Skinny Bitch: my 10 day vegan challenge

After one too many bellinis, a few (bored, middle aged, gorgeous) girlfriends and I decided to challenge ourselves to go vegan for 10 days. The challenge starts today.

The Filipino diet is very meat-centric. I don't even remember salads or veggies as part of our daily meals growing up. Really, eating meat is in my DNA. So I'm trying veganism as a form of rebellion and to challenge my discipline. As research, I've been rereading 'Skinny Bitch', which isn't at all about being skinny or bitchy. Instead, the authors use 4-letter words to shock you into eating healthy and never eating anything that ever had a face or is a product of anything that ever had a face. I'm convinced.

I know what you're thinking "So you're not skinny, but you're such a ..."

Fortunately, there are a number of blogs written by Filipino vegans. Who knew? I'm particularly impressed with the Vegan Ilokana, Astig Vegan, and Vegan Pinoy, who shares a recipe for sizzling sisig using tofu! My only concern with the book and blogs is that there seems to be a lot of soy and tofu, which I try to avoid. Soy contains estrogen which makes me too curvy. Instead, I'll be experimenting with various types of mushrooms as a meat substitute.

Here's my day 1 vegan challenge meal plan:

Breakfast - sh*tload of cantaloupe and papaya (per Skinny Bitch), then coffee with almond milk
Snacks - 8 almonds at a time (8 almonds =100 calories), fruits
Lunch - Romaine salad with oil and vinegar, 1 avocado and kavli crackers.
Dinner - Ginatang kalabasa at sitaw (Squash and beans cooked in coconut milk), from Astig Vegan.


Since I've eliminated most cow's milk and dairy products like eggs, cheese and ice cream from my daily diet for a few months, I'm excited and ready for this challenge. I just have to avoid the Food Network. Wish me luck!