So what do I eat?

Hello,

I'll use this post to write about my daily eats since I have decided to eat vegan (about 4 weeks now).

Breakfast
I have never been the type to eat a large breakfast. It's actually a lot of trouble to eat breakfast for me, but since I have turned vegan I haven't missed a breakfast! I wake up at 5am as I have to drive an hour to work and I have to be there at 7:15am. So I usually eat around 5:30am. Lately I have taken up starting the day with lemon water. After that I drink a smoothie (green monster) consisting of spinach, water, agave, and whatever fruit I still have left in the house (usually pears, apples, pine-apple, or frozen berries). After that I have a bowl of fruits with nuts and soy milk. It can occur that I munch on some biological cookies in the car when I don't have the time to eat my bowl of fruit (but then I eat that at work).

Here are some pictures of my breakfast from yesterday:

Lunch

Lunch varies every day for me. I often eat a sandwich with vegan mayonaise with avocado, lettuce and tomatoes. Or I eat leftovers from the previous night. Other times I take a salad with me to work. It all depends on what's left in my refrigerator. Yesterday I ate a sandwich with homemade tapenade (sun dried tomatoes, hazelnuts, walnut oil, and basil blended together, really yummie...), lettuce and cucumber. I really liked it...

Dinner
Well when I said lunch varied... dinner varies even more. I usually whip up something, sometimes I use a cookbookrecipe (my favourite so far is vegan planet, I'll do a book review later when I have tried more recipes). My dinner varies from different stirfries, to salads, to home-made pizza to pastas etc. Lately I prefer to eat grains like quinoa or bulgur. Yesterday I made a curry with cauliflower, carrots, potato, cashew nuts, coconut milk and loads of spices, served with quinoa. Loved it!



Snack time!
For snacks I usually eat biological cookies (way too often, I try to cut back on them...), fruits, or vegetables with a dip. I often don't have time for snacks, that's why I eat fruits for breakfast. Yesterday I went to the Ikea with my boyfriend. While he ate a chocolate pie, I was happy that they started a fruit bar. So I had a cup of yummie fresh (hopefully) fruits.

Drinks
I have had an addiction to coke (the drink...) as long as I can remember. I have always used the excuse: "I drink coke as I don't drink coffee and I need the caffeine!", but I was just a coke-addict. The regular kind, not the diet coke kind. When I just turned vegan I weaned off the coke completely and only drank water, water, tea and tea. Lately I have started drinking Diet Coke, which is bad bad bad as I know it's full of toxins. As a result I drink way less water which then gives me a blinding headache at the end of the day. So as of today it's back to water and herbal teas!

That's the end of my ramblings about my vegan diet.

As I haven't had any reactions yet to my blog (and yes I know I have readers, so reply!), here a question:
What do you want to change in your eating habits?

Love,
Nancy

30th birthday and reflections

Hello everbody!

And I can really say everyboday as the statistics option of my blog shows that lots of people from all over the world are reading this new blog :) Please feel free to leave a message!

30th birthday
Time flies by. Last week I celebrated my 30th birthday! I had a blast! I invited my friends over for a bbq before I went vegan. So I decided to do a traditional (with meat) bbq (I refrained from eating meat) for the very last time as I didn't want to impose my lifestyle on my friends. As of next year I will only serve salads etc. on my birthday as I felt guilty to buy so much meat while I try to save as many animals as possible by not eating meat or dairy. But all in all I had a blast at my party!

Reflections
So what did I achieve before my thirtieth?
- I have graduated medical school
- I am a surgeon in training
- I found my beautiful (in- and outside) boyfriend
- We live together in a house which feels like a home
- We have 5 wonderful pets (4 cats and 1 dog), and I love them to death
- I have really good and loyal friends, both in my hometown and in other places in the Netherlands and this world
- I have found peace with some issues that happened in my past (more on that in a later blog)

So what have I done wrong before my thirtieth?
Too many things like any other human being. I have hurt some people and I wish I could go back in the past and change that. But I have forgiven myself and others what happened. I don't like to linger too much in the past. Every mistake I made I know I did that with 'good intentions' at heart, although afterwards it appeared that those intentions were wrong. I can only try to avoid making those mistakes in the future.

So what do I want to achieve before my 35th birthday?
I actually wanted to write 40th birthday, but that sounds so far away..
- I (and we) want to have children. We feel ready for it so it's an exciting but also anxious time. We will see...
- I want to finish my training and become a good surgeon, not only technically good, but also a humane doctor.
- I want to be healthy, thin, fit and non-smoking!
- I want to continue eating/being a vegan. It feels good, healthwise, but also animal-wise.
- I want to be (and also stay) a stable, friendly and loving friend, mom, and family member.

Love,
Nancy