Tag Archives: VB6

This a week late, I apologize! There’s just a million things going on and that I want to write about, trying to get through them all leads to some articles being delayed.

As you can probably tell from my most recent food posts, I’ve gone back to my old way of eating. Well, that’s not technically true, I’m aiming to eat less meat and dairy and stick to a cleaner (that is fewer processed foods) diet, but I have added some meat, dairy and definitely eggs back in.

You’re probably wondering if I feel any different or if it made me feel better or worse, right? If I’m being honest, when I stuck to the vegan diet religiously without any slip-ups, I felt really great. I could tell my blood pressure was normal (lack of a racing heart when I’d get stressed) and any excess water weight I’d been carrying around had disappeared. My clothes fit better, my rings circled around (I love when this happens) and overall, I felt really positive.

My guess is that you’re probably wondering why I decided to stop eating vegan and go back to regular eating if I’m talking about all those positives. That’s simple, I felt myself starting to slip. Towards the end all I could think about eating was an egg with a runny yolk being soaked up by bread. When I start getting consumed by those thoughts, I know I’m losing control and in order to maintain a healthy(ish) diet, I need to add those foods that I’m craving back in, just in moderation.

Do I feel like I gave my all to this challenge? In a word, no. I definitely did not give this challenge my all, my husband can testify to that. I complained constantly about not being able to have the delicious smelling chicken he had made for him and Emmett or about how I was getting bored of beans (though, I love beans and could eat them everyday). So all I could think about for pretty much the last 2 weeks was being done, and resuming my regularly scheduled diet and that’s not really fair to the challenge. The issue wasn’t with the challenge itself but with my inability to stick with anything.

I want to try again, but I want to take a different approach this time. Cutting these items out cold turkey may work for some and maybe even the majority but I don’t succeed that way. I’m currently in the midst of reading Vegan Before 6, by Mark Bittman. From what I’ve read so far, the concept is pretty simple, you follow a whole foods plant based diet until 6 pm, and then for dinner you enjoy whatever kinds of foods you want. Just a side note, the time 6 is just a number, basically you follow a vegan diet until your dinner and then eat whatever you want. I will do a full review of the book once I’ve completed it and have put the diet into practice for a few weeks. While following VB6 (as it is often referred to), I won’t put a time limit on it. If I follow it and love it, then I’ll just keep on going. By putting the 30 days on something, I am telling myself that I can quit in that time-frame rather than sticking with it until it either becomes habit or doesn’t work any longer.

Do I recommend the 30 Day Vegan Challenge? Absolutely! I learned a heck of a lot through the entire month and I also experimented with different foods that I previously would have never tried. If you do well with cutting foods out cold turkey, then this will absolutely work for you and I 100% endorse the challenge and you giving it a try.

I wish I had a more positive final post for this challenge, but I’m working on it and little by little I will get to where I want to be. I’m just still finding my path.

Have you given any new challenges a try?

In case you missed it, you can read Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 here.