It has been slightly over two month now that I’ve been on the plant based diet, consciously avoiding meat, dairy and eggs.
I dare not label myself as a vegan though, as I still own clothes with wool or duck feathers or leather in them but I’m going to continue using them till they last as throwing them away immediately will be such a waste. Nevertheless I’ll try to be more conscious of the new things that I’ll plan to get.
But so far so good – I’ve lost about 4 kg now. I probably could lose even more, but I like to eat junk food sometimes … Potato chips are vegan and living in Italy, it’s so easy for me to just grab a piece of pizza rossa or marinara 😛
Apart from my weight, there are also other effects :
- I seem to need less sleep now.
When I used to need about 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep to feel refreshed, nowadays I could go to bed at 11pm and wake up at around 4 to 5 am. Is that normal? I don’t get it.
- Going to the toilet is really easy now
But that’s just TMI
- Uh. Wind.
It takes time for the digestive system to get used to the high amount of fibre and produces gas as it breaks it down. While first couple of weeks was quite lively, it has gone down now, although I don’t believe that it’ll be gassy free – as long as we eat food like legumes and cruciferous vegetables.
- I dream of eating meat
Literally. Sometimes when I sleep, there will be dreams when I’m with friends and we’re enjoying a plate of plate of fried chicken or ice cream. At first I’d be confused, like something isn’t right but at the back of my mind, I knew that this wasn’t real so I’d just enjoy it anyway.
- The past two months hasn’t been that difficult
I’m not sure for the whole of Italy but fresh produce is easily accessible here. There are temporary markets in my neighbourhood at least 3 times a week and no matter where you live here, there will always be a vegetable seller within walking distance. So we are pretty much settled at having fresh vegetables at hand.
Even in regular supermarkets, there is an increasing amount of vegan or vegetarian options. Heck, there is a special section in Ipercoop and Panorama and as much as possible, I try to get more vegan items from supermarkets as they tend to be cheaper compared to specialist shops.
- Eating out has been ok.
There are lots of vegan restaurants compared to a few years ago and even in regular places, I’ve noticed that there are some which labels their dishes which are good for vegans or you could simply ask for dairy or eggs to be omitted for the dishes and 90% of the time, they’ll comply.
Understandably when going over to other people’s houses, sometimes they’d be confused at what to serve, but one nice thing to do is to bring a nice vegan dish for all of us to try and enjoy. Like roasted veggie pasta or vegetable paella. Yummy!
- I find myself cooking more
Cart claims that he doesn’t know how to cook vegan dishes, so I find myself having to cook for the both of us. Sometimes I do have lazy days, but I don’t mind that much, as there are loads of ideas on the internet and I’ve found quite a bit of recipes that I really enjoyed. One would be this bean wrap that I had for dinner last night. It was seriously so good. I’d be more than happy to make it again.
Anyway, there have been some who have been asking me why I’ve started on my plant based diet and I find it a little complex on how to explain it. True, weight loss is one of them but at the same time I don’t think that it’s right to dedicate all the limited resources that we have when it can be used and redirected to other more needy channels.
And this in tune with my philosophy of minimalism and living simply.
I’m just one person – I probably can’t solve world hunger by myself. Nevertheless I will never impose anyone to think the way I do. Cart still consumes cheese and milk. Even I still think that it’ll be better for him not to, for health reasons. (He did tell me that he lost weight while in Singapore because he didn’t eat any cheese)
Lets see how this path brings me. I just wonder how it’ll be when I go back to Singapore. You know, with my family and all. Uhmm…