Could you go VEGAN for a week?

Feeling guilty about her penchant for butter and burgers, author Hannah Doyle spends seven days attempting to live a plant-based lifestyle

- Hannah Doyle

So, Veganuary hits our calendars once again... In my dreams, I’m already a vegan, saving the world one bite at a time, but the reality is quite different. I’m repeatedly derailed by the siren call of dairy and meat, something I feel increasingly guilty about. Our planet is now in a code-red situation and I am genuinely scared about what the future will hold for the next generation – my twin sons, now four, included.

Veganism is one of the most effective things we can do to help the climate crisis. So, I recently took a week out to make some changes.

Here’s how I got on.

Monday

Eating plant-based food is at the heart of the vegan ethos and, as I’m always thinking about my next meal, I eagerly turn to the vegan cookbooks collecting dust in my kitchen.

With my creative juices flowing, I remember the glut of winter greens left in our vegetable patch. Soon enough, I’m whipping up a vegetable gyoza broth (using vegan veg stock). My husband Olly, 40, agrees it is delicious. I can’t tell you how good it feels to tick two wholesome boxes in one – plant-based food and zero-carbon footprint, thanks to veg harvested from the garden.

Tuesday

I stumble into the shower after an early wake-up call from my children but, hang on, there’s one big problem. Few of my toiletries have The Vegan Society’s seal of approval, so I make do with an almost-empty tube of body scrub.