Last week, I made a detox health kick pledge, committing to a healthier lifestyle of fruit and no fast food. I intended my pledge to last for one week (although I forgot to state this) and so, now it’s time for a review!

Difficulties? Not really

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to stick to. I have a real problem with eating unhealthy foods (hence the pledge), but once I decided to tackle that problem, it started to fade. Now that I’ve made a conscious decision to be healthier, suddenly the universe is giving me a helping hand.

The biggest difficulty I had was forcing myself to buy fruit - as opposed to just buying smoothies or mooching off my parents’ fruit. Nothing wrong with their fruit, only they only buy the same things all year round and it gets dull (bananas, oranges, apples). I spent ages debating whether or not to buy some blackberries. I finally did buy them and they they were gorgeous. Yummy!

Surprisingly easy

By far my favourites (aside from smoothies) were yoghurt-covered raisins (available from most health stores). Sugary, of course, but a good snacking alternative to sweets & chocolate!

Shock announcement

Well, not much of a shock if you read the title of this entry…! :) But I’m considering becoming vegan. I hadn’t told anyone apart from Ian until now, because it has this reputation as being some mad, extreme diet and you should have seen the reactions I’ve experienced on account of vegetarianism. Yikes.

As part of the universe lending me a helping hand, Steve Pavlina recently posted an article, Why vegan?, which combines his personal journey with information about the benefits of cutting out animal-derived products. It gave me the push I needed to visit some excellent vegan resources, my my favourite finds being:

• Almost Vegan
• Vegan P*rn
• VegFamily

I’ve been vegetarian before (for approximately a year, I think) and was considering going vegan at the time. As Steve attests, becoming vegan is much harder than becoming vegetarian. Especially true for me, I’m sure, as I haven’t eaten red meat since I was a young child anyway and I really love cheese (and chocolate and coffee and etc.). When vegetarian, I pretty much just replaced chicken & fish with dairy…

But I digress.

Ways to encourage myself to be healthy

I’m very resistant to eating fruit & vegetables; I seem to have trained myself to believe I dislike them, whereas if/when I try them, I find I do like them. I love peppers, for instance, as well as Pink Lady apples, mushrooms and blackberries. I do get bored of them if I eat them a lot though.

Action: Surround myself with a wide variety of fruit & veg I know I love. Buy random new ones occasionally to discover new favourites & keep it interesting. Buy fruit that’s in season for cheap treats that taste at their best.

I’m incredibly lazy & also busy. One reason I often cite for not eating more fruit & veg is the time it takes to prepare.

Action: Prepare lots in advance. Buy pre-prepared. Make time!

I’m poor. I’m picky. I’m just not in the habit, etc.

Action: Stop making excuses!

In summary, starting today, I’m extending my health kick pledge for a month - until 18th October.

• No fast food restaurants
• Fruit/veg, once daily minimum (excluding fruit juice) - big push for three daily!
• Bonus: Once a fortnight, no food restrictions at all