Picture this.

I’m sitting in a meeting at the Dairy Council — we had a meeting in Chicago last week.

Not really the ideal client in terms of meal time choices when you’re trying to be a vegan for a week.

But I started off strong because I planned ahead.

I brought some homemade trail mix — almonds, walnuts, and pistachios with a bit of dried fruit (dates) and cacoa nibs — great mix for sure.

When break time came and they had plates of cheese, fruit, and crackers — I skipped the cheese and only grabbed the fruit.

But then dinner came.  A fantastic steakhouse.  I stayed calm, looked at the menu online ahead of time, and while challenging, I saw some options.

Then I learned they had a pre fix menu for our group.  And only 1 food on the entire menu, from appetizers to dessert, was vegan.

It was the grilled tofu entree.

Do I stick to my guns and order the tofu, not eat anything else, including the appetizers, sides, or dessert?

Or I do I skip the plan this one time and get back on track the next day?

Well here’s the problem — I don’t like tofu.  I don’t mind it in things, but a grilled piece of tofu doesn’t appeal to me at all.  If they had some other options, I would have stuck to my guns — but I caved.  And wow was my steak fantastic. 

So what are the 5 lessons learned from our vegan week trial?

1. Planning Ahead is more important than ever – whether following a vegan diet or simply trying to stick to your current plan, if you don’t plan, you’ll continue to chase your dreams.
2. You have to be creative to keep interest high — like any diet or nutrition plan, creativity is the key.  Use healthy cookbooks, magazines, etc to find and try new recipes.  If you’re eating the same things, day in and day out, you’ll have a tough time reaching your goals.
3. Stay away from prepackaged junk — now, we didn’t really LEARN this during our vegan diet, but it was more true last week than ever.  It’s easy to turn to prepackaged vegan foods instead of preparing meals. 
4. Vegan diets make you think — a lot.  Normally when we’re hungry for a quick bite, cottage cheese and fruit, Greek yogurt and fruit, or maybe just string cheese and a handful of prepped veggies fit the bill.  Not this time.  You really have to think and plan a lot more than usual when so restricted with eating.
5. We will stick with a couple days/week of vegan/vegetarian living as it forces creativity, new meals, loads of veggies, and it’s good to get away from meat all the time.  But for us, it’s not a permanent lifestyle.