As part of a New Year health-kick, reporter Alex Peace eschewed meat, fish and dairy products and undertook the vegan challenge of Veganuary - here's how he got on.

I WISH I could say my month as a vegan was some life-changing, eye-opening experience.

For the most part, being a vegan while healthy, was just a bit dull, probably because I really like meat.

I took on Veganuary for health reasons, I'd put on a couple of stone in 2016 and decided to try something new, and also to shut up all the people who didn't believe I could do it when I told them.

The hardest day was probably the first, New Year's Day, where I found myself almost failing within the first 12 hours.

Hungover and feeling sorry for myself, as the morning went on I felt myself getting worse and worse, I needed sustenance, I need something, I needed a bacon sandwich, I needed greasy horrible fast food.

I sat in a supermarket car park going back and forth, do I give up now and forever suffer the shame, or plough through.

Here was my first vegan revelation, beans on toast (with the right bread) is vegan.

It was perfect, it soaked up the alcohol of the night before and set me on my way.

Now if there's one thing I hate as much as I love meat, it is being fussy in restaurants. There is a menu and you choose items off it, it's not your place to pick and choose and mix and match.

The world of a vegan is a minefield of asking waiters difficult questions about what oils and ingredients are used.

My first meal out was a curry with colleagues and friends but I thought ahead. I dropped the curry house a quick message, can you do a vegan curry?

They could! So when it came to order I ordered a vegetarian curry but vegan, the waiter was very helpful and the food was very enjoyable, I had survived day one, by far the hardest day.

From there things steadily improved, I got used to Googling every item I purchased in the shops, I started to get creative with my cooking and lunches, with lots of couscous and falafel and plenty of veg and generally got by OK.

I did miss the milky coffee on the morning shift to get me through the lack of sleep.

To coincide with my life as a vegan, I returned to the gym. At the start of that time, around January 4, I was weighed, and came in at 13 and a half stone, which considering at the start of 2016 I was about 11 and a half stone, showed the damage.

But this, combined with the healthier eating did eventually, begin to make me feel better.

As quickly, as I started to enjoy it though, I fell out of love with being a vegan, I got to halfway through the month and I was bored.

I celebrated my birthday in January, but with none of the fun stuff; a proper cake, junk food and a nice restaurant with lots of options it wasn't really celebrating.

And nothing says fun like spending your birthday night Googling which beers are and aren't vegan.

I was fed up. We found a lovely restaurant for the whole family to enjoy with a vegan menu, with about two items.

I had a mushroom broth to start, followed by a mushroom risotto for my main, both very nice, but it didn't scream you're a year older, lets celebrate.

Restaurants with well-marked menus became a godsend, the Stables in Weymouth deserves a particularly big shout out for its helpful staff and range of delicious vegan pizzas.

For every Stables though, there was ten establishments that had no vegan options or the staff didn't know or the menu wasn't marked.

As quickly as it had started, January was over, and I was no longer a vegan. I didn't know if it had an effect, I know most people are vegans due to ethical reasons, but sadly I hadn't had a change of heart on whether to eat meat or not, which I think made it harder, but people had noticed I looked healthier.

On January 31, I stepped on the scales again, had it all been worth it? I had lost almost a stone. Down from 13 and a half stone to 12 stone and nine pounds, it had worked in that regard.

So do I regret my month as a vegan? Not at all. In the end it had the desired impact, I was healthier and this combined with regular exercise had a real effect.

Would I do it again though? Definitely not, now someone pass me some chicken.