I thought I'd do a little update about my more animal friendly eating habits and how I'm feeling. The meat-free thing has gone great - I haven't had any meat in a week now. I haven't eliminated dairy completely by any means but I'm eating far less than I was before. I will still eat fish and eggs occasionally, and I'm trying hard to cut out cheese and other dairy products (like chocolate, sob!) Eliminating dairy is something I've never done before and I'm finding that far more difficult than cutting out meat.
Here are a few meals I've had this week.
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| Salad, fruit, nuts, seeds, vegan cheese and croutons |
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| Salad, fruit, nuts, eggs, seeds, sun dried tomatoes etc |
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| Salad as usual with sweet potato chips & Mexican-style rice (out of shot.) |
A few days in I looked in the mirror, went to walk out of the bathroom and did a double take. My skin looked........different. It looked smoother, younger, and far less red than usual. Usually my freckles compete with my high red colouring and some brown age spots I've gained in the last few years (ugh) so it's like a party on my face. But the redness seems to have calmed down a bit so you can see the colour of the skin beneath. I've gone without foundation the last couple of days as I haven't felt like I needed it, and this is coming from the concealer queen as there's usually so much redness to cover!
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| This was taken yesterday |
About the same time I noticed my skin was looking better, I started to feel more well - that's the only way I can describe it. I haven't been sleeping well again but I've gone from laying in bed dreading getting up (and putting it off by reading my Kindle or using my phone to time waste on social media) to bouncing out of bed in the mornings. I'm not doing star jumps around the house by any means, but I do feel a slight change for the positive!
Then a couple of days ago I started to feel crap - I think it's because I'm not eating enough. I've felt headache-y and shaky. Because I did this impulsively with zero research I don't have enough meat-free ideas, and rather than 'cheating' I'm not eating when I run out of inspiration, and obviously that's not good. I'm probably missing some iron too so I'll get some broccoli and other greens down my neck soon. This way of eating will need lots more cooking/planning than before and that's an adjustment. Most normal people would have meal planned and researched before embarking on a lifestyle change, but as usual I dived in head first and I'm working it out as I go along. Typical Aries, I'm the Queen of winging it.
We've had a really social weekend and I avoided meat throughout it, so I'm happy about that. My friends brought round pizza on Saturday for our Eurovision party and I didn't partake. On Sunday I went to a barbecue and ate veggie burgers while everyone else (apart from James, who's veggie because of food phobias) tucked into juicy meat. Seriously, anyone who says fake meat burgers are delicious needs a gentle tap with a shovel but if I think with some salad or cooked onions it would've been bearable (but definitely not delicious - I think I'll go with bean burgers next time.)
So in all it's been a mixed week, but I'm optimistic I'll continue to feel good once I do some meal planning and get 3 square meals a day inside me. I'll probably do an update at a later date if I continue to find good things to report.
Thanks for reading,
Leah xoxo
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