One Last Nandos

Hello everyone, so this is my first blog post. 

As part of my 3rd year Digital Marketing course, we have to create a blog that will grab the attention of some kind of audience. While we could choose any topic to blog about, I decided I might as well use it as a kind of diary to track something that I've wanted to try for a while.

As an animal lover and food lover I've always been interested in the idea of being vegan, but it never seemed like it would fit in with the kind of lifestyle I have (and the fact I really like cheese). There was always something to put me off the idea: too much effort, money, time etc. So I've decided to use this blog to document my experience of trying a vegan lifestyle: as a student, part time worker, meat lover and general food enthusiast, and general Nandos-goer (attached you can find today's lunch).

For a while now, I've been trying to be more health-conscious and aware of the food I eat (despite the ironic Nandos above). It's almost hard to keep up with what is considered "healthy" anymore - should you be eating raw? High carb? Low carb? High protein? Who knows. But up until now I've usually leaned towards to side of a low carb/high protein diet being effective for weight loss, so it'll be interesting to see if this is still easy to achieve on a vegan diet, or if eating more carbs is inevitable. And while I'm not trying this lifestyle to lose weight, I think it will be interesting to evaluate my overall health over the next few weeks. 

My love of animals and complete disgust towards the meat/dairy industry is my main drive for trying this lifestyle. It's sad to think that even after watching so many horrific videos and reading horror stories I can still detach myself from the reality of what I'm actually eating and how it got on my plate. And as someone with not a lot of will power, I feel like actually documenting my experience will help me stick at it. 

So I'm going to be as brutally honest as I can. I'll be writing about how easy it is to shop for a vegan diet in the major supermarkets, and if there is a major difference in the end price of my shopping list. I'll be doing some research into the best vegan recipes, while considering how easy they are to follow and prepare. I'm also going to be evaluating how easy it is to stick to a vegan diet as a student who travels into university most days and is usually skint: is there a lot of on-the-go options, how much will they cost and how questionable will they taste... guess we'll find out.

As a side note, I should probably mention that I do know a few people who choose to eat vegan/vegetarian at the moment, who might read this and think I'm being melodramatic when I (inevitably) start complaining about missing KFC. Hats off to anyone who is doing it already, I have a lot of respect for you. But this blog is about going to be about how easy it is to adapt and integrate into a lifestyle which involves a lot of meat/dairy products already, and maybe even encourage someone else to give it a try.

So, like all of the best diets, I'll be starting on Monday - 09/10/2017.

Wish me luck, 

Rosie