Jaine Blackman on preparing for her Veganuary challenge

I didn’t do nearly enough planning to start Veganuary, which meant my first day consisted mainly of toast and a tub of hummus left over from Christmas and Earl Grey tea, which I prefer without milk.

You can survive on items that – as an omnivore – you’d have anyway: beans on toast; jacket potatoes (no cheese or butter!); bananas; peanut butter on toast . . . lots of toast. But it soon gets boring. Yes, I’ve literally being going a bit nuts!

The website veganuary.com helpfully offers a 31-day menu plan and some of the recipes sound rather nice – it’s just that I’ve been too busy (or is it lazy?) to get the ingredients in and get chopping.

But that’s going to change. After a pep talk from 20-year vegan veteran Karin Ridgers, who is handling the PR for Veganuary; the promise of a delivery of goodies from Ocado which stocks a wide range of vegan foods, and a visit from my boyfriend who knocked me up a fab fresh salsa and avocado sushi, I’ve decided to stay the course. Despite the flatulence.

I don’t know about cows causing damage to the ozone layer with their, em, emissions (actually I do – I read about it on the website, they cause 18 per cent of global warming gasses) but since I’ve been eating more nuts and beans I fear I may have been doing a fair bit of damage to the planet myself.

People (as long as they are not standing downwind) have been supportive and interested in the challenge. When I gave a friend who had invited me to dinner the option of leaving me off the party list because of my “dietary needs” she just took it as a challenge to come up with a tasty vegan option.

I haven’t yet found any meat substitute products that I particularly like; the first soya milk I bought had a thick texture and was flavoured with vanilla, but I’ve still got oat, almond, hazelnut and coconut alteratives to try to find one I like. If nothing else I’m expanding my taste horizons.

Although I’m pretty certain I won’t be staying vegan after the end of the month, just doing 31 days has saved 10 animals, according to the website.

Veganuary points out: “While 750 million people go to bed hungry every night, one-third of the world’s grain is fed to farmed animals.

“A typical Western meat-based diet can only feed 2.5 billion people; a plant-based diet will feed every one of us.”

An area of land the size of five football pitches will grow enough meat to feed two people; or maize to feed 10; or grain to feed 24; or soya to feed 61. It’s certainly food for thought.