You did read that correctly.

I once became a vegan out of spite, basically to prove it wasn't that difficult.

I remembered this event yesterday whilst talking to somebody about a vegetarian who didn't eat vegetables, it's more common than you think and I'll add a little more about that later.

A couple of years ago at one of our Achieve Bootcamps, a new member told me that she had read through The Real Food Plan and didn't think she would be able to follow it because she was a vegetarian and it would be too difficult.  I explained that we had vegetarian members (most of who ate vegetables) and they were fine, it would take some planning but so does following the plan 100% as a meat eater.

The conversation then went something like this:

ME:  There are lots of recipes in the cookbooks for vegetarians and you said you love curry, curry is one of the easiest foods to adapt to make 'clean'.

Veggie:  I don't think you understand how hard it will be, you eat meat and that makes everything easier.  I need to eat the meat substitutes to get my protein in.

ME:  Do you eat eggs?

ME:  Not a problem then, you'll get plenty of protein, you don't really need that much.  The magazines overstate how much to sell supplements.  All of our other vegetarians do well on the plan.

ME:  Ok, I'll be vegetarian and support you through it for the next 4 weeks.  I'll start tomorrow because dinner for tonight is already planned for tonight.

ME:  What are the rules, you just stop eating meat right?

ME:  Not really, I just won't eat meat for the next 4 weeks starting tomorrow, I'll send you my food diaries when you send me yours and you can give me some pointers if I'm vegetarian-ing wrong and I'll give you some tips to staying on track.  Deal?

And with that I went off and told Fran WE were becoming vegetarian the following morning.  She's pretty used to me changing our eating habits to prove a point and used to be a vegetarian so knew the score.  

It was actually more enjoyable than I thought it would be, it made us really think about what we were going to eat and research some new recipes.

A couple of weeks later, somebody asked me how my experiment in to being a veggie was going.  I said, I was enjoying it and felt good.  It opened my eyes to the fact that we can get by easily with having meat at every single meal.

Then - they said 'I bet you'd find it hard to be a vegan though', a challenge was set and I agreed I would finish of my 4 weeks as a vegetarian as a vegan.

It wasn't actually that different, you see when I was a vegetarian I ate a lot of vegetables, pulses, beans and some fruit.  I didn't eat any processed stuff like soy or tofu, the only difference was that to be vegan I would just stop having eggs, butter and yoghurt.  

Which basically meant I had to review my breakfast, not much else.  I personally didn't feel that great during my vegan weeks but everyone is different and it can work for some people.

Back to the original vegetarian, she did make it through the 4 weeks eating 'clean' and reignited her love of food that wasn't just soy, processed meat substitutes and pizza.  She even lost weight and inches for the first time in years.

Fran and I went back to being meat eaters (I love meat too much to give it up and feel good when eating a higher fat and protein diet) but I'd like to point out that as meat eaters we still eat more vegetables than pretty much every vegetarian we have met.  As I have previously stated most could be more accurately described as processedians.

I think we all need to eat more vegetables and some fruit to improve our health.

There are many ways to increase your veggie count per day, the most simple being eat more veggies.

Juicing can help but most people over do the fruit in juices which can then make weight loss slower; again everyone is different.  We have veggies at breakfast, either on the side, a stir fry or mixed in an omelette.  The whole specific foods for breakfast thing is purely marketing of poor quality crap.

I'm just putting the finishing touches to the kitchen kit list that will make food prep easier, I'll send it over tomorrow.