Trying new vegan product is always something that excites me, especially as I’m literally seeing new vegan products hitting the shelves almost every month, it gives me hope for a more sustainable future. Most of these products…
Beyond The Kitchen
Walking Meditation – Life Tools #1
Disclaimer: I’m also still learning how do deal with this thing called life, which sometimes for me can be quite difficult. Since there are many people like me, I decided to share some tools that help me to get the most out of life. Know that these are just tools and use them as such, they might not have the same effect on you as they have on me, but I encourage you to look for the glimmers of light, in your own life. Nothing but love. <3
You might or might not be familiar with meditation, it’s a beautiful practice, for me it has been a healing, inspiring and peaceful practice. Now when I say meditating, what comes to mind? You’re probably seeing yourself sitting in a lotus position with your eyes shut, which is a very effective way of meditating, but surely not the only! Think of yoga or sports, and for others it might be activities like doing the dishes or cooking that helps them silence their minds.
In my opinion meditating is simply silencing the ego, being truly you, childlike, pure, reaching a profound state of tranquility, not holding on to thoughts and ideas and being completely present, this for me is meditating. This all sounds very whimsical but don’t take it to serious, or to lightly, and don’t think that just because you’ve got a very active mind meditating isn’t for you, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Now let me talk about another way of meditating, you might have guessed it from the title, meditative walking. It might be a quite walk through a park or a hike through the mountains. Do you remember those walks where you felt calm and at peace, where you weren’t held captive by the past nor the future, but truly present? Those walks where you listened to the rustling of the leaves, where you felt the sun kiss your skin and smelled natures soothing fragrance? Probably you have, and this is exactly what I’m talking about right now, it’s not rocket science, it’s the simple act of walking. I’ll share with you how and why I take these walks.
For me it has been very healing to take walks through nature, its something I have to do every single week. When I go on these walks I take of my headphones, often put my phone on airplane mode and let myself be guided by my senses. No more noise, or distractions, I focus on my surroundings, I notice the birds chirping and smell the crisp and clean air, nothing like we’ve got in the city. It’s overwhelming to be surrounded by such purity and silence, often it doesn’t take long for me to find myself in a state of silence, no longer worrying about the days to come or lingering in days past, no, at those moments I’m fully present.
Which brings me to the reason I go on these walks on the first place. As someone who’s quite the introvert and always surrounded by people it doesn’t take a lot for me to get overwhelmed, it’s very important for me to have some “me time” and process life. Nature for me provides me with all the me time I need, for a moment no one is around me, for a moment I am in silence. I’ve also had moment where I decided to go to the city, to visit some stores, feeling suffocated by all the people surrounding me, and ultimately jumping on my bike and going straight to nature, and every single time it happens it is exactly what I need! Sometimes I don’t even make it to the city.
With this I mean to say that for me it is important to be alone some times, and not only alone, but also in nature. I can’t express how important it is for me to be in nature every now and then, especially for all my city people, it is one of the most cleansing and inspiring places in the world, and free for us to visit
If you are looking for real magic you should go take a walk in nature, turn your phones on silent and try to be in the now, not judging any thoughts or emotions, just let them be. Try to observe your surroundings, what do you hear, how does it smell, what can you see and what can you feel? Try this for at least half an hour someplace quite, in a national park, dunes, beach or any other place your heart feels content and let me know how it was!
I’m not a scientist, but if there is one thing that I’m sure of is that you should always follow your heart, my heart is telling me to share this with you. This is just one of the many tools I use on my lives path, and I’d love to share many more, so keep your eyes peeled for more “tools”.
One Love,
A.J.
Vegan Hot Spots #1 – Bagel & Dolços Júlia – Mallorca
After having had a nice vacation on the Mallorca I have to make a post on some of the vegan food spots located on this beautiful island. Now of course I couldn’t go on a vacation without checking out some of their vegan food spots, right!? One thing I found out during my stay…
Up close and personal.
There is one story I’ll never forget. It was told to me when I was a teen, a story about a “crazy” girl, told to me by one of my “friends”. This past “friend” told me that this girl had borderline, she was insane, she lied, stole and was an emotional wreck, this was my first time ever hearing about borderline. The girl being described sounded deranged, “damn, people with borderline are really crazy” is what I thought, “thank god I only smoke weed, and drink one to many drinks” I used to think. Now imagine being diagnosed with that same disorder a couple of years later, oh, how ironic. For over two years I’ve bitten my tongue, but I no longer feel a reason to be ashamed for an illness I did not choose.
Now I’d like to address why it took me over two years to come forward, which is also the reason why many people don’t get the support and help they need, fear. The moment I got diagnosed with this disorder I felt numb, which was quickly followed by sadness only to be consumed by anger and fear. And who could blame me, the only stories I’ve ever heard about people with borderline were negative, these people are “crazy”, and now I’m one of those. This is one of the reasons I decided to speak about my personality disorder and mental illness in general, there are too many misconceived ideas surrounding these afflictions. Besides all the negative emotions I also felt a bit relieved because finally I was able to get the help that I needed and everyone deserves that same sense of relief.
The only thing holding me back from sharing my story is fear, fear of what people might think, fear of rejection and ridicule, but today I decide to face this fear, simply because my heart is telling me this is the right thing to do. From this day forth besides delicious recipe I’ll be sharing how I’ve brought some positivity and light back into my life, how I get through the bad days and many other topics related to this subject. For now I just want you to know that people with mental illnesses are just like any other people, people. I might be a bit more sensitive than others and things might not come as easily, but I am not crazy.
Now to set some things straight! I am not my disorder, or do I let my disorder dictate my life. For me the diagnosis has always been an indication of some mental illness, which in my case made sense and helped me to get the treatment and help I need. But one thing about borderline and any other disorder that everyone should know is that we are still all individual people and we all have our different symptoms and struggles. So it is impossible to compare people based of their mental illness, some have milder forms than others.
Remember that no matter what your condition everyone you meet has their demons and is fighting a fight of their own, so be kind. No matter how difficult, always try to bring some light into someones life, everyone deserves the same love and affection you yourself long for. And if you yourself are dealing with a mental illness know that you too deserve all the love and respect in the world, and try to be kind to yourselves.
Lastly I’d like to leave you with a link to a website with some more information if you want to know more about borderline personality disorder.
Much love,
A.J.
Let’s Try: Vivera Burgers
I’m starting a new segment on this blog titled “lets try:…” where we’ll try some different kinds of vegan foods and see if its a hit or a miss! Why? I just love trying out new products and want to share my honest opinion about the things me, and my family and friends try.
This was actually inspired by my non vegan family members who have a hard time eating a full meal without meat, so every now and then, I’m able to pursue them to try some vegan alternatives, and being totally honest. So today, especially for them (and me), we will be trying some vegan alternatives for burgers, cause who doesn’t like a good burger!?
Today we’ll be trying Vivera”s Mushroom/Paprika Burgers, these burgers are available in the Netherlands, if you do not live in the Netherlands don’t worry I’ve got a recipe for vegan burger right here. Now follow along and see how I assembled these delicious burgers (I’m not getting paid to promote this, they are simply delicious)!
These burgers weren’t actually new to me, but they were for my mom, so she will be deciding if these are a yay, or a nay. I myself absolutely love these burgers, they are gmo free and I find the taste and texture quite great for a vegan burger.
As much as I like to make food from scratch, I don’t always have the time or will to do so, especially after a rough day its nice to have something easy and convenient, plus these burgers are a million times healthier then anything you’ll be able to find at most fast food places.
I was planning to make a recipe for vegan buns to go along with this post, but to be honest, I wasn’t feeling it, this had be quick, easy and delicious. Having said that, you can expect a recipe for vegan burger buns asap, cause now I’ve hyped myself into making some! And the irony of it all is that it still took me forever to make these since I decided to make some caramelised onions, but they were totally worth it!
Quick Recipe: We also made a healthy variation on potato fries we took 5 medium/small potatoes cut them in wedges and soaked them in some warm water to remove some starch. Then I drained and dried them, coated them with a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of fresh rosemary, about 1/2 tsp garlic and onion powder, baked them in the oven for about 40 minutes in a preheated oven at about 200 degrees Celcius, while flipping them halfway and voila, our bellies were content. I also made a sauce by mixing about:
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 2 tablespoons vegan mayo
- splash of pickle juice
- 3 finely chopped pickles
- 1/2 tsp onion and garlic powder
I had to resist adding hot peppers, since at home I’m the only one who enjoys to have his mouth on fire.
After cooking the burgers, lightly toasting the buns, making the potato wedges, and a sauce to go along with the burger we are ready to assemble. I assembled the burgers in this order:
Bun, sauce, lettuce, burger, tomato, caramelised onions, cabbage, pickles, sauce, bun.
Ok now that we’ve assembled the burgers it is time to eat and while we were doing so I was waiting in anticipation to find out if this was a yay or a nay, and it turned out my mom loved them! She was so impressed that she even threw shade to mc Donald’s by saying their burgers are fake as well. I’m happy with the results and I myself am also sold, these burgers are a win. We’ll definitely be having these again, it is so nice sneaking vegan foods into my non vegan family and friends their bellies!
I Feel So Alive.
I can’t even begin to explain how difficult it is to share this post, the only reason for me not to make this post is because of fear, fear of what others might think of me, but you know what!? fear should never cripple you, so I’m facing my fear of rejection and ridicule and will share this anyway. I want to share a positive message, but to do so I have to share a little back story.
I grew up swallowing my emotions and eventually becoming a shell of who I used to be, literally a walking dead. At an early age I reached a point where it almost became unbearable to experience life as it was, so I decided to numb myself with drugs, alcohol, and partying. Whenever I faced the world I’d hide behind a mask, which was beautiful, but as fake as can be.
I ran away from home thinking everything would suddenly change for the better, not being aware of the fact that is was me who had to change, not the world, it was my perspective towards it that was wrong. I decided to stop using drugs and the excessive partying. My anxiety got worse, panic attacks increased and I started to cut and burn myself in a desperate act to numb myself, and it worked. Eventually after having moved to several places I ended up moving countries to make a “fresh start”, this is where I got confronted with all my demons, and things went from bad to worse.
One day, after having spend a year in my own hell, I visited my mom and broke down, after seeing this she offered me to come life with her and my sister, which till today is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Even though I didn’t have to worry about where I’d sleep or if there would be food for me to eat, my problems seemed to get worse, my anxiety reached a point where only the thought of leaving the house would send me into a panic attack. My auto mutilation got worse and I started drinking every single day, you could say I was a mess.
Now here is where things took a turn, the few people that stood by my side urged me to look for help, I ignored this for a while, until I saw the urgency of the matter and understood that if things stayed the same, I would lose absolutely everything.
This is when I decided to go look for help and started going to therapy, now I wish I could tell you that it was a quick fix, but one thing I’ve learned is that If you want to rebuild something it first has to be broken down. So I broke, and broke and broke, only to pick up the pieces. Every time I broke I builded an even stronger foundation for myself.
At my first therapy group they thought us breathing exercises , which for me where completely new, but I had an open heart and learned all they had to share. Whenever I got home I continued working on myself and introduced myself to meditation and yoga.
Even though things were getting better, I still had moments where I’d break down and during this time I drank at least one bottle of wine a day, abused my prescribed medication and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. I would fall in and out of depression, and one day, which I thought would be my last, until I had a sudden realisation. Maybe it was me hitting rock bottom, but one thing was for sure, things had to change. I suddenly felt an extreme urge to life, and so I did I fought to stay alive.
At the time I was on a waiting list for another therapy group and decided that until then I’d take matters in my own hands and start changing the way I live, so I started a daily yoga and meditation practice, started eating a plant-based diet and quit smoking, and in the midst of all the wreckage I finally found myself.
This is when I decided to make an Instagram account in an effort to find a community of like-minded people who also had interests in yoga, plant-based foods and a vegan lifestyle. I wanted to share and connect and that’s why I’m writing this post today, I want to share and make true connections, but for that I have to be myself completely, and I think I finally did.
In the past few years I learned to love myself and that emotions aren’t a bad thing, they’re what make us human, they teach us valuable lessons that we should never ignore. I learned not to judges these emotions, and I’m still learning to this day, and that’s the beauty of life, it’s a never-ending lesson.
Now if you’d ask me what helped me to start feeling alive, I’d have to say that it started with me confronting my fears and listening to my heart. My heart told me that at the time the right thing to do was to look for help but at the same time I was afraid of what people would think of me, I didn’t want to accept help, but sometimes we have to. I had to challenge my old believes, like thinking that people who didn’t show their emotions were “strong” and that I was weird or lazy for not being able to contribute to society. I think that going to therapy and changing my lifestyle for me has to be one of the wisest decisions I’ve ever made, without it I’m sure I wouldn’t be here today. Now I’m almost done with therapy and filled with excitement of all the beauty life has to offer me.
If there is something I would suggest everyone to do it is to follow their hearts, and I know how cliché this sounds, but once you do this, you will truly feel alive. If you don’t know what to do, stop everything you are doing, and go out to take a walk or meditate and in this moment of stillness try to listen to your heart, do what feel right and what is right.
Things that make me feel alive are taking walks in nature, connecting with my breath during my yoga practice, learning new things and making an exciting recipe to share with you to name a few.
Also the thought of publishing this post makes me feel alive, It makes me feel afraid of how I will be judged, but that’s only because growing up I learned not to share and to put up a charade, to be socially acceptable. You know what, I will never please everyone, that’s impossible, the only thing I can do to be true to myself, as long as my intentions are pure, then why shouldn’t I? Because of fear? Or because I want to be socially acceptable? No way, I’m choosing to listen to my heart and to fully feel alive, and so should you.
Never be ashamed of the things that make you happy or the things you have to do to get there. The fact that I had to start following therapy and wasn’t able to work made me feel so much shame, but for anyone dealing with the same issues, never be ashamed. I am no longer ashamed to say I’m a work in progress, I might live a socially acceptable life, but screw that, I’m finally alive!
Much love,
A.J.
Quick and Simple Unicorn Noodles
Why am I Vegan!?
This is a question I get asked frequently, well why not, I commonly answer? There are so many reasons to go vegan and everyone has their own, I’m not gonna share statistics or facts, no, today I want to share my personal reason of going vegan. I’m sure I’ll make more posts about the benefits of veganism for the planet, animals and our bodies, but today I’ll try to speak from my heart, this is going to be personal.
A little back story.
About two years ago I reached a point in my life where I definitely hit rock bottom, just getting through the days was a struggle by itself. I’ll not go into detail too much, but it must have been the conclusion of some of the darkest years I’d ever experienced, I felt lonely, confused and desperate for a way out. One night when things got out of hand I felt like I had an epiphany, something clicked and from that moment on I knew what to do, I had to make some changes.
That is when I decided to really commit to changing my lifestyle, I was busy exploring spirituality, meditation and yoga. The reason I decided to dive myself into the realm of spirituality is because I was looking for answers, answers about myself, life and all of the between. During this period of my life meditating was a life changing experience, for once I felt like everything was fine and experienced a sense of calm and tranquility, together with yoga, and therapy (which is a whole different post by itself, which I’m not ready to share), I started to build a stable foundation for myself.
How I found veganism.
One thing I stumbled upon when I started to research a little about chakras, was something called a chakra diet. This diet heavily promoted plant-based foods, so of course, open-minded as I was, decided to do some more research about this lifestyle, which led me to some youtubers talking about veganism. It all started with Teal Swan and infinite waters, because at this point my main focus was still spirituality and cleansing my body of any “bad” energies. This quickly led me to YouTube channels like freelee and Kristina who shared more about the vegan lifestyle. All of this made me very curious so one day I decided to go vegetarian for a while, well this didn’t last long, only five days later I decided to go all the way and try this vegan “diet”.
The first few weeks were challenging to say the least, I no longer ate with my family and had to make my own meals, which were often a hot mess! I’m not even joking, I even tried eating raw eggplant, yup, my knowledge of vegan cooking was small, oh so small. Besides that I started shoving veganism down my families throats, which would definitely help them change to this lifestyle as well, right!? Wrong, this absolutely backfired and caused lots of fights, so I decided to be the change I’d like to see in the world. I quit smoking, took control of my alcohol problems, stopped using medications and started a new chapter in my journey.
Why I stayed vegan.
“As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” -Pythagoras
At this point I watched some documentaries like forks over knifes and some YouTube videos like 101 reasons to go vegan. This quote by Pythagoras also changes a lot for me, for some reason it spoke to me on a whole new level! I no longer did it for my physical and mental health, but it totally took on a more environmental and cruelty free approach, while still trying to be healthy of course.
Not only did I become more conscious of what I put into my body, this vegan and yogi lifestyle thought me to truly kind to myself and others, make real inner and outer connections and it helped me find a sense of purpose. I love connecting with you beautiful people through this website and my Instagram account.
It’s quite hard for me to be so open and personal, but I feel a need to share them with you. We can all learn from each other, more importantly from out pasts and current mistakes, struggles and tragedies. Lets grow together and create a loving and bright community.
In the short two years of me being vegan so much has already changed, people are actually becoming more conscious about what they’re doing with their bodies, the environment and the animals. Studies have come out supporting this lifestyle and stores are starting to sell more and more plant-based products.
So why did I go vegan? I believe in a clean planet where we can all life peacefully. Feel free to let me know how you felt about this post and if you would like to see more (personal) lifestyle posts.
One Love,
A.J.
Week 4 – Raw Vegan Challenge
I can’t believe the raw vegan challenge has come to an end! The past four weeks have been a real journey for me and I can’t wait to share my final post on this raw food challenge. If you haven’t read my previous entries yet you can find them by clicking these links: week 1, week 2 and week 3.
There is one thing that I am sure of, this was one of the best decisions i’ve ever made! This sounds really dramatic, but going raw for a month has really changed my life and I feel like it has been the beginning of a new chapter for me. Actually this challenge might have come to an end but its actually just the beginning.
Let’s get personal
The reason that this change of diet has had such a big impact on me is mainly due to my not so healthy relationship with food, which has been an ongoing struggle for the past 15 years. I’d either not eat at all, binge and purge or simply go on emotional binges. Obviously I wasn’t happy with my appearance, which was one of the main reasons I developt my unhealthy eating habits. This has caused me to yoyo and never really have a steady weight, I’d either be underweight or a little chubby.
I really had to learn how to love my body and learn to accept it, and since going vegan most of those issues were dealt with, the only thing I was still having a hard time with, food related, was emotional binging. I no longer restricted my food or purged, but the moment I was dealing with some stress the first thing I would reach for was food (or alcohol but thats a whole other story!), and not the healthy kind, no I’m talking about bags of chips and deep fried vegan junk. Although this was a struggle it wasn’t very extreme and I did feel like I had some grip on the matter, but there still was room for improvement! Maybe one day I’ll make a more detailed post on this but for now I’d like to keep it short.
Going raw really made me face some of my food related demons, of course I could go and binge on raw foods but thats just not as appealing as a warm slice of vegan pizza and a bag of chips. I just don’t see how binging on some fruits is a bad thing, since most raw food is less calorie dense as cooked foods. So whenever I did feel overwhelmed by emotions I took the change and looked for another way to deal with them. This is where yoga came in, yoga really helps with getting in touch with the body and emotions I took this practice with me throughout the day and together with being raw for a month it has really been a huge help and push in a good direction. A new chapter has started where I’ll keep working on being mindful and aware without trying to banish any little or huge emotion with food and or alcohol.
Will I stay raw?
Although I’m a big lover of cooked foods, I wont be going back to the way I used to eat, and no my future is not as a raw vegan. I’m going high raw! I’ll still be making lots of delicious cooked recipes and of course eat them, but I am going to incorporate more raw foods into my lifestyle. I’d also like to add that this will change depending on the season and weather, like now that the weather will be getting warmer it makes a lot of sense for me to eat a lot of raw foods, but during winter and fall, my main focus will be warming foods. My message here is to listen to your bodies, its your greatest teacher.
This brings me to my first experience with cooking foods! The very first thing I decided to make was a calzone, because why not!? And I really wanted to work on one so I could share the recipe here on my blog. The first thing that I noticed is that after eating the pizza I felt extremely lazy, where raw foods would give me a nice energy boost, this calzone made want to do a little nap. But everything has its ups and downs, because my body did feel nice and warm and I didn’t have to eat as much to feel full. Having this experience did make me realise that eating a high raw diet seems like a great plan at the moment, but I won’t be giving up my rice and spicy cooked foods!
Benefits
- The biggest plus for me has been the fast that this challenge has opened a whole new chapter for me. Not has it given me a new understanding when it comes to emotional binges, it also opened doors to other types of recipes and I found a whole new appreciation for food.
- My skin has started to clear up, this is also due to the fact that I almost didn’t drink any alcohol. My eczema stopped breaking, but I did notice that while trying my new cooked recipe and using a lot of water to wash my hands my skin started to get a bit more dry and irritated. So I guess that sadly, no, my eczema hasn’t disappeared, but I’m open to trying new methods, so feel free to leave me any tips, I would really appreciate that!
- Eating a variety of raw foods made me feel very light and energised, my belly never really got bloated and after eating a big meal I didn’t feel like taking a nap.
- It saved me a lot of time prepping meals. Smoothies only take a minute and salad not more then 10. This really saved me a lot of time throughout the day!
- I never experienced bad morning breath!
- I got new inspiration for recipes that I’ll be sharing here on the blog as soon as they are done. Can’t wait to share all the yummy recipes I’ve got planned!
Struggles
- One thing I found very difficult was that it was very difficult for me to find proper meals when I wasn’t home and wanted to eat out with friends. This always made me resort to having to go to the supermarket so I could get some fruits or I’d eat a million date bars and raw chocolates.
- If I’d chosen to do this challenge during the summer season it would have been a lot more easier, in the summer there is so much more delicious fruit available in the Netherlands. I really missed watermelon everyone!
- When I would choose to indulge myself with some raw vegan gourmet foods, I’d end up spending a lot of money, I found them a bit over prized! And making them myself wasn’t really a option because I don’t own a dehydrator at this moment.
- The variety of dishes was a bit boring. For dinner I always had salad, which I got used to at a certain point, but a little more variety would have been awesome!
Conclusion
I’m very happy that I decided to go raw for a month! It has been an awesome experience that came with its ups and downs, but thats live and I wouldn’t take it any other way. This experience has given me a whole new appreciation for food and given me more inside into my emotional binges. Apart from that it has motivated me to become more fit and healthy and inspired me to make more raw food recipes and work on some fabulous cooked recipes, so stay tuned for that. Will I ever do this again? Well I won’t say never, but for now incorporating more raw foods into my lifestyle feels like the right thing to do! And if I would ever do this again, I’d definitely plan it during the summer or spring.
I’d also like to add that I’m inspired on sharing more lifestyle posts, like how I quit smoking, what I eat in a day and way way more. I’m really excited to see where this new chapter will lead, and I’d love to share my journey with all of you! Feel free to let me know what you think about that.
Stay awesome and kind!
Bless,
A.J.
Week 3 – Raw Vegan Challenge
This weeks post I’m going to get very personal, which is something I am extremely nervous about. When it comes to my personal life I’ve always been quit private, only sharing with a few people, people I felt really comfortable with, people that made me feel safe. This is something that the internet will never offer, but I do want to be genuine and honest! I’m a real human being with real life problems, and I promised I wasn’t going to sugar coat it.
If you haven’t read my previous posts you can click here for week 1 and here week 2. Also, this week I wont be sharing daily journals, because at this point I have created a daily routine of eating which is almost the same every single day. I will be sharing my daily routine to give you an idea of what I eat in a day.
Daily routine:
I always start my day with half a liter to a liter of water to hydrate and awaken my body. After drinking the water I chill a bit, (depending on the time I’ve got left) do some yoga and freshen up. My first breakfast is a smoothie bowl or when I’m in a hurry a couple of bananas and a date bar. Then in between meals I’ll have some snacks like date bars, raw chocolate, dates, fresh or frozen fruits and other raw treats. Dinner is always the same, I always eat a big salad and sometimes some frozen fruits or raw treat as dessert. During the day I drink at least two liters of water, I have to add that when it’s summer and a bit warmer most of the days I end up drinking three liters.
Time to get personal
So I guess its time for me to spill the beans and share a reoccurring struggle I’ve faced this past week, well actually yesterday. Starting this “cleanse” I decided not to drink alcohol during the entire month, because let be real, wine isn’t very cleansing to the body. This cleanse started the day after my birthday, so the first day I had a huge hangover! This made it easy for me think “I will never drink again”, but come on, the moment I forget the agony of the hangover, is the moment I forgot all about that. But since this cleanse was a raw food diet I would never eat or drink anything that isn’t raw, because I’m kind of an perfectionist and I really want to see this through without “cheating” and binging on cooked foods.
Note: All the alcohol I drink is indeed vegan.
The moment I found out wine is technically a raw food is the moment my struggle started. Every weekend, or whenever my stress or emotions were in a peak I felt like having a few drinks and already started planning the first weekend after my cleanse. Yesterday my cravings were very intense, so I decided not to give in and not to drink, but I did ask some close people for some advise in this matter. And I came to the conclusion that its about time for me to learn how to have balance and control, because even though its a struggle, I can abstain from alcohol, but most of the time I end up drinking way over my limit plus I used to drink to escape my problems, emotions and stress (which never really works anyways). Although this is probably an excuse I told myself to have a drink, I did choose to have two glasses of wine and not a single drop more to learn how to control myself and I guess I succeeded, yesterday I had 1 and a half glass and not a single drop more.
Although I am a bit embarrassed and disappointed I drank wine during what was supposed to be a “cleanse”, I am proud that I didn’t lose control causing me to end up drinking way over my limit. Today I am going to a sweaty Bikram Yoga class and hopefully this will help me “cleanse” my system once more. I am confident that when I’ll have my next dinner party I can stick with just a few glasses of wine and maybe one day even quit drinking all together, but for now balance is already a big achievement. So i guess there is a silver lining to all of this. This is me, not perfect, just human.
Ever since going vegan I’ve struggled with attaining this image of “perfection” when it comes to health and lifestyle, knowing there is no such thing as perfection. So I’m not gonna fool anyone and pretend to life a perfect life over social media, no I’m actually gonna share my struggles with all of you. Its very hard for me to share all of this, but you know what, if I’m gonna share my journey, I’m gonna share not only the beautiful but also show the ugly, because we’re all just humans and non of us are perfect. Maybe I’ll be sharing more on this subject in another post in the future.
Observations:
- I don’t want to jinx myself but I actually think that my eczema is going away, the past few weeks my skin hasn’t broken once. Hopefully next month my eczema will be totally gone and if not I’ll be looking into other holistic methods of removing it.
- This brings me to another skin related point. Some people have noticed my skin clearing up and starting to look very healthy. Ive never dealt with acne but whenever I used to drink alcohol or lots of junky and oily food my skin started to become a bit more bumpy.
- Although I haven’t lost that much weight (still some kilos), I do notice that my body is starting to tone a little bit more. I know that this process would go a lot faster if I wouldn’t be indulging with all those raw vegan nut based treats, but at least I’m becoming more mindful of this!
- It’s still a bit of a struggle to eat proper meals when I’m outside of the house, but Its a bit less hard then it was during the first two weeks of this challenge.
Conclusion:
One of the major things I’ve learned during these three weeks of being raw vegan is that my bond with food goes way deeper than I sometimes realise. Besides being an emotional eater, I also eat when I’m feeling bored and that can sometimes be a problem. Being raw for already almost a month did change my eating habits in the sense of me becoming more mindful of what I’m eating. Its also no longer a struggle, even though dinner is still nothing other then salads, I’m actually cool with that at this point.
After this month of eating raw I’m sure that my salad and smoothie game will be strong! And you know what, I actually don’t think that I’ll go binging on cooked foods when this challenge is over. Maybe this month has been more about learning to have balance and becoming mindful then actually cleansing to be honest. No matter what, I’m happy decided to do this.
I know that I’ve been slow with bringing out recipes, but I promise that from this point forward I’ll make a little more effort working on them, I’ve just been very occupied past few weeks. But starting tomorrow be sure to check in for more raw food recipes.
Bless,
A.J