Day One – Monday, 1st October 2018
I was planning on starting later than this as I was going away from home for a few days. Knowing that I wasn’t going to have food near me I could control would make things difficult if not impossible.
I was visiting my father for a few days and he had no idea about my dietary change. Being honest I don’t quite think he’d understand either so I wasn’t going to mention it just yet. Bearing that in mind I was just going to have to be clever with food choices as best as I could for a few days.
The day started well enough with cereal and a coffee – my usual start. Not having planned properly for the trip or to start today I had to stop off for food for the train journey. A quick stop at a nearby supermarket solved everything with a pack of Quorn sausage rolls, bottles of Ribena and Lucozade Sport and a mixture of vegetarian friendly snacks.
With everything sorted until dinner that evening I might actually be able to get through these days away from home and make it through the first week after all.
Fortunately the evening meal was down to myself to choose. My dad hadn’t been eating much since my mother passed away a few months ago so getting him to eat anything substantial was an achievement in itself. That being the case I opted for something simple but what I knew we could both eat.
One plate of egg and chips each later and the day was done. Well apart from a few biscuits and more essential mugs of coffee to brace myself for day two…
Day Two – Tuesday, 2nd October 2018
I knew that my first full day in Birmingham was going to be a struggle. Was it really the right time to embark on my first week on the diet? Infact today turned out to be a lot closer to a regular day I’d been having for months.
Breakfast again was quite simple – cereal and my morning coffee fix. Nothing exciting but at least it kept me on track.
Lunch was going to be a little more troublesome. We’d gone out so some quick thinking was needed. Most of the places on hand were fast food takeaways and cafes. Almost everything on the menus at which consisted of one meat dish or another. Vegetarian options seemed to be salad or salad. I was screwed.
We settled on a place we hadn’t been to before and I actually found a couple of options that would have worked for me. Hoping to place the order I’d opted for the vegetarian all day breakfast… until one of the staff came to take our order. A quick bluff and I asked for a bit more time to “decide” while I looked for Plan B…!
Fortunately I had backup options just incase my original choice wasn’t available. After a quick ponder, I went for jacket potatoes, cheese and beans. Safe but filling.
Filling was definitely the right word as I was still stuffed by early evening. That made the choice for dinner an easy one. Rather than a large meal I played safe and just thought of what I could physically manage. That being the case the student favourite of beans on toast won out!
It certainly wasn’t the most diverse of days on a culinary level. Importantly though I didn’t go hungry and I stayed meat free for a second day running.
Continues…
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