A STRANGE cult was taking over the office and I wanted to get in on the action.

Suddenly vegetarians seemed to be everywhere with their three-bean soups and falafel surprises.

It was all strangely fascinating. They seem such normal people! So I decided to swap a lifetime of bacon sandwiches for a week as a veggie.

DAY 1 The first morning was depressing. I was told about the delights' of tofu and quorn sausages.

Guardian reporter Vicki Stockman brought in a vegetarian cook book. "The recipes are disgusting, though," she said. Thanks, Vicki.

I went to the healthy food shop Holland and Barrett in Golden Square to see what was in store.

It had such joys as Sosmix - the complete textured vegetable protein sausage mix', and Quinwa - a delicious alternative to rice and pasta'.

Best of all was the Large Porkless Pie'.

There were also sections for natural remedies and homeopathy. This tapped into what I think is a meat eater's secret fear of going vegetarian - that you are not just signing up to a way of eating, but are only one step away from signing up for some irrational new world philosophy.

Breakfast was no longer bacon sandwiches but muesli followed by a carrot.

I found veggie food isn't necessarily healthy and there is room for a lot of stodge.

I had cheese and chips from Grahams in Bridge Street and fried egg sandwiches from Caf Centro by Central Station. In fact, cheese seems to be everywhere in a veggie's diet.

I found convenience food is a vegetarian dead end. The only ready-to-eat thing I found in the Spa on Thelwall New Road was a cheese and onion pastie.

I love Mediterranean food so I thought a meat-free staff lunch at the Lebanese/Spanish restaurant Andalusia in Bridge Street would be hard to bear.

But the cucumber in mint sauce was nice and sharp, roasted aubergine and feta cheese parcels were all very good and I didn't really envy the meat eaters their spicy sausage.

DAY 2 Saturday night was my low-point for two reasons.

One, much to my shame, I accidentally broke the rules.

I was starving and while dropping off some DVDs at a friend's flat in Liverpool before a night out, he offered me some home cooked food his mum had dropped off.

I was ravenously tearing into it above the kitchen bin when I saw what it was and could only pathetically ask: "Is this meat?"

Of course it was meat. It was a deep fried Chinese rib. But I was hoping against hope.

I went back to the pub and told everyone. They thought it was hilarious but inside I was crying little green tears.

And later that night, I had the veggie food low point. I had been told pizza was the vegetarian's best friend when it came to fast food.

But I was feeling guilty and punished myself by getting a vegetarian kebab. It was awful. Cheap peppers, mushrooms and onion lightly deep fried and served in pitta bread.

Watching a friend of a friend eat two donner kebabs was the icing on the cake.

Day 4 I WAS given two veggie recipes by my colleagues, Sarah Harker and Helen Cartwright.

Sarah's was simple but effective veggie stew with one line of instructions - boil until soft'.

I was a little worried but was told the recipe was idiot proof, even Stephen-idiot proof.

Helen's asparagus, leek andmushroom risotto was genuinely fantastic, probably the best meal I have ever made myself.

Those two meals were the highlight of the week.

The emphasis on preparing the whole meal rather than concentrating on the meat alone helped my terrible cooking skills.

THE REST OF THE WEEK I think vegeterianism probably encourages you to cook since ready made veggie food is so hard to find.

I wanted to avoid Quorn as it seemed like a cop-out but I was repeatedly told that's what veggies eat.

So I tried frozen surprisingly satisfying chicken style burgers' from Somerfield in Penketh.

The first one genuinely was surprisingly satisfying - by the third, the after taste was surprisingly nasty.

And reading 67 per cent myco-protein' on the ingredients did not reassure me any more than reading 42 per cent reclaimed chicken would have.

THE CONCLUSION THE week was surprisingly easy to manage - the Chinese rib fiasco aside.

Something about the aesthetics appealed to the puritan in me, and vegetarian eating is good for the planet, so I felt a warm glow of smugness at times.

It was hard to tell if it was all in the mind but I felt healthier. While reporting on an Internet TV station based in Orford someone even mistook me for 21 (I'm nearly 27).

And I will never again assume that I must have meat with a meal.

The Chinese rib incident made me realise there is something primitive and satisfying about eating meat, and it would be hard to keep up the diet for longer without a strong moral imperative.

But I would recommend everyone to give it a go. You won't sprout a beard and I didn't have a single lentil in seven days.