. Yes, crazy. I know.

The detox is real. Day 1 – 4 were great then day 5 hit me with an intense migraine. For someone who never gets headaches it was really bad. I was at work and mid-morning it just hit me. It didn’t register at first that it might have something to do with going vegan, but after doing a little bit of research I found my body was ridding itself from all the junk that had been living in it since I don’t know how long, 26 years? Not only that, but I developed a crazy sore throat as though I would come down with something soon. I never caught a cold though. I just have this weird cough that, from other people’s experiences, happened to them also in the beginning of their vegan lifestyle. Apparently my body is having withdrawals, and that is pretty scary. What was in the food I had been eating to make my body respond this way when giving it up?

I don’t crave meat or cheese the way I thought I would. In fact, I actually have ventured out to try new recipes and food that otherwise I wouldn’t have thought about. It’s pretty fun!

I’ve lost 8lbs. I haven’t had much time to work out and I am not starving myself either. So that’s a really good drop in body fat I believe. I weighed myself 3 times to make sure.

Those are the most significant changes I’ve seen and felt so far. I’ll try to do a better job of blogging daily, but no promises! (I really, really, really wanna get there though!)

Xo,
P