Get out.

I just want to remind you to get out of your house and out of your routine even if for a few days, even if only for one day!

I know how hard it can be to travel or do amazing activities if you don’t have the money or the time at the moment which is the case for me right now. But whenever possible, do something. You don’t even have to leave your country, not even your region. You can also go out and discover your local nature. It just came to my mind again in this moment how good it felt last weekend in Paris to get a break from my everyday life even though it was just for a short time. That’s why I want to share this little reminder with you to motivate you to go out, leave your comfort zone and do something. ❤

You want to be vegan but „your friends and family won’t respect it „?

For me this was the main reason which kept me from going vegan I have to admit. That I’d always have to justify myself for something you seriously shouldn’t have to justify for at all.

And yes, at first I got reactions like „this is so exaggerated“, „but what are you allowed to eat now?“, „isn’t that unhealthy?“, „Vegan? Oh come on..“ etc. But I think if you really stand up for something you believe in it’s not a big deal. If people won’t leave you alone just say something like „Please let’s not talk about this anymore. I respect you and your choice, please also respect mine.“. It’s also helpful when you know what you’re talking about, for example the facts why veganism is a good thing and where you get all your nutrients from.

And don’t worry about being impolite when refusing food someone offers you. I know it can be difficult when someone for example made a cake and you don’t want to hurt that person’s feelings. But you can just let them know that it’s nothing personal and that it looks good and that you’re sure it also tastes great. Hopefully they will understand.

You want to be vegan but „what about eating out“?

It wouldn’t be a problem for you to eat vegan at home but when you’re at work, walk around in town all day, go to a restaurant or travel somewhere else you think it’s too hard to stay vegan? Eating out doesn’t have to force you to eat animal products and throw your principles over board though.

 

You want to be vegan but „it’s too complicated and time-consuming“?

Another reason that people bring up is that it’s too complicated and time-consuming to prepare vegan food and that they aren’t good at cooking anyway. I myself am no gourmet cook. For about 95% of my meals I don’t even use recipes, I just throw together what I have in the kitchen. 😀 But if you use the simple healthy foods like rice, potatos, vegetables,.. that I mentioned in my last post you can’t really do anything wrong with this method. I just use recipes sometimes when I really want to make something special (mostly when I cook for others) and for baked goods. Even vegan baking is not more complicated than baking with animal products though. If you are a person that needs recipes for cooking just buy a vegan cookbook or look online for simple recipes. Meanwhile there are thousands of them. 😉

This is not a recipe blog but anyway I want to give you some inspiration of the simple vegan meals I’m talking about as I don’t have anything left to say about this topic. I will just share with you photos of some of my vegan meals below..

oatmeal with fruit

spaghetti with guacamole & tomatos

You want to be vegan but „being vegan is too expensive“?

At the moment I’m still studying and I turned vegan while being a student as well. For me it’s no problem to afford living vegan and I live on a veeery low budget, I can tell you. 😉 I never understand when people that even have more than double the money I have say that they can’t afford it. For me I can say that I even spend less money on food as I don’t buy expensive things like cheese (if you don’t buy the cheapest one..) and fish anymore.

You want to be vegan but you „have no discipline for being vegan“?

First of all: I thought about making some posts about the most common reasons people bring up for not being vegan. And I’m talking about people that actually think being vegan is the right choice, understand what it’s about and who admire vegans as I was one of those myself. So I’m not talking about reasons like „humans are naturally carnivores“. 😀

So, this one is about discipline.

I always though vegans need a lot of discipline to resist all the delicious „temptations“ that are out there. I thought I could never do it because it’s too hard to say goodbye to all the stuff I ate before. And it is true: I am not a person with the most discipline when it comes to eating. I mean, I didn’t eat crap before becoming vegan, in fact I was eating quite healthy with lots of fruit, vegetables, oatmeal,.. well, healthy for an omnivor diet when I still thought milk is good for you. 😉 And I guess I had a little advantage in adopting to a healthy vegan diet because of that. But I couldn’t do things like cutting out lactose or gluten for a week just to try if it changes something for example. And I didn’t really want to because I was quite crazy about discipline in eating/not eating when I was younger (the usual struggles of a young woman..) and I didn’t want to get this unhealthy relationship with food back again.

Staying positive can be hard sometimes.

I just got another refusal for a job I applied for so I start to get a little frustrated. I know I shouldn’t because this doesn’t make anything better and I should stay motivated. But this was a job I really wanted to do so it’s easier said than done. I even called them to get a feedback and to ask if there really is no change to get an invitation for an interview because I told myself not to give up that easily anymore. (Edit: Ok, they refused me because they need someone right now and not in a few months.. somehow this is even more frustrating.)

I’m writing my bachelor thesis at the moment and will be finished with my studies in about 3 months so I already start to apply for jobs. It’s a little difficult with what I’ve studied though because I don’t really know what to apply for. So I just apply for any job that sounds interesting to me and which I think I’m able to do with my qualifications. I think you have to be flexible anyway nowadays.

If I could I would just go travelling after finishing my bachelor thesis but it’s hard if you don’t have any money saved. I’d also love to be self-employed but it’s not that easy to start out of nothing so I’d like to have a job firstand then to try to come up with something besides.

I know this is quite a negative blog post and that people probably want to read about happy things rather but I just had to write it to let off steam. 😉 Maybe any of you went through a similar situation? Or well.. of course there are people who experienced similar situations. I’d be happy to read about your experiences, tipps on how to stay positive, how you found a job you love etc. 🙂

How to start running and stay motivated.

They say money can’t buy happiness but it can buy running shoes and that’s kind of the same thing.

I’ve been running for almost 4 years now and I normally run about 3-4 times a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. I usually run between 8-10km (~10km/h). I just wanted to share some tips with you because I know how hard it can be to motivate yourself. I also want to point out that I’m not the fittest, most motivated, positive thinking,.. person around and that I was super unsporty when I started.. So if I can do it, anyone can. 😀

How my first time at the ocean made me a runner.

The first time ever I got to see the Atlantic ocean (or any ocean) was in 2011 in Portugal. It was also just my second flight ever and the first and so far only time I was flying alone. My boyfriend stayed in Portugal for 4 weeks and I joined for the last 2 weeks because sadly I couldn’t take more time off from work.

We stayed in a small tepee at a campground in Ericeira because I don’t really like tents too much and it was really cheap.