Vegan Life

Last year I decided to be vegetarian but after almost a half year my doctor noticed my low levels of

iron and insisted that I ate red meat. Thus began the period of disgust and rapid weight gain to try and keep my iron levels stable. But after a while I thought it was pathetic, I had been following some vegans on social media for a long time and their blood tests always came out perfect from eating the right fruits and vegetables. I gave up my belief that animals shouldn't be harmed and felt a deep regret. So for almost 3 months now I've been vegan.

Now as a vegan you can't consume any meat, dairy or any animal derived products. So that includes honey, cheese, gelatin... you get the point. At first I didn't tell anyone about my transition as I felt a bit alienated from my friends. But it wasn't until a full month that I finally gave an explanation as to why I was refusing my friends' snacks. Most questions I've received are...

Why did you become a vegan?
I mainly did it for the animals and I constantly ran a thought through my head that said "If you can't stand the thought of killing the animal yourself, then why are you eating it in the first place?" Eventually, my conscience won and I became a vegan!

Is it hard?
The first week was the toughest stage for me personally. Your body is pretty much freaking out from the excessive amount of fruits and vegetables and begins to detox. Some people break out or even gain weight but I experienced neither. It sounds quite scary but if you think about it I've been eating so much junk my whole life that it grew a tolerance so as soon as I switched to completely healthy foods it was basically confused.

photo from my instagram

How are you living without ice-cream?!
An awesome invention called nicecream! You freeze bananas and then blend them with any ingredients you want to make a sweet, delicious ice-cream! Think of it as sorbet 2.0... The best thing is that I can eat it for breakfast and it isn't unhealthy because it's only fruit! I like to change my smoothie bowl every time as I am currently trying to find my favourite recipe! My favourite so far has been the one one the left!
- 2 frozen bananas (or 2 fresh bananas loaded with a shit tonne of ice)
- 5 dates
- a bunch of coca nibs
- 100% cocoa powder (organic if you want to be fancy)
- topped with raspberries, chia seeds (optional)
And I got to eat this beauty for brekkie fuark


What do you eat when you go out?

also from my instagram

I love-love-love to eat at Grilld'! It is a cute burger place that serve the best fries I've eaten ever (no kidding, you think McDonald fries are the greatest? Nuh-uh...) This a picture of their burger on the right (with no mayo of course) and tomato chutney. I seriously am loving chutney WAYYYY better than normal sauce... that was the whitest thing I've ever said. Most places are kind enough to serve vegetarian options but I do get a bit sceptical as most veggie patties contain egg or milk. Pizza places are awesome because you can alter the ingredients but you never know some foods out there are 'accidentaly vegan'. My sister managed to find an ice-cream at San Churro that was vegan which is shocking coming from a Spanish donut shop! Others include McDonald's cookies (I'm eating them atm yum), Oreos and some frozen yoghurt places serve soy! Asian food is awesome too, avocado & cucumber sushi... vegetarian stir-fry... ooo now I'm getting hungry!

We live in a society where we have easy access to any fruit or vegetable, I mean c'mon years ago they didn't have bananas or kiwi fruit! However, I try to eat in season and look for organic options as they are higher quality and aren't sprayed with chemicals.
The only sucky thing about being vegan I can think of is not having enough fruits or veggies in the house. This is a common problem for me because I live in a family of 6 so any fruit (or food) disappears insanely quick! Not only that, my sister is vegan too so we virtually share the same foods.

photo of batabata-cha tea from healthyhints

This problem can be easily solved by demanding my mum for more groceries :) Ehh, I'm just kidding it's way more complex than that for starters I don't want to drive her crazy and I also don't want to break the bank. It's not like there is a shortage of food, it's just that I may not be the healthiest vegan out there.
But my main argument is that I'm not vegan for the diet, instead for the sake of animals. I am aware that deficiency in iron, B12 & protein is possible but we actually don't need that much protein to begin with. I can find other sources to get those nutrients from and the only one I am worried about is B12 as the deficiency can lead to Alzheimer's. Worst case scenario, I'll take some B12 tablets daily or I could drink some Batabata-cha tea. I think the best idea for people out there who want to be vegan is to do your re-search. Find out which restaurants have vegan options or not, making sure you have variety in your diet, work-out often and including heaps of super-foods are just a few things to be mindful of! I might make more posts about veganism as there are heaps of things to talk about but we'll see :) Amanda out!