Part One : What is half a Vegan?

It sounds like a bad joke I know.. or like “Yeah I’m totally a vegetarian, except for …” so basically you’re not.

If you’ve read the section on the page called Half Vegan & Gluten Free? What? then you’ll know its basically the foreword to this rambled mess of a blog. Just incase, here’s the link..

Half Vegan & Gluten Free? What?

It explains, kinda, why I have done a complete dietary turnaround since Monday. Yep Ladies and Gents, I am a grand total of 6 Days into this and I feel the need to blog about it. Not because I think its interesting for other people, although you never know maybe someone out there reads this and goes ohh maybe this will help me. It’s more a case of wanting to document it. Yeah I know it doesn’t need to be public but well… why not.

So… Last week I did the Food intolerance quiz. Grand total of 40 points which basically says, DUDE something is wrong. Have a look at what your body is telling you. I used to think that my so far diagnosed Lactose intolerance was the culprit of the Tummy Aches and Reflux. Bread with BUTTER, Tea with MILK, Pasta Sauces, Cakes, Salad Dressings, etc etc. I was constantly eating dairy and thinking that was the cause but it wasn’t too bad. A Few tummy aches I could deal with. Until the Reflux came and has progressively become less manageable.

Then I realised. When I eat Oats with Soya Milk (I tried the change to Soya a few times as a Lactose Free alternative and it didn’t seem to help all that much) I get Tummy ache. Oats give me Reflux. Now there is no Lactose in Oats, nor in Soya. Somethings not right there.

Peanuts. Love them but Oh do they dislike me. I did the test, came out with a stupid amount of points and read up on the Virgin Diet. I’m not focusing on the Weight Loss aspect of it at the moment. My goal is to feel better in myself. JJ Virgin ( The lady who came up with the Diet) basically says most people have Intolerances that they are not aware of. Trying the Elimantion Diet and then reintroducing the potential baddies to test your system after it has healed is the best way to start from scratch. So that is what I have decided to do. There are books available to purchase which explain her theory and what you are allowed to eat and why and why now but I have stuck with the freely available information on the Net. JJ says you cut out Dairy, Gluten, Sugar, Peanuts, Soya, Eggs and Corn completely. You eat protein rich meals three times a day. NO SNACKING! This keeps your blood sugar at a more even level and allows your liver to work better. No eating three hours before bed. Eat breakfast within the first hour of waking up. The Plate should have 170g Lean Protein, 1-2 Servings of Good Fats, 1 Serving of Gluten Free High Fiber Carbs and atleast 2 Servings of Non starchy Veg. Thems the Rules and if you follow them you will feel better.

So, tried & tested and….. found to be true. The only problem I had at first was WHAT AM I GOING TO EAT!!!!! I live in Germany, in a small town in the arse-end of no where. (Fuseltown City Whaddup!)  We have more supermarkets Colchester, Essex Town center and we are maybe about a quarter of the size and yet try and find products which are Dairy, Egg, Gluten, No added Sugar, Peanut, Soya and Corn free. Oh they are there. For example our local Edeka Supermarket has a whole 2m aisle which has milk alternatives… which are either stupidly expensive or Soya. Can’t have Soya so expensive Rice milk it is. Bread? Sure…you can either have Gluten free with Corn added or Gluten Free with Soya added. Amazing. No bread for me then. Margarine – Well don’t need that if you can’t get bread so yay! What I can have: Quinoa, 400g for about 5€ or Amaranth Flour for about the same price. (By the way, I made the mistake of buying it and making crackers… don’t try it, it smells and tastes like DIRT) Veggies im allowed in masses so woohoo.

Panic stations, I can’t eat anything!! Well that’s not quite true. This is where the “Half Vegan” gets explained… When you take animal products you get dairy, meat and Eggs. I can eat Meat but not the others so therefore half Vegan. Ok so technically its one third Vegan but when things become fractions I become confused and Half vegan has a better ring to it! So there it is explained. I’m a Half (ish) Vegan who also eats Gluten free! Realising this also makes pinteresting recipes much simpler!

Now that Half Vegan has been explained I’m going to go onto what I can actually eat but in the next Post. I’m going to be banging a few out in quick succession to get caught up for this week, unfortunately I’m signed of sick from work because my shoulder is messed up so I have some time.

Until next time!

Keni 😀