I Won't Quote

I thought that during this challenge I mark some things down about how I am doing. Today is the 8th of January and I am feeling pretty good. At the same time I have focused on eating more, because in my menu, there isn't stuff like cottage cheese, normal cheese, eggs etc. Instead I have had a lot of tofu, lentils and all that kind of stuff. There have been moments where I have thought that oh, I want cottage cheese salad, but instead I have fried up some potatoes and onions and it is carbs, yes, but it does the trick.

I am obsessed with potatoes at the moment. For some time I had it in every possible way and wondered if I should stop, but why? Potatoes are good! I haven't had sweet potato in a while, should make something with it. Sweet potato boat with beans on tomato sauce is a really good combo for example.

There are so many new recipes I want to try. I have a habit of looking up stuff, then I write it down on sticky notes and stick them to my bullet journal. And when I go to the store, I can easily buy everything I need.

Breakfasts have been a lot of porridge or yoghurt. I have tried almost every Alpro yoghurt there is and I really love them. I am surprised that I am not missing cheese or eggs. Or normal curd cream. Vegan alternatives are good enough. I also take extra B12 in the mornings as well as omega 3 and D vitamin. I have always done so, even when I ate eggs, milk and fish.

There are a lot of snacks that I have and that are not vegan and I am planning to try them out in February. This is a bit meh, because I would love to continue with vegan life, but I don't want to waste food.

Lunches are a bit more difficult, but I have managed. I am obsessed with vegan wraps from my local store - they are so nice. Also I have tried a lot of vegan ice creams and there is no end to be seen to my fruit and vegetable consumption.

I think I should focus more on protein, but it is coming along nicely. At the moment I am pleased to know that my body and mind are in a good place and I don't crave animal products.

It is only 8th of January when I am writing this, but I have done well so far and I don't see why I couldn't go until the end of the month. At the same time at work there have been moments where people have offered me something and I have had to say no, because a) I don't know if it is vegan or b) it is not vegan.

But yeah, it is fun. I have been more active in Facebook Estonian vegan group as well and people there are super nice. This is so cool. People there are really approachable and helpful, so cute!

Now it is the end of the month and I haven't really added anything. :D But oh well, I did have a post halfway though. Today it is 28th of January and I have been vegan 100%. It was a bit weird situation at work where my boss offered me chocolate and I said no. She got a bit upset. But I was sure of myself. And I feel good! On some moments I have thought that ah, it doesn't matter (especially when I have been out) if I eat vegan all January, but I have still stuck to it. I haven't had cravings and the reason of thinking of quitting has been in my mind when there haven't been much options in the menu for vegans or something.

I feel good, I have gained weight. I did a pasta challenge and tried all kinds of new stuff. I think the best about veganuary has been trying out new recipes. And remaking old ones. Like I made chilli, kimchi soup, stew etc. And in general I feel like there is much more variety in my menu now. That is always nice. I should maybe try and mark down all the different kind of foods again to see how much of what I have. :D

The biggest change has been my breakfasts. On some days I even ate something savoury, which is unheard of!

What is also good is that my energy level is muuuch better. I don't have this afternoon crash at all anymore. I am alert and ready to work all the time. Also, in January I have only had this one day where I ate everything in sight. For the rest of the time I have managed well and I haven't experiences this extreme hunger anymore. But I think it is for sure thanks to having more protein in my diet. I still have carbs for the most part, but it is fine. Anyway, I feel good and energetic and well. :D

Now the food places are open again and I have been out with a friend a few times. In completely vegan places. But it is nice to see vegan menus expanding elsewhere too. Like the cat cafe now also has something for vegans. I should go there, I want to pet cats. Even though I have one at home. But well, I want to share some more love. :D

All in all I wouldn't say that one diet is better than the other. You have to think about what is right for you, both physically and mentally. At first when I cut out meat, I did it because of my health, but nowdays the wellbeing of animals is much more imporant to me!

I thought that the work event would be difficult, because we were offered lunch and cake. To my surprise, there was vegan chickpea salad with avocado in the menu, in addition to dips, hummus and guacamole as well as chips, bread etc. I had a lot of food. It was nice not to worry about food and talk to others. I did get some guilt, but this is not the main focus of today. I just wanted to mention that vegan things were the first ones that were eaten, people especially liked the salad and almost fought over it. :D

And now it is the first of February. I can look back at January and swear that I enjoyed it. And I won't be running having animal products, but if there are occasions when I have them, I won't make myself feel bad over it. I think it is not imporant for everyone to be vegan, I think it is important for people doing it at least a little. The world doesn't need everyone to do it 100% of the time. It is enough if people put at least some effort into it and cut at least some animal products. Honestly I don't have anything against vegans, but some extreme people sometimes do scare me.

I talked about this with my friend and we discussed how some people are really radical. For example there are ones who live completely waste free, use only reusable stuff etc. And they often criticize others, who maybe do 50/50, sometimes reusable, sometimes not. I think accusing others is not a way to go and it is definitely not helpful.

To sum up January I am surprised I got over my cheese addiction! It was a huge thing as I could have half a block of cheese easily. :D But now I learned that vegan versions are also good (and sometimes better). :D I am really glad I got to try them. Everything has been really positive. Yeah, I can't really bring out negative things at all. Maybe the fact I couldn't have cake at work? But instead I had a double amount of guac and chips and it was good. :D

Anyway, veganuary went well and I will keep up and not but animal products. Yay!

Even thought January is over I wanted to share another discovery. Vegan waffles! I got a waffle maker for like 9 euros and thought I would give it a try. I looked at so many recipes but they all were really elaborate. And then there is this one vegan youtuber that I like (Waffles with Leila) and she always has waffles. And they are so simple. Flour, protein powder, baking powder, milk and chia seeds. As I don't use protein powder, I just added more flour. It was about 120 ml of flour, teaspoon of chia seeds, half a teaspoon of bakin powder, some sugar and some oatmilk (the dough should be a little thicker than the one for crepes). And it came out like this:

And they tasted amazing! And it was so quick to make them. I think the next time I have them, I will make a bit more and store some in the freezer. I wanted to do it this time was well, but I wanted to try them out first.

My friend also shared a good tip - when they are not completely ready, but them in the toaster. Then they come out super crispy. And it should also help to add cornstarch. But anyway, I was pleased with mine. I can't wait to try making falafel waffles. :D There are so many options - with potatoes, porridge etc. :D It seems like they all will be good. I shall try them when all of my challenges are over.

At the moment I am doing potato challenge and it is going really well. Will post about it on Friday. And then I think I will have a little break and try different kind of things. Before doing another grain challenge. :D I just don't want rice or pasta to become fear foods again.

Anyway, if not completely vegan, I will make more of this kind of challenges in the future. And I will be definitely doing another veganuary next year. I recommend this challenge!

On the last post comments there was a lot of talking about if and how should one mark down the food they eat. Several times people talked about if I have enough protein in my diet and so on. Everything made a lot of sense, so I just wanted to say thank you for the comments. These kind of things are really helpful and I especially like when you make up stories about the stuff. Like this comment about builders.

Let me write it down here: For example if you compare building your organism with building site, then builders (organism's mechanisms) are already tired of saying "there aren't enough bricks", "there isn't enough sand", "there isn't enough rocks" etc. The guys are tired and they are saying "there is fucking nothing, we can't build like this, fuck you all! Bring some materials, then we can talk". Now when you start to eat, the builders don't start working right away. They just keep yelling "there aren't enough materials". I don't think you can give them everything until it reaches the right amount. If you only give them sand, the result is not a house, but a pile of sand and they don't stop yelling, because there still aren't enough bricks and rocks.

Toon välja selle koha: A’la, kui võrrelda organismi ülesehitamist ehitusplatsil toimuvaga, siis ehitajad (organismi intuitiivsed mehhanismid) on juba väsinud ütlemast “telliseid on vähe”, “liiva on vähe”, “tsementi on vähe” jne. Tüübid on tüdinud ja ütlevad “mitte s**tagi ei ole, niimoodi ehitada ei saa, minge te ka kõik p**sse! Tooge ehitusmaterjale, siis räägime edasi”.
Nüüd, kui hakkad sööma, siis ehitajad ei lülitu kohe ideaalsesse projektijuhtimisrutiini, vaid hoolimata sellest kas puudu puudu on telliseid, liiva või tsementi karjuvad igal juhul “ehitusmaterjale on vähe”. Ma ei usu, et sellises situatsioonis, kus organismi ehitajad karjuvad, et ehitusmaterjale on vähe, on päris ükstakõik, mis materjale neile kokku vedada, peaasi, et tonnid oleks kohal. Kui ainult liiva kohale vedada, siis ei ole tulemuseks maja vaid liivahunnik ja ehitajate karjumine ei pruugi vaiksemaks jääda, sest telliseid ja tsementi on ikka vähe.

At the same time I have read a lot about extreme hunger, so this seems legit as WELL. Especially if you read about Minnesota Starvation Experiment. So I still don't know what to think of the whole thing. 

But actually I wanted to say that I haven't had this moment of overeating now. Yes, I have had more food, but I have had it constantly. I don't restrict the whole day and then binge on food in the evening. Even though I have thought about doing OMAD (one meal a day) diet, because I could manage it well. Or devide my meals into two and skip lunch, because this feels the most pointless (and difficult).

Anyway, how I have been doing with veganuary? Very well! I have kept myself from having animal products and I don't really have to check ALL of the labels. I can already pick up stuff that is vegan. Sometimes I still check the package, but I now have a list of things I regularly have and this is nice. And I have tried sooooo many new things, my recap of new products this month will be super long. :D

Then at one point (literally this weekend) my sister moved and with this I knew that we were going to order food or pick something up from the supermarket. And my parents are not supportive of being completely vegan, so I needed to do something. And I ended up offering that as my sister's new flat is really nearby mine, I will make food and we can go and eat there during the day.

And then I took another step and decided on making pasta. The scaaarryyyy food that I am still unable to eat on my own. At one point it was already easier, but now I haven't had it in a while again. But at the same time I can say that potatoes and rice are completely fine with me and I am not scared of them anymore. Well, at least this goes for potatoes. Rice is so-so.

But in the morning at 5:30 I got up (I needed to be at the old flat by 8) and as I didn't make the food a day before, I needed to do that. Mostly because I was too lazy. But a little because I knew that if I made food earlier, I would have wanted to have it right away. This is so stupid.

Anyway I mixed up whole wheat pasta, added onion, garlic, seasonings (pepper, salt, persillade), sundried tomatoes, zucchini, chickpeas and I added oat cream to make it nice and creamy.

And everyone liked it! In addition to my family, my sister's friend was also helping us, and she is really good at cooking. But now they call my place "Signe's restaurant", which is so sweet. :D It was such a simple dish, but my sister never makes pasta and it is also not part of my parents' diet (maybe I find pasta difficult to eat, because we never made it at home? Ohhh, I think this may be it, hehe!). And we were hungry. But anyway, it was really fillinf and chickpeas deffinitely helped with that. My dad is one of the people mentioning protein all the time, so I thought of him when I added it. :D

For dessert I had chocolate banana bread, which I topped with coconut milk blueberry yoghurt. And everyone really liked this as well. :D I loved it, as it was the second time I made this banana bread already. :D I can write down the recipe, if anyone wants it, just let me know!

On Saturday we moved and on Sunday me and my sister went back to the old place to clean up. We went to get food from the store during the day and then we really craved for some coffee. I had a headache too, because I am used to having at least three cups a day. :D Luckily there is a small food store near our old place, that has a coffee machine. I went there, picked up some oatmilk and went back home. It was really nice. :D

Anyway, then we cleaned and defrosted the fridge, which took no less than SIX hours. I read "Painted man" (I haven't gotten too far) and it is amazing. It reminded me the time where I just read for several hours. It was really nice to read and have coffee. And me and my sister got to talk a little and just spend some time togeter, as we haven't done much of it recently.

Today I am planning to make kimchi-tofu-mushroom soup. For two days, because tomorrow we still need to go back to the old flat, as some stuff was STILL left behind. I just didn't have enough hands yesterday to carry all the bags. :D And then it is good to have prepared dinner for tomorrow. And I just need to heat it up. If you want the recipe, again, let me know. 

Anyway, there is stil la bit of Veganuary left... are there any foods that I should really try and make? I have been good and made quite a bit of new things, not only had my baked sweet potato and vegan patties (even though I have had those as well, sometimes I am busy or just crave for it. And it is not a bad thing to have). But yeah, I would like to try out some new things still. :D

I am still thinking of eating fully plant based after January, but in February I will have all the sweets and snacks people have brought me, because I don't want them to go bad. And I have to admit I have a lot of snacks.

Is there anything else I need to mention in this post? Hmmm...

I really want to go to Commune Cafe with my friend. We are hopefully meeting up on Wednesday. I should ask her. 

And on Wednesday the first episode of "Expensive calories" is airing. I will probably live-blog it. And I wanted to say that this is all ONLY my opinion, I don't want to bring anyone down or leave an impression that I know how people are feeling. I am just writing this as an anorexia sufferer. :)

I will also try and add more pictures to my instagram stories, I haven't done it much recently.

Anyway, have a beautiful snowy January!

So from the first of January I started to live my vegan life. It has not been long, but I have discovered a lot of snacks to have, foods to have an several recipes to try. At the same time I am thinking that I won't throw away stuff that is not vegan. Like chocolates or cookies that I have already bought. I will come back to them in February and finish them off. I don't want to waste food.

What is surprising for me is the thing that every food item seems to have milk powder in it?! Like, I wanted to buy crisps, and all the packages I looked at - milk powder, milk powder, milk powder. Like why? :D Well, I did found some that just had potatoes, oil and salt, but there were only few like this. And also there isn't many other flavours. But I won't give up! I have found some things that are waiting for me to try them. I will write more about them when I am posting about vegan products I tried in January.

Anyway yes, it is interesting to discover and try new things. I need to think more about what I am eating. But yeah, it kind of bothers me that me as a new vegan have to check every single package to be sure. :D But well, I guess I will get used to it. Thus I like the stuff that have a vegan sign on them, then I am sure I can have it. :D Although it is nice to find accidentally vegan stuff.

Anyway today has been very good. I made a fry up with smoked tofu, potatoes, mushrooms and onion, inspired by a recipe I found online. I boiled the potatoes for a bit and then added it all to the pan. It tasted amazing. It would have been good without tofu as well, but it had become a fear food so I wanted to challenge myself. Anyway, it was tasty. Like I used to have fried potatoes with onion and ham for example? :D And this brought back those memories. And of course thanks to tofu I got some protein in. I have too many carbs I feel like. :D

What else have I had for dinners - well, those nori sausages (the ones I made myself were better, but they were okay too) and then I also added some pickled mushrooms and fried sauerkraut as well as potatoes with onion. I have had really simple meals. I would like to try out more recipes, but I don't like having the same meals for several days in a row. Like tomorrow I will have to have the tofu potato thing again, but yeah. It was at least very good. I think I wanna do the meal prep challenge at one point. Wanna make several foods to be ready for a week. And then I can have a meal every other day or so. Weird that my lunch on the other hand can be the same every day, haha. :D

What is in my menu today is also a full pint of vegan ice cream, I hope it tastes good. :D I haven't bought this company's ice cream before. And yes - I will have the whole pint. I can't just have some of it. Also lately I have been snacking less during the day and having more snacks in the evenings. Then I don't get this weird binge thing as well. Besides, I have enough food during the day and then during the snack times I don't even feel hungry. I am not even hungry during the night, but I just WANT stuff and I don't want to restrict it. Otherways I keep thinking about it and can't get my mind off of it.

Usually I would have thought that Halo Top ice cream only gives HALF of the calories, but at the same time - if you have tried it, you know it isn't very good. :D I like Breyers more, especially their vegan ice cream, which is nice. But still, I wanted to challenge myself extra hard and had a normal ice cream. Or well, vegan ice cream. But it is normal. It is kind of annoying to keep writing vegan ice cream... so if you read my posts in January, you should know I am referring to vegan stuff. :D

I bet that before falling asleep I keep looking at vegan recipes, as this is a whole new world. Exciting!

And on Wednesday I have a friend coming over, we are planning to order pizza from this one place. There are a few I still haven't tried. At one point I was like, I want some pizza and I was about to buy frozen one, when I remembered that we are going to have a pizza night anyway. :D Honestly, don't they have a regular customer program or something, I always get pizza from there. :D

Today morning I made a new kind of breakfast, but I will write about it at the end of January, as I decided to document all of my breakfasts. Anyway, it was a change from porridge, which I can't really believe. I wanted to make pancakes on another day, but I was too lazy. Maybe next weekend, we shall see!

There are several more challenges I started at the beginning of January. I am interested to see if I can stick to them. I have been doing well for three days. :D But when I came to work today, I almost faced a failure. We don't have plant milk at work! Luckily there is a store really close by and I managed to get some Alpro barista almond milk. Lucky! It is no life without coffee.

I feel a little bit better than I did when I was writing my previous post, but I still feel a bit "meeh". I try to focus on things I want to do, but there are... only few of them. But I guess I will write about them soon. As someone commented, maybe my hobbies would give some inspiration to others. My hobbies currently aren't as exciting as they used to be (like bouldering, but still, maybe it would be useful. And from you guys I would still like to know what you are DOING to survive this sitting at home due to corona thing. Oeh.

What promises did you make for the new year? I have to admit that my Coca Cola Zero addiction is still going strong. Can't help it... :D But I will stick to veganuary for sure! Also, if you really recommend some vegan products, that would be awesome and I will name my next 23 cats after you.