Review: 22 Days of Being Vegan

 Earlier on in the year, just after I tragically broke my finger on my birthday, I read a review in a magazine of a girl who just finished the 22 Day Vegan Detox. When I first read it, I had no clue Beyonce and Jay Z had done it (apparently for spiritual reasons) but what the girl said about it appealed to me so much. She mentioned how clean and energetic she felt after it, and how much she loved doing it. At the time I read it, I had just finished one month of being doped up on prescription painkillers after an operation on my ankle and just about a week after I ended up being put back on them for breaking my finger. I do not understand how people can be addicted to pills like these. They made me lazy, they made me gain weight, they made my skin so bad, they made me sleep all day to the point I missed so much school that I am still behind nearly six months later. All I wanted to do was feel clean and energetic and confident, so I thought it was perfect.

I first read about it around the 15th February and decided to become vegan on the following Monday, 24th February for three weeks and one day. I walked to and from school every day, twenty minutes, and did vigorous exercise twice a week, from Zumba classes to jogging with the dogs. 

You'd probably be more interested in hearing about my diet during these times so I thought I would write an example meals:

*I should also mention before I was vegan, I ate anything: meat, dairy products, animal products etc*

Breakfast:

- Porridge with almond milk (or water if we were out) with cinnamon, a chopped up banana and agave nectar

- Home-made fruit smoothie (no milk, just ice) 

Lunch:

- Rice cakes with hummus and celery/peppers/cucumber/carrots

- Salad with no dressing

Dinner:

-  Teriyaki tofu on vegetable fried rice

- Stir fried vegetables and vegan noodles

- Vegan sausages and sweet potato fries

Snacks:

- Lightly salted Kettle Chips with hummus

- Fruit or vegetables

- Vegan chocolate with almond butter

Drinks:

- Only water

- (Iced) black coffee around 3 times a week                   

Those were just some of my most common meals. Breakfast was probably the easiest meal of the day and even when I am not vegan I still eat porridge. Dinner was also really yummy, but I do really hate the texture of tofu. For those who haven't tried it (and do yourself a favour and don't), it is squishy and soft and tastes like flavourless mush. Lunch was 100% the hardest, I'm at school during lunch and often starving watching everyone else eat sushi, pasta and everything I cannot eat, but I'm sitting there dipping my carrots into hummus (I ate a lot of hummus being vegan). I would almost go as far to say it was degrading. Well that is a tad of an over exaggeration but don't be pedantic. Another really hard time was my morning trips to Starbucks with my friend, I decided to limit coffee to only three times a week but Starbucks was the worse. Wishing I could order 'an iced white chocolate mocha' but having to say 'an iced black americano' can destroy a soul. Other soul destroying moments continued to be when you are ordering food with your friends and the only vegan thing on the menue is 'a side salad with a side of chips' and finding out McDonald's chips are not vegan!

Being vegan didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. I was often hungry, but it helped me concentrate on my school work as a distraction, and often irritable. I cannot confirm this was from being Vegan but one can presume. My skin didn't clear up till after I was vegan, unfortunately being vegan can even make your skin worse. The weight I lost, 13lbs, is easily put back on but i've worked hard to keep most of it off. A perk whilst being vegan? Most bubble teas are vegan! 

Stopping being vegan was weird, I still feel almost anxious walking into a restaurant and having the ability to order anything. There are times when I miss the vegan diet's limitations so often I go back to being vegan for a day or two.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Is it hard? Yes.
If you've ever done an extreme diet/detox like mine comment below! I'd love to hear about it! Any questions about being vegan, i'd be happy to answer them. If you'd like to read more about the vegan detox, leave your requests below and maybe i'll do some recipes! 

Disclaimer: I do not have any form of eating disorder or craving to be an unrealistic goal. I didn't do this detox to lose weight and I am not promoting doing detoxes or trying to lose weight by drastic measures. I did this detox to rid my body of all my medication, toxins and pathogens, gain energy, confidence and to help my brain focus on school work. All of the above was achieved. This post was not sponsored, nobody told me to become vegan and no food mentioned was sent/gifted/sponsored.