Slow slow slow

Hello,

Since my last post it's going Ok-ish. I'm back to eating vegan, 99% of the time. Although I've had 3 weeks of and didn't always choose the right vegan foods. The problem is that I'm not losing weight anymore.

I have lost around 13 kgs of weight in the last 3 months, so I am very happy about that. But I still want to lose another 20 kg! I know where I go wrong...

The things I do right:
- I mainly eat healthy
- I eat my fruits and veggies daily
- I juice daily (green juice, mostly spinach, apple and pear)
- I joined the gym and actually go instead of sponsoring the gym...

The things I do wrong:
- I'm not drinking enough water anymore
- I forget to eat breakfast again
- I started to drink cola-light again
- I still smoke!

The main thing is that I persist in eating healthy. I'm not totally falling off the wagon, which I normally did when I hit a plateau-fase. So I am still very proud of what I accomplished so far :). I need to change a few things and hope to start losing weight again.

To kick-start losing weight again, I plan to have a juice-feast as off next week. I watched the documentary 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' from Joe Cross. As usually thefruitpursuit.com has been a source of inspiration for me (she provides a link to the torrent of the documentary).

Joe Cross had a juice feast for 60 days and loses tons of weight. I'd love to do one some day, but I can't imagine it with my lifestyle of working and 24-hour shifts. So that's why I'll start with one week to see how it goes. I don't want to faint in the OR...

I'm off to work, but first I'll have my daily green juice :)

Cheers,
Nancy

Oops I did it again...

Hell everyone!

It's been awhile since I have written a blog here (shame on me!), and that's because I have had some difficulties with the vegan diet. Well actually the diet isn't what's the problem, it's more the change in lifestyle and my motivation..

Eveyone who knows me, knows that I am a very impulsive person. I jump into everything blindsided and very enthousiastic. Staying enthousiastic and persisting in something has alwas been my problem. Although I must say that I finished med school, so it's not as if I've never finished anything in my life. I can and have been very persistent with some other things in life. I have also noticed that the last years I have settled down and quited down in more than one way. But being impulsive is a part of me, and also a part I treasure as it makes life less boring. I have actually never regreted an impulsive action (mostly).

But this time I have done it again. After reading the book skinny bitch I jumped onto the 'vegan-wagon', bought books and an entire supply of vegan foods as I was insisting I would do this for the rest of my life. And I still think it's the best and healthiest diet there is. But as life has been a little stressfull lately (boyfriend and I both work shifts), I failed miserably. I started eating cheese again (hello fat that's back on my hips and belly), but I stayed off the meat as I don't ever want to eat a corpse again. Although I must admit that I had a little peace of meat last night when I had too much alcohol...

But as of tomorrow I'll try again.Why? Well as I've never felt so healthy and alive as when I ate vegan. To have energy at the end of a long day was wonderful! So I keep wondering WHY did I fell off the wagon when I felt so good eating vegan? I think a person in a stress situation tends to fall back on his old ways. And that's what I did. And although it sucks feeling low on energy, it's easier to grab an unhealthy meal than to think of a vegan meal when you are not completely used to it yet.

So tomorrow it's back to green monsters, quinoa, and loads of fruits and veggies! And it's back to blogging again as I still have a long lists of posts I want to share with you guys!

Lots of love,

Nancy

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

Not quite daily yet

Hello!

In my last (and first) post I promised to write daily. I haven't kept that promise yet. This is due to lame excuses like shifts at work, illness and preparing for my 30th birthday party this weekend. O, and our laptop broke down. It is fixed, so that's not an issue anymore.

How's my diet?
Well that's actually going quite ok. I have gotten used to this new eating style. And I like it! I must say that I have had some setbacks due to my busy weeks. But nothing major. I still like trying out all kinds of new recipes. And I haven't eaten so healthy my entire life! Somedays it's hard to get all fruits and veggies, othhers it's easy. But all in all I am quite satisfied!

I have lost 8 kgs so far, and that's amazing! People are starting to notice, and that's also quite nice! After my big 30th birthday party I'll start with a new challenge: not eating anything unhealthy anymore and no diet coke. I'll start with 30 days and will look at the results. With unhealthy I mean no more eating biological cookies, and no more pre packed products.

For now I'm off to bed. One more day and than....pary party!

Love,
Nancy

Welcome!

Hello everybody!

Welcome to my blog! I am Nancy, a nearly-30-year-old woman, living in the Netherlands. I live together with my boyfriend Erik, and our four cats and one dog.

I am a surgeon in training, and love my job! Unfortunately it also means a quite busy and irregular lifestyle, but as they say...that's part of the job!

Why start this blog?
When I was 16 I weighed 60kg and thought that I was overweight. That's when the dieting started. I only gained weight (sounds familiar?). I even went so far as to get a lapband, but that didn't help anything and is one of the biggest regrets of my life. Today I weigh much more than when I was 16, and I am sick of it. Not literally yet, but if I continue this way I will be some day. So two weeks ago I decided I'd had enough of it. I had done my research and read the book 'skinny bitch' which promotes a vegan and toxinfree lifestyle to become slim. I have also read the blog of a vegan here in the Netherlands (http://www.thefruitpursuit.com/), which inspired me a lot. As I have been a vegetarian for years (not recent) it is not such a big change. So I decided to give it a go. As a rule I only eat products that are biological and of course vegan. So why this blog? To document my progress and hopefully to get to know a lot of other vegans that can help me with my new lifestyle.

How is my progress?
Well so far I have really liked the 'diet'. I have lost 6,5kg in two weeks! Every morning I start with a glass of water with lemonjuice to get my body started. Then I drink a green smoothie, usually with spinach and fruit. As breakfast I have fruits with nuts or grains, and my lunch usually consists of a salad or bread with tomatoes/avocado or cucumber (and no I haven't had EHEC yet...). For dinner I have tried a lot of recipes that you can find online. I make sure to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, grains and nuts. I also drink at least 1,5 liter of water per day.

What do I need to change?
My other bad habit that I still need to change is... smoking! It's so contradictory to smoke while I eat so healthy, and I also know what it does to my body. It doesn't only cause cancer, but also breaks down a lot of vitamins. So that's the next step, that I hope to take the next couple of days! I will blog that progress here as well!
Another thing that I need to change is exercise. I don't exercise nearly enough. I had so little energy the last couple of months that I only worked and slept. Thankfully I have so much more energy since I started eating so healthy!

Why blog in English while I am Dutch?
Well, there is a simple answer to this one: I want to get to know other vegan bloggers all over the world!

Will you write everyday?
I'll try to, definetly!

So that's it, my first blogpost in this world. I hope to be read, to be reacted on, and to receive a lot of tips and tricks!

Love,
Nancy