I may have one of the best husbands in the world.

When we met in college:

He was a red-meat eating hunter, a beer-drinking, no-exercising, study-around-the-clock archicture student. My experiments started back then, when I would try and wean him off of Miracle Whip, switch his coffee to bottled water and introduce fruits and vegetables into his diet.

And he never complained.

Just like he never complained during Vegan Week, even thought it went against everything in his nature!

In fact, when Michelle and I came up with this crazy adventure, I hesitantly asked Lucas if he’d be willing to let me cook vegan dinners through the week.

He shocked me — in an amazing way — when he almost immediately told me he was not only OK with vegan dinners, but he wanted to give the entire Vegan Week a shot! He traded his cereal and milk for oatmeal; bologna sandwiches with cheese for salads and soup and let me run wild when it came to dinner.

So, what are the takeaways from the husband’s perspective? (He wrote me notes!)

• It was not that difficult to go a week, though Katy did a great job of having the proper foods in the house and planning dinners (which often was lunch the next day)
• It would have been much more of a problem if we did not already eat a lot of vegetables
• No dairy was the hardest part for me since I am a ‘cereal for breakfast’ guy. Not having yogurt or cheese options at lunch was rough.
• The worst foods of the week (for me) were the fake meat — “bologna” and yogurt (soy and/or coconut milk). Maybe if it was a long-term change I would learn to like them, but it would take a long time. The texture of both were a bit off-putting to me and the “bologna” had really no flavor on its own, serving as nothing but a filler in a sandwich.
• It was certainly a good exercise to refine label reading skills, knowing what you are putting into your body is important whether vegan, vegetarian or other.

Cute, huh?

I agree with Lucas about the processed foods. To tell you the truth, we don’t eat much processed food at all, whether we’re following a specific diet (vegan) or not. I bought him some vegan “bologna” to see how it compares to the bologna and lunch meats that he normally has. Almost all of our meals through the week were homemade, with fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and more.

We should also note…Lucas had, um, some tummy troubles this week. As he says: “It was a good thing I was home alone a lot.”

So what do you think of his notes? Would your significant other or family members consider changing their diet?

          

Related posts:

1. #VeganWeek Day 4: Thanks to YOU!
2. #VeganWeek Getting Fit; Having Fun
3. Going Vegan — Are You In?
4. #VeganWeek Kicks Off!
5. #VeganWeek Guest Post: Dietitian Janel from Dine Dish Delish