About me...

'What do you eat then?' 'Where do you get your calcuim from?' 'You'll lose weight, there wont be enough protein in your diet'.

Got to laugh really. As soon as you decide to do something a tad 'out of the norm' about yourself, certain people always seem to try their hardest to make you feel so stupid about your new image/diet/lifestyle changes. 

OR

You can be blessed with a supportive family (with the odd silly remark about the new choice) a fantastic partner who encourages you, and a few very close friends that question you with a real interest, and not want to piss on your parade.

I'm pretty lucky. I get the odd comment about 'Why just not eat meat', or 'Vegetarians okay, but being vegan is a little over the top', or just plain 'Yummy...cheese...go on, try some!' but mainly I have very supportive friends and family.

When I first told my parents that I was going to stop eating meat, they weren't that happy about it. To be fair, they were pretty quick to come round to the idea. I was nervous about telling them both, as it can be taken so many different ways. 'I dont like the food you cook', 'You're not a good cook' etc, but to be honest, i've never really liked the texture of most meats. The fat, the gristle, yuck!

I started to read up alot about vegetarians and after being veggie for over a month and detoxing for 4 weeks, I felt a lot healthier. This also helped me compete in the London Triathlon, running 10K. I then started to read up more regarding animal welfair (farm animals, the pet trade, etc) and was disgusted with what I was reading.

I felt a bit of a hypocrite. I like animals, but i'm wearing them. I like animals but i'm contributing to the awful slaughter of these animals by drinking milk and eating cheese. I'd read 'Fast Food Nation' by Eric Schlosser a while back, it grossed me out, but I needed more. I brought 'Skinny Bitch' by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin as I thought it would ease me into the vegan lifestyle. It did, but it didn't really help with actually dealing with people. It has some fantastic facts, and its really great with regards to food, but how to deal with a friend taking the piss out of you because 'ha, you cant have these sweets and I can'  wasn't really mentioned. I searched the web and found 'Vegan Freak' by Bob and Jenna Torres and in a word...wow. How to deal with friends, family, co-workers, what to look out for on labels, websites to go to, books to check out. I then brought a cook book - 'Vegan With A Vengence' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz which has cheap and easy recipies and also The Animal Free Shopper.

With that I gave my non animal friendly make up to my mum, sorted out my shampoo, conditioner, hair dyes, through out a lot of clothes and went to work on finding new places to shop. My fav place to buy (on the web!) is http://www.secretsocietyofvegans.co.uk/ssov/ as they have some real cool ideas clothing wise and I love my new Macbeths that I brought recently. I didnt used to buy a lot of leather shoes anyway, mainly cheap high heels and converse sneakers. Everytime I venture onto a new website, I find out a little bit more, another product that would be neat to purchase. I found a wicked magazine, called Herbivor, which also have a clothing range.

So I read the funniest things today http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2286171,00.html   I had to chuckle. As IF being vegan is difficult?! Look at the label...simple! Okay, so restaurants are a little harder, buuut all you need to do is...ask! I went to The Hawk a few days ago for a friends birthday. They had nothing vegan on the menu, so I asked for rice and loads of veggies. Yummy! Not only healthy and filling (lots of baby potatos!) but I enjoyed it. Its nicer than having something smothered in sauce. Plus I only paid about £4.00 for it.

My boyfriend and I made a fab pizza too the other day. I had gone into Sainsburys to get a pizza base (I dont think I can cook all that well so didnt really want to try making a base myself) We get home and I start dicing all the veggies up. I open the bag and a horrible smell appears. Ew. Mouldy pizza base. One was not amused. So I ran a pizza base receipie off a website and decided to start cooking! V.Messy but thoroughly enjoyable and easy to make. On the pizza there was no cheese, but lots of veggies; peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn, artichokes, and some fake meat that I brought from Holland and Barretts, I think the name of it is 'Fry's and they were stir fry pieces. It was so yummy to make that we're making it again this weekend!