Last year I set myself 2 New Year’s Resolutions at the start of the financial year. I liked this because it gave me 3 months to think of them after everyone else did, and so I am going to do the same again this year. Two of these are repeat and/or slightly altered resolutions and then there is one big new one at the end. That’s the headliner so it comes last.
Resolution 1: Run 200 miles
Last year’s target was 365 miles, one for every day of the year. I liked this at the time because of the challenge of it and the fact that it averaged out to one mile a day. However, it is not possible for me to run 1 mile a day. I am a grown up and I have Responsibilities. They are annoying, I know but it means I can’t do it every day. As I struggle when I get to slightly longer distances I think lowering the target is a sensible thing to do. I get numb feet somewhere between 2 and 3 miles usually. This is something that I went to see a podiatrist about last year and hopefully the situation is improving, but we will see.
Resolution 2: Get to a weight the NHS thinks is healthy
This is another roll over from last year’s resolutions. As I was exercising my weight dipped but it is now pretty much back at the same as the start of the year. I would need to lose around 3-4 kg to get into this banding.
Resolution 3: Go vegan
This is the big one for this year. I have been vegetarian for what I would guess to be about 15 years now. It has become much easier to be a vegetarian over that time as it has become more popular. I have noticed that restaurants will offer much more choice (I actually don’t like this – it can give me analysis paralysis. I much prefer to have to pick from 2 or 3 items), there are more vegetarian restaurants springing up all time time and it has become a lot less niche.
The same can be said for veganism over the past few years. You can now walk into WH Smiths and see a wide range of vegan cookbooks which I’d have never imagined possible when I originally went veggie.
So why am I turning vegan now? The main reason is that I have had a few occasions where I’ve had an upset tummy which seem to be mainly when I have a lot of dairy. Pretty much any time after eating a pizza is a good example.
Over the last couple of months, I have been slowly replacing the dairy in my diet with substitutes. Milk has been replaced with Oatly. Butter has been replaced by Vitalite dairy free. Cheese has been replaced by Koko (this has been the biggest sacrifice as it basically tastes like cardboard). Yoghurts have been replaced by Alpro. I’ve basically become a vegan when eating at home. And it hasn’t been difficult. There’s nothing I am missing really, I am feeling less unwell and it has been a positive in my life.
I’ve got an awesome cookbook called Bosh which not only has a cool name but has given me a lot of inspiration for meals and has even make me grow as a human being and start making a dish that contains mushrooms (I bloody hate mushrooms).
Now all I need to do is to ensure that when I eat out, I am also eating vegan which is likely to be the trickiest bit. I live in a small town and there probably aren’t too many options available at all the restaurants and definitely none available at some of them. It will be ensuring that if I pick any snacks up, or forget a packed lunch or anything similar that I am ensuring that what I am buying is vegan.
So one element of it is that it now seems like a feasible option for me. The reason I went vegetarian was primarily because I realised I could live without causing animals to die. Now I have realised that I can live without causing them pain and that feels one step better.
I have never be preachy about vegetarianism. If anything I’m apologetic. I’m British, that’s our thing. So I don’t intend to be preachy about veganism although I would be happy to talk to you about it if you wanted.