Whole Foods 28-Day Challenge: It's Day 28!!!

It’s almost over!!! Just a few more hours!!! I’m in the home stretch of the Whole Foods 28-Day Challenge. I’ve gone 28 days without meat, dairy, oil, or refined sugar (except for a few bites here and there).

Here’s what I’ve learned about being a vegan:

1) It’s not so bad. There are a lot of delicious plant based foods
2) I don’t need to follow every meal with dessert. Giving up sugar wasn’t as difficult as I thought
3) It’s exhausting – There is a lot of preparation that goes into making all of your meals.
4) It’s not for me

I think I can easily become a vegetarian, but vegan is too much. I love cheese and yogurt. Come to think of it, I love fish and carnitas and eggs, too. So maybe I’ll just become someone who eats a lot of vegetables.
One of the things I really embraced about the diet was experimenting with food. I made lentils with curry and coconut milk, cookies with no sugar, and chocolate pudding with avocado and date paste. I would not have tried and liked these recipes without the challenge.

But the main thing I learned from this diet is that I can go days without sugar. I don’t need to eat a piece of salted chocolate after a long run. My low sugar, all natural sports drink is enough.

I kept joking that I’m going to eat a donut on day 29, but I think I’m going to stick to parts of the diet for a while including no sugar (or very little), and no dairy for as long as I can stand it.

It was a long 28 days, but it was worth it.

Whole Foods 28-Day Challenge: Being Vegan is Better With Friends

I’m just beyond the halfway point of the Whole Foods 28-day challenge. I was worried about this past weekend and if I would be able to keep up with the diet. A Memorial Day Weekend with no meat, dairy, oil, or refined sugar sounded really difficult.

But it wasn’t hard, in fact it was fabulous. Went to see friends on Friday and was treated to a wheat berry salad with fresh figs and mushrooms. My friend Christina, who is doing the challenge with me, made soup with garlic, onions, beans, zuchinni, and tomatoes. It was amazing.

Even more amazing was the trouble friend and MomsLA contributor Debbie (Manhattan Beach Momma), of Fresh Brothers Pizza went to for the blogger party at Fresh Brother’s new location. She made a vegan pizza for Sarah Auerswald and I with half no cheese and half Daiya cheese (some people like the gluten-free, dairy-free cheese, but I’m not one of them). My half was really good.

And not only that, but Debbie made a gluten-free pizza for my husband. Fresh Brothers has the best gluten-free pizza I’ve tasted.

My kids were happy because although they don’t have dietary restrictions, they are really picky. They got to make cheese pizzas with no sauce.

And decorate their own very-special-cupcakes. These were not vegan and definitely not sugar-free, but they were nice to look at.