Challenge: 40 Days Without Meat #Dagenzondervlees

My favorite dish is spaghetti Carbonara. I love steak with pepper sauce. Domino's pizza with chicken, tomatoes and pepperoni is one of my greatest loves and Sushi. Just Sushi. The word says enough. So this might come as a shock to some people: I'm not eating meat for 40 days. 

Why am I doing this?
Too be honest, I have no idea. I went to the supermarket monday and I saw some delicious veggie burgers and I saw hummus and I bought A LOT of fruit. I really wanted to buy healthy stuff. When I came home, I noticed I hadn't gotten any meat. Pure coincidence, I admit. So I thought: Okay, I'll do a veggie week. Last night, I was watching TV and I saw that today, February 10, an organization in Belgium called 'Dagen Zonder Vlees' (Days Without Meat) started their annual meat-less 40 days. And was just like: Why not?
I want to eat more healthy and experiment more with veggies. I usually make paprika's or courgettes when I'm at my studio in Ghent. Delicious, yes, but it's time to explore more. I love vegetables and eat every single one of them, I just want to be more creative in my dishes.  

The days without meat challenge started today and will end March 26. Will I succeed?


What is 'Dagen Zonder Vlees'?
It's a campagne designed to make people think about their food choices and the impact on nature itself. The challenge is simple: 40 days with less meat or fish or no meat/fish at all. You can decide yourself how you plan these days. Do you want to eat meat or fish once a week? That's fine too. But I really want to challenge myself so I want to try and consume as less fish and meat as I possibly can.

But wait, meat has so many important nutrients like proteins and stuff?
Yes, I know. I'll need to find other ways to get those. A friend of mine is a vegetarian for years and told me to eat green veggies, quinoa, nuts, fruits,... It'll be fun to discover new things!

Will you blog about this?
Sure! I want to write a weekly update - challenge 2: start to blog more! - and share my experiences, some recipes, photos. I'll be honest to you guys about everything. The good moments, the bad moments. Yes, even when I cry for pizza or a kebab. I think I will do this every sunday. After 40 days, I'll discuss if I notice a change on my body: Have I lost weight? Do I have more energy? Is there no difference? You'll be the first to know ;)

Soooooo how was the first day?
Fine, thanks! Buuuut I cheated this evening (I'll talk about that in a minute!). I had a work-out before lunch and I made myself a big smoothie with banana, berries, apple juice and kiwi. With that, I had whole wheat crackers with hummus and lots of cucumber. At night, I had a dinner of steamed veggies, noodes and SALMON. This was still in my fridge, I couldn't throw it out. Also, I'm think about still allowing myself to eat fish maybe twice a weak? Is that bad? Yes? No?

Do you want chicken pepperoni pizza?
Nope, but ask me that same question Sunday!

How about a steak?
Nope ;)

Carbonara? 
No. But stop asking, I'm getting hungry.

I hope you guys will like this new series. Maybe some of you are inspired to try it as well? I hope I will be able to keep it up, but I think there will be difficult days.

For those of you that might be interested: my boyfriend has blog now too and he's doing the 40 days without meat challenge as well. If you want to read his adventures or are just curious to see what a guy blogs about, here it is: A Belgian's Ultimate Lifestyle. 

xx, 
Astrid