When I woke up on February 1st I assumed I was going to feel relieved that it was all over, but that was not the case. I was fully vegan until dinner where myself and my housemate Ellie decided we were overdue on a Dominos, but honestly I probably could have waited. Admittedly when I started eating it I was like “Oh man, this is sooo good” but I’m like that every time I have a Dominos, best pizza ever!

This was my second time doing Veganuary and it was way way way easier this time. You can read about my first time here. I think the first time it was a bit scary and required a lot of research into making sure I had a balanced diet. For the rest of 2019 most of my food had been vegan when I was cooking so I was pretty used to the lifestyle. And, I’ve been vegetarian since I was 8 so the step was fairly easy, it wasn’t like I was giving up lots.

What I was most pleasantly surprised with was how easy it had been to eat out and remain vegan! Last year I found I was looking up multiple menus to find a place I could eat out with my family, friends, or my boyfriend but it was easy! It’s great not to feel like a nuisance when eating out.

Whetherspoons had a whole section on their app dedicated to Veganuary which complied the list of all their vegan options which came in handy a couple of times over the month.

I also went to Zizzi’s with Will for our 3 year anniversary and had THE BEST vegan pizza I had ever had. The dessert was also AMAZE.

When I went to Northampton (I did a blog post on it here) we went to the Heart of England Pub which also had lots of vegan options

I also went to the Albion, which is a Greene King pub, for Will’s birthday which also had vegan choices 🙂

Spoilt for choice!

It’s funny reading this back and seeing how much I ate out and about for events in January- t’was clearly a busy month

I’ve been a flexi-vegan or a tryna-be-vegan for ethical/environmental reasons, to try and reduce my carbon footprint and doing it for a month is deffo the best way to get into it. Maybe you could start off by just trying it for a day?

I got Mumma Purvis into it for similar reasons (I asked her to join me in Veganuary for the last 2 years). When I asked her how she got on she said:

“It was tougher than I thought it might be (I might have gone a little wild over Christmas). I really missed the Mince Pies and cheese BUT, it did get better! It helped with feeling as though I had more energy.

I still miss the cheese.”

Mumma Purvis

I’m with her on the cheese! We’ve both sorta decided that we are going to continue being vegan in the house but allow ourselves to the treat of cheese (or chocolate too as is the case with moi) when we really want it or when we are eating out. That way it’s not a regular thing, and satisfies the craving without making us resent the diet. Ultimately we are cutting back.

I think that’s ultimately the important message I’m trying to get across here. It’s impossible to be perfectly ethical and not leave a mark on the environment; so as long as your are making small conscious decisions to try and cut back, even if that’s cutting meat out of a couple meals a week, you are helping.

So best of luck with your small conscious decisions! And thanks for reading x