"What's Cooking?"

A little introduction to my dietary habits...

Within my 'About Me' post I briefly touched on my diet; I commented on the fact I went vegan as part of the Veganuary movement, so I thought, considering I want to post a few recipes or pieces on food habits of mine on this blog, I should probably fill you in on my current dietary situation.

During first year at university I struggled a bit with all things food. Having moved away from home and having the freedom of eating whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, I started to inhabit a very bad diet. Potato waffles and chicken nuggets were my go to meal or pretty much anything you could chuck in the oven and leave for twenty minutes whilst you clambered back into to bed to press play on your next Netflix episode. It was unhealthy and certainly lacked any balance. Along with the excessive freshers drinking, I started to put on the freshers15 - especially considering my 5ft frame.

Now something else to quickly add is the fact I didn't do much in terms of exercising, other than the occasional walk to and from lectures, I'd generally only leave my room to eat, go to lectures or go on nights out, so this is another contributing factor to the weight gain. Now I'm not talking massive weight gain, it was only enough for me to notice it and want to do something about it. I remember coming home for the Christmas Holiday in December and my Dad commenting on my face looking fuller - which was certainly true - but considering I'd been so into the gym and exercising in the years leading up to university I was quite disheartened by the weight gain.

This lead to January where I decided (possibly along with the rest of Britain) to set some New Year goals to lose the weight, eat better and get moving more. This is when I was introduced to the veganuary movement and considering half of my friends from home are vegan I thought I'd give it a try. Little did I know that I'd love it so much that I'd carry on eating vegan for 7 months.

You're possibly wondering why I'm referring to being vegan in the past tense considering 'I loved it so much', well, the mistake I made in my change to veganism was I went cold turkey (excuse the pun). A snap decision resulted in me going from a carnivore to a vegan within a day - which worked - until seven months later when I started to get a really strong craving for fish. Now those that know me know that I didn't used to like fish, it would take me a good amount of time to chew fish - particularly white fish- so the idea that I was craving fish (out of all the animal products out there) I took as my body telling me it needed the omega 3 and protein. This decision was a lot easier to make by having in mind the fact later on in the year I was going to Croatia, a place - whereby having now been - I understand doesn't cater very well for vegans - unless you want to live off side dishes or plain salads...which I certainly didn't.

So from that particular day on I've been eating mostly vegan but have brought fish and organic eggs back into my diet. I like to call myself a Pesky Vegan (oh dear) because it explains (to an extent) that I'm a dairy free pescatarian but most of all because it holds connotations of being annoying, I'm 'one of those' who has to be difficult, whoops. However, what I like about this diet is that I still feel like I'm helping and doing good for society by not consuming animal products for the majority of the time, but most importantly it's sustainable for me and I know I'll keep it up.

Something veganism taught me...

Veganism taught me how to cook, I actually had to pick up a tin of lentils and make something with them(!) - a sweet potato and lentil dhal to be precise.

The vegan diet comes along several misconceptions about protein deficiency and what is actually consumed. The term 'Plant Based' is probably to blame for a lot of the confusion, leading people to believe vegans only real source of food to be salad. But there are SO many exciting things about veganism, I've learnt a ridiculous amount about food since making the change and I've developed a love for cooking and baking from it. So many people think veganism is restrictive but I'd never eaten half the pulses that are now staples in my diet, I didn't know or appreciate vegetables as much as I do now and what milk I put in my coffee changes literally every time. Not only all this, it can also be extremely rewarding cooking from scratch or when you find alternatives for things you thought you'd never have again.

One point to make clear though is it's so easy to be vegan and be unhealthy, I could quite easily still eat what I ate during my first year at uni - potato waffles and (quorn vegan) chicken nuggets - but I think a certain amount of research comes along with veganism and your lifestyle generally shifts too. I'm not pushing veganism on anyone by any means, I'm just sharing my experience and hopefully it will influence people to at least cook from scratch - food can be really exciting if you become more mindful about what you're eating and that's the message I want to send.

Some of my favourite vegan meals I've made...