First 6 Days Eating Vegan

So first 6 days consciously eating Vegan, thought I would write some thoughts down.

Overall it has been easier than I thought, as far as I know I have followed Vegan to the book thus far, there may well have been an  occasion where I may have slipped up unknowingly however I am fairly confident I have not.

I have drunken a couple cans of coke, but from what I read that’s within Vegan guidelines. Of course I want to give it up entirely, but I know that’s going to happen soon enough.

In terms of my development overall, based on the Adult Learning Model which has four phases below I am generally in the 3rd category, however there are times where I am in the 2nd category).

1 – Unconscious Incompetence (not aware of various eating habits)

2 – Concious Incompetence (aware of Veganism, not sure what it involves/what foods fall into Veganism/Non-Veganism)

3 – Concious Competence (aware of guidelines, need to consider what is eaten before choosing to or not)

4 – Unconscious Competence (eat daily without having to consider what is/is not Vegan).

The hardest part I have found is when it comes to alcohol. With no ingredients listed on bottles you can never quite be sure, however I found a great resource in Barnivore.com which I used this week. I now have a list of 6 beers that I drink regularly in Aussie that I know are vegan friendly so I do not have to worry about that no more.

The big test is going to be wine I feel, however hopefully I can use the same process with Barnivore when I do look to get some wine next.

Everyday around the house has been straight forward, simply fruit,vegetables and grains is all I need/want.

Have only eaten out once, I simply got the vegetarian option and asked for n cheese, and made sure the mayo was not included which was easy peesy!

So, so far so good! Stocked up on plenty of fruit and veg yesterday for the week, biggest test will come this Saturday though. Going to a boozy BYO, but I should be fine 🙂

3 New Fruits I Tasted in SEA

On my recent trip to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Laos I had the please of trying out some new fruits and veges. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures if myself gnawing/nibbling/slurping away at them, but here are my favourite 3 new foods that I am aware of and are nutritious.

1: Rambutan

I have seen these around in Aussie before but had never tried them. At 5000 kip (~ 65 cents) for  half a kg for them I was a happy boy, my 3 days in Laos I went to the same lady each time.

These are one of the coolest looking fruits, red and spiky.With a solid twist required to take the peel off, your left with a flesh the texture of a grape with a pip in the centre. They are sweet, and you can easily eat a dozen or two in a sitting.

2: Wood apple Juice.

Apparently my girlfriend gave me some to try out of a can a few months ago and did not like this (I can’t remember), however drinking this fresh is amazing! While not the best looking drink with its brown colour, the fruit itself is cool, its essentially a wooden ball – a  solid wooden ball. You could almost get away playing cricket with it. Its texture is similar to pineapple juice with a lil bit of pulp in there. It goes down smooth, although I could only have a glass or two at a time as it was a bit heavy.

3: Thambilli

Just after leaving the airport once arriving in Sri Lanka, we stopped at a road side stall to get some Thambilli, For 20c or so, we each got a Thambilli which is a species of coconut. We watched the attendant crack it open, pop a straw in it and away we went. There must have been 700 – 900 mls of clear liquid in it. It kept me busy for half an hour! The yellow looking fruit can be found roadside in all towns throughout Sri Lanka, and its obvious why, its a nice cool refreshing NATURAL cheap drink, that’s also convenient. The taste is very sweet, which is probably why I took a while to drink them. But it is so good on a hot avo (a.k.a everyday in Sri Lanka) . Such a cool fruit! You could tell me it is a dessert and I will believe you

Just tasting these three new tastes, makes me want to travel to all corners of the globe to taste all of the native foods to each country!!!

Hardest Thing To Give Up!

So its almost the midnight on the 2nd of October, for me that is the first 24 hours of Vegan MoFo technically  as I was away in Sydney and it turns out my flight did not get back last night till the evening and having gone out the night before, I decided that Oct 2nd was when I was going to go with the full on Vegan as long as I can. I have probably never gone more then 36 hours previously.

What is going to be the hardest to give up ?

I am going to say Coke, Coca Cola is everywhere, its one of the most powerful brands in

the world! It did not help that on my recent travels to SEA that it was less than 50c a can.

(I realise Coke can be considered okay by most Vegans, but getting rid of coke is an important part of improving my health overall)

I am such a sucker for coke (every now and again I will go for another fizzy variation). My Dad would buy it all the time, it was not given as a treat, it was fair fame in the fridge!!!

So I use to have it regularly as a young lad, probably a big part of the reason for numerous fillings I have had over the years.

Then throughout my teenage years, I was a very keen golfer, everyday after school I would bike to the golf club and purchase a 600ml bottle on arrival, on weekends when we spent most of our day there, we would make a mission during the middle of the day to get a 1.5l of fizzy goodness. Pretty sure I would drink a minimum of 5 litres!!! of fizzy a week, that is A LOT of sugar.Just as well I was walking around with a set of clubs on my back or I would have ballooned out I’m sure.

At the time I was not thinking about my health what so ever, people would say coke is not good for you, but no one ever educated me on the consequences. Pretty sure to this day no real education is given about food and drink and how it is essentially the fuel for your body, especially in the 10 – 12 age bracket, which is when kids tend to have a good go in the kitchen themselves.

During Uni my knowledge was still minimal, of course during Uni you drink plenty of beers in general, but I was also guzzling the coke, it was like the flat mission each night to go to the dairy and grab a drink and a ice cream.

Almost two years out of Uni and I finally started to educate myself about my health, I made some changes which have been for the best overall, but I’m still lazier than I should be (definitely  eat better than the most people), and coke is still a regular occurrence, at least 4 maybe 5 times a week. I did go all of June without any Coke after me an a mate put a bet against each other (we both succeeded) but I fell back into the habit.

TIME TO CHANGE THIS.

Why do I drink coke: Simply a habit I think, I’m basically addicted

Each can of coke results in: YUCK

All the above is bad, rotting teeth is not pretty, I can still save mine!

HOW AM I GOING TO BREAK IT.

Instead of a can of coke, I will make a cup of juice! My girlfriend bought me a juicer a few weeks back, I will simply make a simple tasty juice, doesn’t have to be a fancy one, 2 apples and a pear, this makes 400ml or so, a bit more than a can of coke, just as tasty, most of all good for you!

Apples and pears are simple foods yet provide plenty of Vitamin C, Fiber, Vitamin K as well as cardio benefits, antioxidants, anti-cancer benefits, improved blood sugar levels etc etc.

Water is nice, its free and a necessity! I can simply drink water too instead, so I will try and ensure I have a bottle of water on me at all times.

I have also just come to learn about green tea, its amazing! Anti-cancerous properties, prevention of heart disease, cholesterol reducer as just a starter. I even read yesterday that when the tea leaves are applied to Genitalia Warts, in 50% of the patients they went away!

Drinking Green Tea in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

The other occasion coke turns up is when I want to have a Jim Beam and coke, I’m not sure what my thought process is going to be on this, I don’t drink as much as I once did, however I think generally I will stick to Vegan Beers.

Its not going to be easy but I will be trying and every time I think about coke I will be conscious of my thought process and think about what is best in the long run.

Its been on my bucket list for a couple years to go 6 months without coke, I think I can have a real go at this and accomplish this, hopefully after the 6 months I can just go on and remove it from my entire life.

My Story

Late August last year, I moved into a new flat, I decided to buy a blender. I have always been a lazy cook so this was a easy way to get my fruit intake up.

 

After making some awesome berry smoothies daily for a week, my flatmate made a green smoothie. I was bemused, a green smoothie? REALLY? Blended Spinach? I had a taste, it was actually decent, I have no idea what everything in it was, but I jumped on my laptop and searched green smoothies.

 

How did I not know this was happening??? It seemed that everyone was doing it, they were even making green juices.

 

The next 6 months I had a green smoothie from time to time, but also continued to eat out nearly every day for lunches/dinner. I did not any more research for a while as I had just found the love of my life in October, so being there most nights cut down on my free time. It was until I moved in with her around May that I started reading a bit more about eating and how it influences our life and performance. Slowly I gained more knowledge, and started to eat better from week to week, however still drank plenty of coke and too many takeaways. I did start taking Vital Greens daily in mid June~ which was another step in the right direction.

 

Fast forward to  mid August and we were gearing up to a 3 week holiday to South East Asia when my partner got me a juicer as a early Birthday present, wowee! I was lucky, and that was the piece of puzzle I needed to push through and hopefully in the next couple months I will be eating like a vegan day in day out with no slip ups.

 

Which brings us to now. I have never been unhealthy physically, and not exactly horrible on the inside, but all my reading over the last year has shown that I have so much improvement within me which will make me a better person. This blog is for accountability, I can never tell myself to just do this as eventually I will sneak a cheeseburger or something in one day and its a waterfall affect from there, this is going to hold me accountable!

 

I am looking forward to the journey and hope readers can help me, and possibly even learn something. Please comment, it will maintain my commitment I’m sure.

 

Cheers

 

Jub

Hello world!

Hi All,

This blog is going to cover all my thoughts, trials and tribulations on my journey to becoming a healthy eater. The last few months I have researched so much about food it is time to put the knowledge into action. The initial goal is to become a Vegan. 24/7. In today’s world with so much peer pressure it is not going to be easy, but I can try!

Hope you enjoy reading, and if it can help anyone at all, even better!

Cheers

Jordan Bryant

a.k.a Jub