Failure to plan is planning to fail.

I spent so much time mentally preparing for this challenge that I forgot to prep for it. Learn from my mistakes. First, read all the rules not just the first three. Second, excitement to start is awesome, but failing to prep for the challenge will lead to failure. Third, praise God for awesome friends that help you along the way. After I read about the contest and decided to enter I went on a goodbye diet. I wanted to eat as much animal by-product that I could get my hands on. This also caused me to not prep meals for when I couldn't eat dairy or meat. Since I'm latin the transition isn't too challenging. Rice and beans are already part of my daily diet. I knew I would be eating more veggies and less fatty foods. That would be the major adjustment. At least that was the plan. I didn’t want to take this vegan challenge to eat a bunch of process of foods, as I sit here and finish this box of cereal. Outside this box of goodies, I wanted to dive into this challenge and truly benefit from it for all it had to offer.

I started to think about my WHY

Moreso, I started thinking about why I shouldn't follow through with this challenge. I love eating meat. I think animals should be killed and used for our benefit. I do think they shouldn’t be pumped with chemicals and they should be killed in the most humane way possible. Is that even possible? I want to learn to kill animals for that very reason. Anyways, that is going a dangerous rabbit hole that I'm not prepared to defend. I want to tell you about my why. The 22-day vegan challenge isn’t going to be doable if I do it because of the animals. That isn’t my cause.

Do it for the health and the $$

I am going to Europe in August and I am going to blog my way there. The price of steem isn’t helping me reach my goals, so this contest came at a wonderful time! Not only will it help get me there, but it will help me get there by challenging me physically and mentally. I recently read an article about people going vegan for health benefits and the struggles to overcome the temptations. To help overcome the urgency and temptation, to eat meat and dairy products which are all my favorites. I will keep a countdown. I love challenges and I love competition. Part of this challenge is to come up with creative meals that will be tough for me, but I'm excited to see what madness I create.

I started thinking about support.

My sister became vegan for health reasons and is a rockstar. My steemit bestie is vegan and hasn’t eaten meat for over twenty years, right choo? These two are going to be my support system. My mother has already offered to pay me not to participate in this contest, but until she actually does. I’m going to call on my sisi and bestie for help. My mom is my isn't a fan of the idea but is supportive in her own ways. Maybe I'll win her over with my vegan-friendly meals.

I need to plan for success.

The contest challenges us to find vegan foods we love to eat or veganaise the foods we love. I generally avoid the kitchen, but this may very well get me cooking in there. I hope my chef instincts kick in. Both my living grandmother, the one that passed, and my mother are all excellent cooks. Hopefully, those skills have been passed on to me. The goal is to improve the quality of food I consume. I don’t want to eat processed foods and cheat like most newbie vegan eaters. The thought of eating cheese replacements really grosses me out too. The goal is to find foods that are natural and healthy. I bet I’ll keep this up for a while after the challenge ends too. Once the habit is formed it can be hard to break if it's part of life.

Making the vegan diet a lifestyle.

I have heard it said that once you really commit to it. It's easy to stick to. I attempted a plant-based diet before and quickly turned away from it. I am really diving deep into this challenge to see if its true. Stick with me friends. The cows and cheese will still be there after the challenge, but the opportunity to improve might not.

Below are the images of my weekly meals! :)

My meals this week were rather boring. Every Morning, I have the same vegan cafe coffee shake. Finding alternative milk options haven't been difficult, thankfully. I truly enjoy my morning coffee.

Lunch & Dinner

Lunch is a little more challenging, only because this is the time I consume the most meat/cheese. I have a gift card to a Macy's cafe. Thankfully, they have a vegan salad and veggie soup I've tried this week. Don't worry, I picked out the cheese in the salad. Whatever I eat for dinner, I usually pack for lunch. I forgot to take a picture of the baked pumpkin I had today. That was sooo delicious. Since, I'm Brazilian every meal has rice, beans, some sort of veggie, and some sort of meat. I do miss eating ribs and fish, but I am committed to seeing this through!

Snacks

I eat a lot of hummus with crackers. Oats cereal and fruit that isn't pictured here. I tried these vegan ice cream too and it was disgusting. I had it at the house from when my sister visited. Will probably pass on the ice cream.

Improvement goals!

This week will be focused on creative meals. Properly documenting my meals with dates like the rules state. More so, next week I want to address a lot of the vegan hate post. I've noticed a few of them and think a nonvegan should address them since the vegan's probably don't engage with such silliness.