Beyoncé’s jaw-dropping Coachella performance featured a surprise appearance from her husband, Jay-Z, a dance-off with her sister, Solange, and a Destiny’s Child reunion, but her vegan diet may have been the night’s unsung hero.
Less than two months before she made history by becoming the first black woman to headline the music festival, Beyoncé gave fans a glimpse into her Coachella training when she announced that she was adopting a vegan diet for 44 days.
While sharing a photo of the most elaborate avocado toast that I have ever seen the 36-year-old singer urged her followers to join her in following a plant-based diet — and that was really all it took for me to say, ‘Okay, Bey, I will.’
Going for it: I followed a vegan diet for 22 days after Beyoncé announced that she was shunning meat and dairy ahead of Coachella
Queen Bey: The 36-year-old singer made history on Saturday by becoming the first black woman to headline the music festival
Spreading the word: Beyoncé shared a photo of avocado toast in March while revealing on Instagram that it was ‘Vegan Time!’
Bey and Jay-Z completed their first 22-day vegan challenge in 2013 after becoming partners in a plant-based food company founded by their trainer Marco Borges.
A year later, their company, 22 Days Nutrition, debuted a vegan meal delivery service featuring foods that are also soy-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Mere mortals could finally eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner just like Beyoncé without the cost of a personal chef.
Signing up for the meal delivery service was a tempting option simply because it was the easiest, but I couldn’t justify spending more than $600 on roughly three-weeks of meals that I would probably end up throwing out. (But I do appreciate the company offering 20 per cent off with the order code ‘Coachella’ in honor of Beyoncé.)
I was a vegetarian for two years in my late twenties, so I knew cutting out meat would be a breeze – especially if I was allowed carbs. The only real issue was my unhealthy relationship with cheese. I knew it wasn’t doing me (or my body) any favors, but I kept throwing it into my lunches and dinners despite my best intentions to cut it out.
The name 22 Days Nutrition was inspired by the the belief that it takes 21 days to break a habit, meaning I could be happily living a cheese-free existence by day 22. I figured I could get roughly the same results from the meal delivery service if I made my own plant based meals, avoided Oreos, which are surprisingly vegan, and followed the guidelines laid out in Borges’ book The 22-Day Revolution, which features a forward from Queen Bey herself.
Aside from a slip up when I consumed Vitamin C tablets that weirdly contained fish oil and a rogue piece of cheese that founds its way into my restaurant salad, I completely avoided meat and dairy for 22 days, but it was far from easy.
I may have dropped five pounds eating only plant-based foods, but the restrictive diet caused me to lose a bit of my sanity until I found some satisfying vegan recipes.
Discount? Even with the 20 per cent off order code, I couldn’t afford to spend $600 on the vegan meals from 22 Days Nutrition, which was founded by Beyoncé’s trainer Marco Borges
Desperate: I ate plenty of vegan Thai salads from a salad shop near my office
Pasta is always a good choice: When in doubt, I made myself lentil pasta with sauteed zucchini
Horrific moment: After a local breakfast shop accidentally gave me Nutella (instead of peanut butter (left), I had to walk back and have them remake my acai bowl (right)
Boring: My vegan ramen soup with tofu noodles was a bust, especially since I’m not really a fan of mushroom broth
WEEK ONE
The first day of my vegan challenge starts like any other: with a plant-based smoothie. The Garden of Life chocolate protein powder that I use happens to be organic, vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, and soy-free, so that was basically win.
I usually mix the protein powder with kale, spinach, a banana, frozen fruit, and almond milk, but I feared I was going to hungry without meat or cheese so I ditched the frozen fruit and added peanut butter, cinnamon, and chia seeds instead.
I also regularly use Califia Farms Almond Milk creamer in the mint cocoa, so my coffee also stayed the same. I knew in my heart that Beyoncé would not be indulging in anything with added sugars, but I refused to use plain almond milk in my coffee, so that was that.
When I walked in to work, someone had brought in doughnuts, and in that moment, I realized the universe was going to be working against me over the next 22 days.
I could usually resist a doughnut, but there was something about being forbidden from eating one that made me want it even more. Feeling annoyed about my foray into veganism, I walked to a nearby salad shop for lunch and actually had to stop the employees from automatically making me their ‘Somewhat Caesar’ salad with heaping amounts of Parmesan cheese (my usual order).
I tried the Thai salad instead, swapping the tofu for quinoa because I was just not there yet when it came to tofu . The salad was fine, but I couldn’t help think that I would rather my usual.
For dinner, I typically have no-carb meatballs and sautéed zucchini with tomato sauce. I was feeling supremely lazy, so I just ditched the meatballs and added some red lentil pasta instead. I actually preferred this vegan-friendly dinner, but I was worried that my increased carb intake would cause me to end up gaining weight.
Desperate times: I learned you can make vegan Aunt Jemima pancakes by replacing milk and eggs with almond milk and mashed banana
Struggling: I would eat instant oatmeal topped with peanut butter whenever I didn’t feel like planning meals
The next day I headed in to work again to find myself confronted with a new set of doughnuts. This time they were fancy artisanal doughnuts that caused me to once again find annoyance with my plant-based diet.
I sucked down my smoothie with a frown on my face and waited until lunch. I went back to the salad shop with a new salad option in my mind, but when I got there I realize the candied walnuts were made with honey, a vegan no-no. I settled for a tropical one with dried blueberries even though I don’t even really like blueberries or dried fruit.
I was desperate for something enjoyable and went to grab a vegan cookie, but I noticed that was also made with dried fruit. I put it back down in disgust.
That night for dinner, my boyfriend Chris ordered Mexican food. While he had a massive pork burrito, I ate chips and guacamole until I was sick. I took everything I had previously said back. This was not easy, and I was no Beyoncé.
The third day marked my first Saturday as a pseudo vegan. I like to spend my weekends eating, whether it be delicious takeout or trying out a new restaurant, but this wasn’t happening.
After having my coffee, I went to grab gluten-free bread that I had in my freezer and almost threw it against the wall when I saw there were eggs in it. A stream of four-letter words flew out of my mouth. Did I mention that I had just gotten my period? My hormones were also enraged by my new diet, and I couldn’t blame them.
I headed to a local breakfast spot and picked up an acai bowl with hemp granola, nuts, berries, banana, and peanut butter. When I came home and opened it, I almost burst into tears when I saw they had given me Nutella by mistake.
Bland: I decided to make my mom’s tomato and spinach soup minus the chicken sausage, Parmesan cheese, and cheese tortellini — also known as the flavor
Not having it: The soup was bland, but I kept eating it. I quickly became resigned to no longer enjoying food
Without thinking, I licked the Nutella off my finger and Googled to see if it was vegan — even though I knew it wasn’t. I thought about scraping the Nutella off, but all the good stuff was already stuck to it.
‘What am I going to do,’ I whined to my boyfriend Chris. ‘I’ve never taken anything back in my life, but I paid nearly $15 for this.’
Chris not-so-helpfully reminded me that this is what vegans do. They send things back that they can’t eat. I walked back to the breakfast shop and had them remake my acai bowl. I didn’t tell them that I was vegan when I explained that I couldn’t eat Nutella, partially because I was afraid that they would tell me that something else had milk in it. When I am a vegan, ignorance is bliss.
Later, when Chris went to the store and asked if I needed anything, I gave him very specific instructions to get me the non-dairy cheddar SkinnyPop popcorn, while he rolled his eyes. We almost got into a fight when he came home with the non-dairy butter flavor. Could I have nothing that I wanted?
We decided to order ramen for dinner, but he was once again irritated with me when I debated calling to see if the noodles in the vegetarian bowl were vegan. ‘How long is this going to last?’ he asked with frustration.
He was clearly antsy to put the Seamless order through, so I decided to try to the tofu noodles. My order might have been good if this were my first time trying food, but in reality it was steamed veggies and noodles of a questionable texture soaking in mushroom broth. I gummed down as much as I could before giving up. Maybe I would lose weight on this diet.
I ended my night with a subpar vegan cookie that I had picked up from Whole Foods earlier in the day and SkinnyPop popcorn sprinkled with Frank’s RedHot sauce.
Expanding my horizons: I don’t really like dried fruit, but I ordered a tropical salad with dried blueberries out of desperation at one day
Cracking under pressure: I binged on vegan junk food for four days when I was sick. I was 100 per cent sure this was not what Beyoncé was doing
On day four, a Sunday, I went to the grocery store to find myself some sustenance to last me the week. Out of fear of starvation, I grabbed myself a small loaf of sourdough bread and organic maple and brown sugar oatmeal.
My period hormones were raging and I was dying for some pancakes. PETA claimed Aunt Jemima mix was vegan-friendly, but the instructions called for milk and eggs.
Chris stared at me in the aisle while I Googled how to make it vegan. Turns out you can swap the egg for mashed banana1 and use almond milk instead of cow’s milk. I got the mix, but I silently promised myself that I wouldn’t eat pancakes all week long.
I was starved when I got home and tour into the sourdough bread. It was so good, and I cursed myself for not getting more. It did cross my mind that it would be even better with butter.
For my weekly lunches, I decided to make my mom’s tomato and spinach soup minus the chicken sausage, Parmesan cheese, and cheese tortellini — also known as the flavor. I used cannellini beans and brown rice elbow noodles instead. The vegetable broth was lacking in flavor, but my mother wasn’t much help when I called her for advice.
‘Are you sure you can’t put in a little Parmesan cheese?’ she asked. ‘Who would know?’
This coming from the woman who spent my childhood hammering it into me that lying is wrong and would eat away at my soul. But now she was willing to throw all those teachings away for Parmesan cheese.
I made oatmeal for lunch, throwing a scoop of peanut butter on top for a little more flavor. I grazed on raw cashews throughout the day, and for dinner I had an entire plate full of veganized Aunt Jemima pancakes that tasted like banana pancakes. They were good enough to feed my cravings even without butter or syrup. (The syrup was on me. I believe it’s vegan; I’m just not a fan.)
Poor choice: This avocado toast would have been good if I didn’t make it using vegan, gluten-free toast
No solidarity: My boyfriend Chris enjoyed chicken sausage and fennel pizza when we went out to dinner. Yes, I nibbled on the crust
I was 100 per cent sure this was not how Beyoncé did it.
For my first Monday as a vegan, I had a smoothie for breakfast and the soup that I had made the day before for lunch. The soup was bland, but I kept eating it. Five days in and I was already resigned to no longer enjoying food. I’ll admit that had to be a helpful weight-loss strategy.
I used to make burrito bowls with ground turkey and beans, so I figured I could do that minus the ground turkey for dinner. However, I forgot that I was missing a pound of meat when I threw in two packets of taco seasoning into my pot of beans. Let’s just say they were very seasoned.
After cooking the brown rice, I realized I forgot to roast the broccoli, but I was too tired and hungry to wait another half hour. I ended up eating rice and salty beans with with hot sauce dumped on top. I rewarded myself with SkinnyPop.
I ended my first full week as a vegan with a smoothie for breakfast, my bland soup for lunch, another faux burrito bowl with broccoli for dinner, and, of course, the only thing that was keeping me sane: SkinnyPop.
WEEK TWO
I would call the second week of my foray into a plant-based diet the acceptance phase. I no longer expected to enjoy my food. On day eight, I had a smoothie for breakfast and my bland soup for lunch. The highlight of the day was a bag of old pretzels from a flight that I found in the back of my cupboard. I ate them dipped in hummus.
I was not supposed to be drinking while on this experiment. I know Beyonce didn’t, but a co-worker from New York was visiting Los Angeles and I met her for a drink. The glass of rosé slid right past the veggies and into my bloodstream, which led to another poor dinner decision.
When I got home, I tossed out my previous dinner plans and gorged on vegan Aunt Jemima pancakes. This story was going to turn into ‘Erica eats vegan pancakes for 22 days’ the way I was going.
Appetizer: Chris and I shared the kale guacamole, and I realized in that moment that this diet was making me sick of guacamole in a way that I didn’t know was possible
Tasty enough: I ordered the teriyaki quinoa, which was good, but certainly not pizza
I woke up the next day with what I thought were allergies, and I couldn’t bear to plan any meals aside from my morning smoothie. During my lunch break, I went to CVS and grabbed allergy meds and any vegan junk food I could find.
I Googled what candies are vegan and end up grabbing Hot Tamales, pita chips, hummus, Lays Limón chips (cheesy flavors were a no-no), and spicy trail mix.
I spent my Friday night FaceTiming with my friend from New York, and I realized mid-conversation that I was only talking about my vegan diet. I was becoming one of those people, but worse, because I was complaining about it.
On the tenth day of this experiment, I woke up feeling like crap and realized I had a sinus infection. I returned to CVS for Sudafed and ended up leaving with Twizzler Cherry Bites and more spicy trail mix (to clear my sinuses, obviously).
Ironically, that was the day The 22-Day Revolution diet book arrived at the library, and I dragged myself to go pick it up. I quickly realized that I had been living my plant-based life all wrong.
But the guilt I had for not following the diet to a T went away when I got to the daily food recommendations. I would have never been able to do it. Each day had three different recipes that no one who works full time would be able to pull off without losing their minds.
While I prided myself for staying away from Oreos, I did, however, feel guilty about living off of dairy-free junk food while I was sick. I didn’t have any real meals on Saturday; I just sporadically picked up handfuls of Twizzlers and pita chips when I was feeling peckish.
The peak of my sinus infection hit me the next day, but I forced myself to make a smoothie so I didn’t get scurvy. I drank it during a hot detox bath filled with Epson salts and baking soda that left me feeling depleted. All I wanted was spicy pork ramen, and I stared at Seamless for a disturbing amount of time, daring myself to order it. At one point, I even texted my editor to tell her I was about to crack.
Yum! The vegan squash pie with coconut whipped cream was really tasty
Last week: Determined to find vegan recipes that I like, I spent $150 in the grocery store, which is about $100 more than I usually spend on my weekly groceries
I did manage to keep it together, and I ended up roasting broccoli and using some leftover rice and beans to make some that sort of resembled a burrito bowl after I covered it in Frank’s RedHot sauce.
I ended up taking Monday off from work, and I had no energy to make creative meals from the book. Instead, I grabbed some vegan, gluten-free bread (no clue what keeps it together) with the plan that I will make bruschetta for lunch and pasta with zucchini for dinner.
My lack of energy remained with me when I returned to work, and I ended up just going out and buying vegan salads for lunch after I learned vegan, gluten-free bread is horrible.
A little over two weeks into this new eating regiment, I had essentially given up. I didn’t feel well. I didn’t want to cook. I didn’t care. I actually had cinnamon rice cakes topped with peanut butter and a side of SkinnyPop for dinner.
Savior: I learned you can use nutritional yeast to give foods a cheesy flavor
On the 14th day, I met with a Jessica Suchan, a holistic health coach who recently followed a plant-based diet for six months.
We meet at Café Gratitude, an organic vegan restaurant where servers ask you probing questions of the day while offering positive affirmations. I ordered the chickpea and kale soup with a side of broccolini, and I kicked myself for not ordering soup from the restaurant when I was sick because it was actually pretty good.
After I made it clear that I wasn’t happy nor was I bursting with energy, she asked if I had tried any vegan dairy substitutes, explaining that there are healthy ones that only have a few ingredients.
Apparently, what I was really lacking in my pseudo-vegan life was nutritional yeast, which gives foods a cheesy, nutty taste that would supposedly help resolve my mealtime boredom.
Jessica kindly offered to make me a Pinterest board featuring her favorite vegan recipes while making me a list of great products for me to pick up. I was skeptical at first, but I was later thrilled to be proven wrong.
WEEK THREE
The last eight days of the experiment was when I finally caught my stride. After finishing off the work week, I promised myself I would spend the weekend trying out a few of Jessica’s recipe suggestions, as well as Beyoncé’s beloved raw walnut taco recipe from The 22-Day Revolution.
Chris was getting ready to leave for a two-week work trip to Alaska, and while we would usually go on a dinner date, he wasn’t entirely sure what I could eat. My heart melted a bit when he asked, ‘Do you want to go to a vegan restaurant for dinner on Saturday?’
We live in Los Angeles, so there are certainly no shortage of those, but the fancy places were already book for the night. I also wasn’t sure that I wanted us to pay $100 for vegan meals when neither of us were enthusiastic vegans. Instead, I suggested with go to True Food Kitchen, which has an array of vegan, vegetarian, and meat options.
Chris and I shared the kale guacamole, and I realized in that moment that this diet was making me sick of guacamole in a way that I didn’t know was possible. For our entrees, he said goodbye to solidarity and had the chicken sausage and fennel pizza. I ordered the teriyaki quinoa, which was good, but certainly not pizza.
Substitutes: I quickly became a fan of Kite Hill’s vegan cream cheese and Bitchin’ Sauce, both of which are made from almonds
Finding my groove: I was pleasantly surprised by the vegan queso that I made out of cashews, salsa, red pepper, and nutritional yeast
I was a woman on a mission when I headed to Whole Foods the next day. I picked up all of the ingredients to make vegan ‘Alfredo sauce’ and vegan ‘queso’ with the wariness of someone who has a history of spending hundreds of dollars on diet recipes that end up in the trash.
I spent $150 in the grocery store, which is about $100 more than I usually spend on my weekly groceries. I needed more protein powder, which costs $40 alone, and many of the items, like the cashews, walnuts, and nutritional yeast, would be used more than once, so I convinced myself that it wasn’t that bad.
After eating a sushi roll with avocado and brown rice for brunch, I made the Alfredo sauce out of cauliflower of all things, and almost cried tears of joy when I realized it was good.
It was really good, like good enough that I kept dipping my fingers into it. Did it taste exactly like full-dairy Alfredo sauce? No, but I didn’t care because it was a healthy substitute that I could easily and inexpensively incorporate into my diet. Did I mention it was good?
I was also pleasantly surprised by the vegan queso, which was made out of cashews, salsa, red pepper, and nutritional yeast. I may have used a bit too much of red pepper, but that didn’t stop me from going to town eating it.
For dinner that night I had spaghetti squash topped with my faux Alfredo sauce and spent most of the day munching on that queso. Although my tortilla chip intake was quickly becoming an issue, that was the first time in nearly three weeks that I found my plant-based diet to be manageable and even enjoyable
I continued to get creative the rest of the week. One day for lunch I thinned out the Alfredo sauce with vegetable broth and dumped in some broccoli to make a low-fat broccoli and ‘cheese’ soup.
Rejoicing: I made vegan ‘Alfredo sauce’ out of cauliflower, which I put on top of spaghetti squash, and almost cried tears of joy when I realized it was good
As good as can be: I added broth and broccoli to the ‘Alfredo sauce’ to make broccoli and ‘cheese’ soup for lunch
Confession: I didn’t love Beyoncé’s beloved raw walnut taco recipe
I’m still not entirely sure why Beyoncé loves those raw tacos so much, but I am glad I tried them. I put the walnut mixture on almond flour tortillas and topped them with salsa and avocado.
The recipe Beyoncé follows calls for romaine lettuce leaves instead of tortillas, and I think they would have probably been better that way in hindsight.
On day 21, I accidentally ate a piece of cheese that had made its way into my vegan salad, and it tasted it weird. A 2015 study revealed cheese is addictive as drugs, and I really think I might have gotten a high from it.
Weirdly enough, I finished all 22 days thinking I could have probably gone longer. Of course, that didn’t stop me from ordering a pizza for dinner the next day in celebration.
AFTERMATH
My first day of freedom happened to be a Friday, and when I came home from work I ordered Domino’s pan pizza with pepperoni and brownies.
Ironically, it didn’t taste as good as I remembered it to be. I mean it didn’t stop me from eat it, but still. I actually ended up getting sick from it, which wasn’t shocking considering I went from vegan food to cheesy pepperoni pizza covered in grease.
I lost about five pounds, but I will be the first to say I could have shed ten or more if I didn’t live off of processed junk food for four days when I was sick or inhale sourdough bread and pancakes out of desperation.
I’ll admit that I haven’t weighed myself since I returned to the land of the living out of fear that I probably gained it all back.
I was understandably worried that I would immediately go back to my old ways, but when I went grocery shopping the Sunday after my pizza binge, I picked up things for vegan meals only.
It would be ridiculous for me to say that I will never eat pizza again or my mom’s meatballs, but I like the idea of following a plant-based diet as often as I can, and that is really all you can ask for after 22 days of hell.