Vegan Month Recap

Boy was the month of January a LONG one. Whether it was because it was the first month in a LONG time that we didn’t have a birthday or Holiday to celebrate…or mabye it was because I was eating vegan. Either way, it was long. So I thought I’d recap how my experience went and curious to hear from anyone that did it with me or just ate more vegetarian dishes overall.

I did lose 4 pounds in the month of January (*see additional info) while I was eating vegan. This was very exciting for me because I don’t lose weight very fast. I am now 6 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight and my little sweet boy just turned 3 months. Not bad. I can fit into a few more pre-pregnancy pants, but not all of them. I think it will take another month or so to get there. Nonetheless, I am happy to be making progress.

I am not too concerned about getting rid of those last 6 pounds right away, because as a nursing mama I know that my body hangs on to a few extra pounds as maternal fat stores. I am totally fine with that knowing that I am nourishing this little guy.

(* Weigh-in was done a couple days ago so it was a pre-Super Bowl weigh-in and if you knew how many donuts I had yesterday, you might go running as fast as possible away from Nutritious Eats, but I feel obliged to tell you I ate….A LOT and I don’t usually do that. Ok- I feel better now).

Back to vegan month, I really didn’t struggle as much as I thought I would giving up all animal products for 31 days. I cooked a lot of great vegetarian dishes- tofu stir fries, vegetarian chili, soups, etc. I didn’t bake at all. I mostly ate oatmeal of high fiber cereal with soy milk for breakfast (no big change there) and snacked on lots of fruits and vegetables. On pizza Fridays, I had no cheese pizza with extra sauce and lots of veggies- mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, black olives, tomatoes and jalapenos. I missed the cheese a little, but not too much.

There were a few instances where feta made it’s way onto my plate- one accidentally eating out and one by choice. I craved eggs, deli ham and baked chicken. Rib-eye steak also started sounding pretty good towards the end and I rarely eat beef (I mean maybe a few times a year?).

Because I am exclusively breastfeeding and I kicked up my exercise a lot this month, I just felt like I was missing something at the end of the day. Maybe it  was calories…or maybe I was just missing the satisfaction from my regular protein sources.  It could’ve also been the lack of treats or baked goods. What ever it was, on some days I felt like I didn’t eat enough and no amount of fruits and vegetables would fill the void. Interesting. I think that with time that I’d get used to the diet. Another interesting thing is that I did not feel any different than eating my regular diet. No change in energy, digestion, etc. Ok, well maybe a little more gassy! Ha!

A few things I learned- soy substitutes like soy cheese, soy yogurt, soy sausage, etc. are NOT my cup of tea. No thank you. I would rather go without all dairy and meat than try to incorporate the fake stuff. So all in all, it was a good month and although I welcome animal products back into my life, I know I will be eating more vegan dishes than meat dishes in our new “normal” routine. For that, the experiment with worth it.

How about you? Did you eat more vegan or vegetarian dishes this month? How did it go?