So I went vegan over the weekend.

Hang on, I haven’t given up meat and dairy forever! I can never eliminate my beloved cheese from my diet – even though I am slightly intolerant to lactose.

The Vegan Challenge

I’ve decided to step into the shoes of a vegan for 1 week. Meaning no meat, chicken, seafood, dairy or eggs from Friday July 29th to Friday August 5th Sunday August 7th. Update: I wanted to add an additional weekend as a vegan, so I extended the challenge!

Before I started the challenge, I was asked “Why only 1 week?” and honestly, I would love to do it for a longer period of time, but let’s be realistic here. I’m a foodie. Plus, I like cheese. I did mention I like cheese – with extra cheese.

The Vegan Challenge: Day 1 – The Cleanse.

Day 1 of my vegan challenge did not go as smoothly as I had hoped since I had a massive headache all day – maybe because I insisted on doing a “cleanse”.

I teamed up with Succo Juicery, a juice bar offering fresh cold-pressed juices, smoothies and yummy healthy bites.

I’ve always wanted to try a juice cleanse. Maybe I just liked the idea of receiving a pack of bottles and being told that’s it. This is your only sustenance for the day. Use them wisely. Then you start avoiding drinking them and postponing your snacking (in this case, drink snacking) to save some for later so that you don’t die.

Don’t get me wrong, the detox juices tasted A.W.E.S.O.M.E., especially the green ones. That headache I got from lack of solid food all day was the only drawback. I would definitely do it again though because I felt SO refreshed and light the next day and it also made for a much smoother vegan transition on Day 2, because let’s face it, any solid food would taste good :’)

One-Day Cleanse includes: Cacao Almond Mylk, Green 2, BeetWater, Green 3, Carrot Cleanse, Cinnamon Almond Mylk. Green 2 (Pineapple, cucumber, spinach, kale, broccoli, lime and celery) was my favourite.

Succo Juicery also offers Three-Day and Five-Day Cleanses. I am definitely up for a three-day detox challenge 😉 – five days of juicing is a little extreme for me. Let’s get rid of those toxins!

The Vegan Challenge: Day 2 – Thank God for solid foods.

Because I really didn’t want to attempt another failed chia pudding for breakfast, I went to my favourite Breakfast Barn for my vegan pudding fix the next morning. I actually wrote a post about this place not too long ago!

Day 2’s breakfast was a vegan chocolate chia pudding made with almond mylk, layered with mangoes and strawberries, and then topped with raw almonds. It was super delicious. They’ve updated their menu and added an almond cheese toastie, which is actually pretty good for a non-dairy cheese alternative. So yeah, lots of vegan options there 🙂 I’ll probably have to go back this week..

The Vegan Challenge: Day 3 – Where the Vegan Food at?

I didn’t have time to grocery shop, so I couldn’t meal prep. T and I ended up scouring the streets of Hamra for a restaurant offering something vegan that’s not a salad and because it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed. Luckily, we came across Socrate who offers this amazing cold mezza buffet at a mere 18,000 LBP. It hit the spot. They also serve daily dishes, but they all contained meat. I’ll try that out when I’m not sworn off being a carnivore.

Join the vegan challenge!

Throughout the week, I’ll be sharing:

• Vegan recipes, tips and ideas
• Personal vegan meals
• And an exciting surprise at the end of my challenge with a few of my favourite vegan products in Lebanon!

If you decide to take the challenge with me, let’s connect!

Feel free to ask me questions, leave a comment or share what you eat by hashtagging #LebanonEatsVegan in your posts. Let’s inspire each other 🙂

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