New year, new you – or old you with a few good intentions.

Some people do dry January, and others make an even bolder statement and try being vegan for the month. If there was a word to describe the last year it has to be 'vegan'. If you haven't heard that word said more than twice during any one given day, then you, my friend, have been living under a carcass. After trying veganism for a week I wanted to see what it was like to be a vegan here in Ireland. Who are they? Where are they? How do they eat? What do they eat? Would you recognise a vegan if one walked by you on the street? After watching the Netflix documentary Game Changers, I was quite interested in veganism, but left wondering whether it can work for regular people like myself. The documentary centred on athletes, who have a team of people around them helping them with diet plans etc. I wanted to know if the vegan lifestyle was easy enough for a regular Joe/Mary living in Ireland, who has minimal access to trainers and dieticians and little time for meal prep. My experience being vegan for a week was interesting: I didn't find it too difficult. I don't eat eggs as it is, so I didn't have to cut those out which I think would be a little bit more difficult. I basically just replaced meat with more veg – so I ate a LOT of veg. I found living as a vegan to be much cheaper, it was basically just veg! The things I missed most were crisps (most of them aren't vegan, they have a milk powder), butter on toast (yum) and milk, I have about two glasses of milk a day usually. I chatted with a foodie, an expert and an innovator to get the lowdown on this craze that's taken over our little Island and find out all you need to know about being vegan so you can see if it's the right choice for you. Check out the video below, and for more video stories like this, follow us on Instagram.