The first time I ever met a vegan was around eight years ago and right from the get-go, I was fascinated. I peppered him with questions about what he ate, how he maintained energy and weight levels, as well as how it made him feel. Not only did he happily answer all my questions but I would posit that you’d be hard-pressed to find a more evangelistic vegan on the face of the planet!
His persuasive arguments never seemed to land, though. It wasn’t because he wasn’t giving good reasons for going vegan, not least the fact of caring for the planet and everything in it. I wasn’t convinced because I just couldn’t see myself getting out of my already very ingrained habits of eating.
That was until recently when I stumbled across the Lifesum app. I’m always keeping an eye out for apps that are going to simplify parts of my life as well as help me make better life decisions. “Maybe this could be the app to finally help me go vegan,” I thought.
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This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn’t live without. Read them all here.
So I downloaded the app, signed up for a subscription, and headed straight to the meal plan section. I was greeted by a 7-day vegan meal plan and was sold on the idea after being hit with the quote, “Going vegan doesn’t mean living off veggies alone! It’s way tastier than that, plus it’s good for your health, animals, and the future of the world.” Now was the time to seize the moment so I hit ‘Start Plan’.
I was instantly given access to four easy recipes per day, a shopping list, and daily health feedback—all the things I would need to make this vegan journey as bump-free as possible. Before fully embarking, Lifesum helpfully dished out some good advice, including doing your food shopping before the week starts and not being tempted to eat less than what the meal plan recommends. I was ready to plan my meals.
I quite like a simple life so I just chose all of their recommended meals. Although I did notice that I could swap individual meals for others, something that is incredibly easy to do, I thought I’d leave it as is. I then added the ingredients to my virtual shopping list, something that took longer than it needed to as there was no option to add ingredients from all of the meals in one go. I soon got over the fingerache, though. Thanks for asking.
I have to say how impressed I was with the app. Every single part of it is beautifully designed and so clear that using it was an absolute pleasure. There was never a moment that I found myself frustrated because I couldn’t find a feature or a bit of functionality. It’s incredibly intuitive—something that made the whole process of trying to go vegan as pain-free as possible.
The recipes were well presented and were nothing like what I expected from a vegan diet. Despite not being in the spirit of going vegan for a week, one little feature that did make my heart sing was the ‘Cheat meal’ option. Am I beginning to sound a bit flaky? Any meal or snack can be swapped out for anything of your choice but Lifesum only gives you one of these per week. It’s a nice little feature that makes the whole process of changing your diet a little easier but I do wonder how many people give up after doing so.
Back to it. With my meals planned and shopping sorted, I turned my attention to tracking my exercise. I had heard that it was possible to sync an Apple Watch with the Lifesum app so that movement, calories, and weight information are automatically pulled through and tracked. Unfortunately, I don’t own an Apple Watch or one of the other possible devices, such as a Fitbit or Withings scale, so I had to settle for manually entering exercise data. This was a bit laborious, although I was greatly helped by the ‘Exercise List’, which offers an extensive set of preset options.
With both food and meals tracked, Lifesum delivered real-time data on how I was progressing. I could see where I was behind but also where I was doing well. Each of these motivated me to keep going, even when I felt like giving up.
The combination of food and exercise tracking makes the Lifesum app pretty formidable. Even though I won’t be sticking it out as a vegan, I think it has challenged my ideas about what I consume, and for that, I’m extremely grateful.
The Lifesum app is available on iOS and Android, with premium subscriptions costing £14.99 / $14.99 per month, although longer subscriptions are available. The free version has very limited functionality and to make any meaningful use of the app, you’ll need to upgrade.
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paulo.n.hatton@gmail.com (Paul Hatton)
