Insanity

I bet that many of you have heard this saying and nodded in agreement. It makes perfect sense, if you apply a solution to a problem and it doesn't work, wouldn't you try a different way of solving the problem?

So please, why on earth are you trying to loose weight and gain health and fitness the same old way?

I heart lots of people say that losing weight is easy, but they don't bother to to, or think it's not worth it. The high exercise, low food, sad sad calorie restricted diet - lean meats, no carbs, no sweets, no fun. 

In my personal opinion and experience, that way of weight control and lifestyle is nothing but a sure road to hungry misery, binging and endless guilt everytime you put something in your mouth.

I love eating, I love food, I love shopping for it, cooking it and eating it. But once upon a time, I had this weird things, a compulsive idea that men shouldn't see me eat. I couldn't stand having men watch me eat food. Not because I ate ridiculous amounts or ate really messily, but because I was ashamed that I ate - period. I was fat, and the way you get fat is that you eat. (Or so I thought, later I've learned that it#s about what you eat.) I was ashamed to follow my most natural human instincts, I was ashamed to put food, energy, nutrition into my body when guys were nearby.

I'm not sure who I think I was fooling, my appearance and my body spoke for itself. 

This was back in boarding school, luckily my pet peeve didn't evolve into anything compulsive or obsessive, and I COULD eat in front of guys, I just tried to avoid it if possible and I ate perfectly normal in front of girls. I have shed this pet peeve, but recently I did find myself uncomfortable by just telling my boyfriend that I had to eat food, again - I felt ashamed. It was a sad flashback from past ghosts. 

And guess what, I never lost weight. All I gained were crazy thoughts that men couldn't see me eat, hunger, low energy levels and binging on cakes and "treating" myself with a whole bag of hot wings or cheesy pizza when things got a bit rough. What a depressing time, it brings tears to my eyes looking back and thinking about it.

So here's my plea to you. Stop. Right now, I want you to stop being insane. I want you to stop circulating, stop doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, because guess what Sherlock, you're not going to gain a different result unless you apply a different way of solving your problem. Enter high carb, low fat veganism!

Lastly I'd like to recommend you watching this video. It's evidence based, scientific really good information on calorie restriction. The results of this study are staggering and will leave you with something to think about. You are your own best friend, so make sure to nurture yourself and enable yourself to thrive.

 - Elk

Are you sick, healthy or?...

Are you sick? Do you have diabetes, high blood pressure, suffer from obesity or other lifestyle related diseases? If you do, you're probably aware of this. If you don't, you're probably considering yourself to be healthy.
This is what I want to be talking about, that middle category which we don't really have a name for, but it's in between being healthy and being sick.

Before changing my diet, I never considered myself sick, I thought I was all in all healthy, and when I went to the doctor for check-ups I'd get a clean bill of health, and be told that I was in fact in good health. I'm guessing that this sounds familiar to many of you.

Despite being seemingly "healthy", I had ailments. Many, but less severe than an actual "disease" or "illness". I was unbelievably tired all the time! I'd had to fight myself from falling asleep every afternoon, I'd have to FORCE myself to get up and out of the house, so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. If I could go one afternoon without having passed out from tiredness, I considered it a success. Therefore, I also only had sporadic bursts of energy to do productive tasks like cleaning the dishes or doing the laundry, and you can forget all about studying, or even reading for the fun of it. 15 minutes with a book open right before bedtime, and I'd be done!

Obesity/overweight. Need I say more? When I was at my highest weight, I weighed 114.1 kilograms and my BMI was 39.4, I was obese! How can a doctor tell me that I'm completely healthy when I'm clinically obese, just because I haven't got high blood pressure or diabetes yet?

I suffered from oily skin and acne, it was so bad that despite a meticulous skin-care routine with scrubs, face masks, toners, cleansers, creams the list goes on, my doctor sat me down as I was coming in for a check-up and said to me "why haven't you come see me before about that acne?" I got described pills and a medical cream.

I will not attribute this only to diet, because regular headaches can and does stem from regular strain and tension, however I have noticed a decrease in the amounts of headaches I get after having changed my diet. I never used to have bad or particularly painful headaches, but I can still see positive effects from a change of diet, in terms of headaches.

Rumbling stomach and the pain of hunger. Sounds familiar? I have great news for you. It used to be the story of my life. I would never eat breakfast, be damn near starving for lunch, dying for dinner during the afternoons. The result? I kept gaining weight, even though I so desperately tried to eat so little and control myself. Now, I haven't been properly hungry for months! If I'm starting to feel hungry, I'll eat, and I no longer have to experience that hunger I used to live with everyday for so long.

In time, my ailments got worse, as my weight increased. I got hormonal disturbances, increased levels of testosterone, little hairs starting to grow places that otherwise only would, or at least should, happen to men, irregular and missing periods. Something was wrong, very wrong and I knew it. After a loooooong time, dreading the gynaecological examination, I (wo)manned up and went to the doctor. As I suspected, of course I'd done research from home, I was diagnosed with PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome which, to those of you who don't know means that there are lots of little benign water-cysts sitting on your ovaries. This will affect your hormones as well as the general state of your reproductive system. The cure? Lose weight and it will all go away. (If it's due to excess weight.)

So, I did end up being sick, I also got tested for diabetes because I was starting to show unusual numbers and my doctor got worried.
 Now you might ask, what does this have to do with the missing category in between sick and healthy? My point is, just because you are not sick, does not mean that you are in fact healthy. To me, there is a difference between being healthy and being "not-sick".

To me, when you're healthy you're sparkling, you are absolutely bursting with just how good you feel and how healthy you are. Being "non-sick" does not mean that you are healthy, just because you haven't (yet) got a diagnose, just because your doctor isn't (yet) telling you that you are in fact sick, it doesn't mean that you haven't got ailments that are decreasing the quality of your life. I'm here to tell you that you CAN be bursting and sparkling with health, and I'm telling you - you should!

Change your diet, eat only the food that is going to make you the most satisfied and make your health blossom. Fruits, vegetables, grains, pasta, rice, potatoes. A high-carb low fat vegan diet. And do it now! Do it before you get sick, because all of these little ailments, tiredness, excess weight, indigestion, headaches, hormonal imbalances, heartburn etc. are the predecessor for sickness.

 - Elk

Dating a Vegan

Hi guys.
A couple of days ago, I had a conversation with someone about dating a Vegan.
He said dating a Vegan would be a nuisance because "you wouldn't be able to take them anywhere". So, besides taking you Vegan significant other to a vegetarian, vegan or a raw food place these are my thoughts.
You can take a Vegan anywhere! They're trained to spot out and navigate through the jungle of the omnivorous world.

Here is a little story. After the last exam in the last semester, me and two others went out to a café for a celebratory "exams are over" brunch. At the café, they did not have a single thing that didn't contain meat or other animal products. Not even the salads. I figured,  if I was going to pay ridiculous prices for fancy café food, I didn't want to cop out and have a chicken salad - not chicken please. So I ordered a beef filet burger, no beef filet please. I have NEVER seen a waitress so confused in my life, it was actually ridiculously funny. So the waitress looked at me with her big round "what the heck are you talking about" look and said "so you just want the bread?". Dear lady, no I do not, I would like the beef filet burger, without the beef but with all the other stuff. If was so so so good! Definitely a dish I'm going to attempt to re-create at home.

None the less, my point was. If someone has lactose intolerance, or is allergic to a certain food they order it without it, why is that different from a Vegan ordering a beef filet burger without the beef?

Of course, this is not the only thing people take into account when thinking about dating a Vegan. Personally, I wouldn't be having second thoughts about dating someone who ate in a certain way, but I think the whole "dating a Vegan" thing is being wound up to being an issue because people have prejudices about Vegans, and honestly - when you decide to become a Vegan you are taking a pretty big stand of a number of political and idealistic matters.

Point of the story: please don't be discouraged to date a Vegan just because they're Vegan. Gosh I mean, if only Vegans could date Vegans I would probably never find anyone since I haven't met any Vegans IRL - in my LIFE!

 - Elk

Eating with omnivores

Hi guys, today I want to talk a little about living with, or eating with omnivores, carnivores, non-vegans, whatever you like to call them.

I haven't got much to say on this subject other than, good lord sometimes it's hard! Eating with non-vegans once in a while, like sharing a meal at a dinner, or going to a café for lunch isn't really that hard, most of the time you'll get questions etc, but other than that it's fine. The trouble arises when it comes to family.

My father is a diabetic (type 2), he's overweight, has constant migraines, terrible teeth and arthritis. This is only the health problems that I know of, there are always little things that we don't consider health problems until we change something and it goes away. Evidently, he doesn't know everything I know about veganism and why I chose to eat like this, but he's been very accepting, although challenging at times. He's biggest issue with my diet, as it has always been is: size. I can eat an immense amount of food, less has never been more to me. On a high-carb low-fat vegan diet, restriction is a no-no, and one of the reasons that I chose this way of eating is because I know that I simply can't restrict, I'll only end up binging!

For my dad however, the mantra of trying to restrict what you eat and how much of what is so deep set in him, that he has great trouble with me eating larger amounts of food, even though he himself is obese and diabetic... If you've ever seen some of Freelee the Banana Girl's videos, you know how much she eats, and I eat nowhere near as much as she does, I simply can't. So in my vegan world, I eat very reasonable amounts of food! Yes I eat more than someone who is an omnivore and calorie restricts, I eat exactly what I feel that my body needs, and it's taken me a long time on this vegan-lifestyle to learn the balance I need between fruit, veg and cooked-carbs. Therefore it really just winds me up when my dad try to play "how much are you allowed to eat"-God. Obviously neither he or my mother did a very good job of teaching me how to eat properly and thus we all suffer from obesity and health related sicknesses.

*sigh*, the trouble of being you parents child is that no matter how old you grow, I'm nearly 20, you're always they're child somehow, and it's hard for them to relinquish control. Thank goodness that I have my own apartment, my own kitchen and my own food! I'm only here for the summer.

Today my dad asked me, after denying me one last potato which I then snatched myself, "how many potatoes how you had?", after him having chomped down a tiny bit of salad, a couple of potatoes, large splotches of butter, feta cheese and steak. I answered "I don't say anything about your food, you don't say anything about my food". I love my dad, he's the smartest person I know and I am eternally grateful that he's my dad, but sometimes he just grinds my gears ;)

 - Elk

Favorite Vegan Tips

Hello guys, I though I'd gather up some of my favorite vegan tips from around the internet. The first one is the picture above - not exactly a tip, but some information I find very good to know!

#1) Rebuild yourself! When I started this vegan journey (2 months ago) I thought alot about that my body would gradually be rebuild, and that I had to give it time to being replaced with fruits and veggies. All the cells in your body dies, and will be replaced gradually, so quite literally you are what you eat. Do YOU want to be a burger on legs?

#2) Part of you! Following up on your body literally being build from what you eat, if you're about to eat something bad, ask yourself "do I want this to be a part of me?". I'm guessing that too many times the answer will be no, and no matter if you choose to eat it or not, let alone thinking about it I think is a good exercise.

#3) Keep it simple! This was the tip that actually got me started in the first place. I was quite scared, you're going from a diet where you have a big repertoire of recipes to rely on when you come home late after a long day and just need something quick to cook. When you're changing your diet radically, you don't have that repertoire to rely on, therefore - KEEP IT SIMPLE. In the beginning what I ate was, fruits and veggies for breakfast and lunch, mainly fruit, in their whole form or in a smoothie. For dinner I'd pick one of my top 3 cooked carbs, potatoes, rice and pasta, and dress it up from there. Super. Simple. Guys!

#4) Carb up! Have your got an uncontrollable hankering for a BigMac, cake, pork chops? It's simple, you're not carbed up! Your body tells the brain that it needs food, unfortunately it doesn't specify, so you'll feel most inclined to go for the most stimulating and convenient food, not usually fruits and veggies.

#5) Embrace those crappy days! Seriously, if you're having a crappy day, embrace it! But not by allowing yourself to eat whatever. I like to say that I have an angry, or a sad vegan inside of me. That way I try to separate my crappy mood from the rational part of me. Therefore I focus on nurturing and comforting myself and making that angry or sad vegan inside of me happier.

#6) Every cell in your body runs on sugar! Don't be afraid of sugar, if you've had biology you know that every cell in your body runs on sugar, so give it some prime fruit-fuel!

#7) Find out what works for you! I've had many doubts whether to eat wheat or not, wheat pasta and bread. Then I realized, if it works for me to have some break with hummus and tomatoes in the afternoon, then that's what I'll do. Try out different things, and see what makes you feel the best and what keeps you nice and satisfied, then make your own rules!

#8) Find someone who inspires you! The internet if wonderful, and it's full of people to inspire you and motivate you. Whether you likes blogs, vlogs, forums or something completely different I'm certain that you can find inspiration out there. Personally, FreeleeTheBananaGirl and DurianRider, on YouTube, are my vegan-heroes! I find going online for help and motivation very important to me, because I don't know a single vegan, not even a vegetarian.

#9) If you're hungry, eat! Your body is telling you that it's hungry, and if you're eating a good clean vegan diet you can eat all you want. If you let yourself go hungry, and especially if your in a food-toxic enviroment, for instance a supermarket or otherwise surrounded by alot of unhealthy convenient foods, it'll be harder to resist!

#10) Do not restrict your calories!  By restricting your calories you're teaching your body to be a energy-storerer rather than an energy-user. Also, a calorie is not a calorie, contrary to popular belief, the proof is in the banana-pudding, look at raw-foodists, fruitarians and long term high-carb low-fat vegans - they eat masses of calories each day and THEY'RE LEAN!

Hope you liked some of my tips, some of them are really quite repetitive but they underline an important point.

 - Elk

Little things that make me a HAPPY VEGAN

Hi guys! Today is my 51st day as a vegan, and I'm looooovin' it!
I know it would have been more of a "milestone" if I posted this yesterday on my 50th day, but yesterday was an awful day so I'm doing it today.
This post is just going to be an assorted collection of pictures of things that make me a happy vegan.

Pure little juice-box size smoothies for a buck.

Delicious smoothie, cherry juice (from thawing frozen cherries) and banana.

100% plant soy-chocolate milk - better than the "real" thing!

An amazing vegetarian supermarket in Malmö, Sweden. Unfortunately I do not live there. :(

Delicious soy-"meat", red curry, coconut, veggie rice dish. Scrummy! Even my omnivore friend was very impressed.

Friggin' veggie wraps at McDonald's! *probably only vegetarian* None existent in Denmark!
So happy I didn't have to ask for: "a chicken salda without chicken, without cheese and without dressing please".

Freelee The Banana Girl's "Datorade". Tried it for the first time today, because I now have a blender!

So here's a couple of remarks about my veganism. 1) I live in Denmark, vegan "meats", "cheeses" and other special products for vegan DO NOT EXIST! However we do have soy milk, rice milk etc. and soy-ice-cream, but that's pretty much all. 2) Some of these foods, processed fake meats, McDonald's veggie wraps and soy-chocolate-milk aren't foods I eat often, I aim to eat raw 'till 4, whole foods, fruits, veggies and starches. 3) FREELEE THE BANANA GIRL IS MY GURU!

P.s. I will do a more in-depth post about this vegan thing that I've begun ;)

 - Elk

High Carb Vegan, What I Eat in a Day #1

Hi guys, I thought I'd do a "what I eat in a day" post, now that I've posted about this vegan eating ;)

 Breakfast, yum yum, leftover banana/strawberry smoothie made with soy-milk. Oh and water.

Lunchy time, an orange, a pear, to smaller tomatoes, some cucumber and some radishes.

 Snack times! Popcorn, now I know that lots of high carb, low fat vegans out there probably is like noooooo. But I checked the salt and oil content, and I didn't think it was bad at all. Besides I didn't feel so bad because they were like fancy organic popcorn, and the only three ingredients were corn, salt and oil.

                                              

 More snack, vegan homemade bananabread with some jam. I try not to eat too much jam, because I like to avoid the added sugar, but it was Saturday so I think of it as a treat :)

 A little pre-dinner orange.

 Dinner round one, sweet potato oven baked fries with vegan ketchup.

Dinner round two, regular potato oven fries with pepper, oregano and ketchup.

I know it seems like I ate a lot of food, and I did! But if you know anything about this vegan way of eating, you must know that there is NO CALORIE RESTRICTION! And in fact it's best if you eat 2,500+ calories a day. Basically, if you're hungry, you eat. This suits me absolutely fine, I love to eat and haven't ever counted calories.

Tomorrow is my 2 week mark eating this way, sooooo exciting! Hope you liked this post, if not, too bad 'cause I'm making more :D
 - Elk

Vegan Adventure

Hello guys, I thought I'd make a bit of a random post today, and it's about food! (No pictures, sorry.)
So A week ago I started and adventure - a vegan adventure. If you are like "what da heel is dat gurl talkin' 'bout?" then I'm gonna tell you right now!

So if you don't know, vegan is a way of being or a way of eating, I chose the eating part. Vegans do not eat meat, nor dairy or eggs - all in all, no animal products.

I've always been very interested in nutrition and food, I've always liked watching reports and documentaries about it, and my interest for nutrition probably stems from the fact that I'm overweight and have been all my life. I've always known that vegetarians and vegans existed, and I've always known what they were and how they ate, but I had always thought that it was too extreme for me, and that the key to loosing weight for me would just to eat healthier. If you didn't know, I lived at a boarding school for four years, from age 14 to 18 and I felt like the reason I was still overweight was because someone else cooked my food, and I couldn't go on a diet.

Therefore, I was stoked when I moved into my own apartment, with my own kitchen - now I could be totally in charge of my food! And I was SURE that things would change - that was almost 8 months ago. And guess what, nothing happened. I didn't loose weight despite being in charge of my food and riding 30 - 40 km each week, my bicycle and my feet the only form of transportation I have.

Then, in the end of December, after having failed The Dukan Diet, I stumbled upon Forks Over Knives, a documentary, on Netflix. If you haven't seen it - go see it! Basically the message is that a whole-foods, plant based (basically vegan) diet is the best for a long and healthy life. When I saw that I thought to myself "of course! If I don't want diabetes, cancer and all those other diseases running in my family, I have to do this!". However, changing your diet completely, from one day to the other is not easy, and the stress of a completely new way of eating and not having any repertoire of recipes to fall back on, the mission to starting eating vegan only became a dream.

But then, some months ago I discovered Freelee the Banana Girl on YouTube and I thought DAMN! I wish I could look like that and have her energy. I was scared to start eating like Freelee, worried that I couldn't do it because I didn't have a repertoire of recipes, scared that I couldn't afford it and just plain old scared of leaving my comfort zone.

I think that I essentially wasn't ready to change, but about two weeks ago I realized what the key is to starting - simplicity. Breakfeast? How about some apple, maybe some pears. Lunch, have some grapes, maybe some radishes. Afternoon cravings? A delicious smoothie with banana, frozen berries and soy milks should satisfy that. Dinner? All you can eat, potatoes, rice, pasta etc. Snacks, eat all you want, delicious veggies and fruit. High carb, low fat vegan. (Some days raw to 4.)

It's been a week now and except for the 1st day and yesterday, I've felt completely satisfied, happy that I didn't have to feel guilt about eating lots of food, energized (I used to nap like - every day!), and thrilled that I finally did what I've wanted to.

If you want me to do more posts about eating this way, please leave a comment, and if you don't. Meeeh, I'll probably do it anyway ;)

Sorry for the long post so... Here's some potatoes (which by the way is like, my favorite vegan food - ever.)
 - Elk

                                                

Christmas: H.C. Andersen Christmas Fair

Hi guys, this weekend was there was the H.C. Andersen Christmas Fair here i town Odense. I went and took some pictures for you guys. I do dearly love Christmas fairs and markets, but it isn't as fun when you are going alone.

The motto of the fair is "Christmas when H.C. Andersen was a child", so there was this lady playing this wind up music box. 

The fair took place in the old part of Odense city, there were stalls put up selling various crafted goods.

There were also horse buggies going through the narrow streets.

After walking around in the old part of the city, I walked along the street to the square in front of Town Hall. These decorations were hanging above the streets,

This is the big Christmas tree on the sqaure.

In addition to the Christmas fair in old town, there was a food fair going on in front of Town Hall.

Vendors from all over Europe came to sell cheese, sausages, paella and sweets. There was also selling of some crafts, like slippers and antlers from Finland.

Behind the deparment store is a collection of trees. They were decorated with pretty sparkly lights, which isn't that obvious in this picture.

From the food fair I bought these Dutch Donuts. (I couldn't resist!) But I also bought brusselsprouts, so I think it cancels some of the unhealthiness out ;)

How are you guys' Christmas' coming along? I had planned on baking cookies etc. but I've tried to save some money on food this month, but I bake some when I go home to my parents on the 20th. Also I wanted to give you a little update on how my reading Calling Mrs. Christmas is coming along. I've only read 100 pages, but definitely on purpose, because it's about to turn into a love triangle and I don't want that to happen! I feel as if though I don't read on, it won't happen ;)

Yesterday I watched Blair Fowler's on some organizational tips video on YouTube (Blair's tips), and I got inspired and tried to be organized today, but since it's 20:50 and I've only checked three things off my to do list for the day, I don't think I've done very well. It feels like my brain has turned into oatmeal, probably because I slept very poorly last night. I hope I'm not develop insomnia, 'cause not being able to sleep is happening to me more and more frequently.

Anyway, have a good one! - Elk