Back with a Capital V

Hello!

What has been going on?
I was unfaithful and spent the last 6 months on ... facebook!
At first I registered for the cause of a competition. It felt weird, becoming a part of the probably most untrustworthy application in the whole internet. (read my URL, it says all).

Later I visited the Ukraine and kept using facebook - so I could stay in contact with friends at home. And ever since then, facebook turned out to be exactly what it is: a silly fun thing, consuming lots of time and turning this constant chatty-mode "on". Whenever you see something awkward, you immediatly form a sentence in your mind, you want to you write a comment and post a photo in a facebook posting. At least I do.

Well, last week I stumbled upon facebook Rule #9 that says that facebook may receive money from companies who use my content for promoting their stuff. This was it. I deleted the account and now I am back.

After the confession comes the fun part :-)
About the photo. What can you see? You see 10pounds*. That's the weight I've lost ever since going vegan about 11 months ago.

*the empty bottles weigh a lot, too!

Weightloss never was the aim but a side effect that suprised me.

0,2% of the Austrian population is vegan. That's about 14.000 people. Not a lot. As a consequence, supermarkets don't provide Vegans with snacks. Leaving out the snacks (mainly sweet stuff) caused the weight loss. No matter how much Banana Bread I baked and ate. :-)

I love to cook and bake (long-term-readers might remember various postings on food). This has not changed. As a vegan you need to be creative in your kitchen, it isn't as simple as frying meat in the pan. I enjoy the alchemy that takes place around the stove and the fun I have, trying combinations and things I never thought of in the past. I got to know vegetables and fruits I had been neglecting ever since. Right now, for the first time after having read the recipe 3 years ago I am cooking Quince. I get to try so many new flavours, textures and scents. Living vegan is not about abstaining, but gaining. At least for me.

There are more than a dozen other great sideeffects. It starts with throwing away close to no foods. In the past we threw away so many dairy products, sausages and meat. Now we buy vegetables, seeds and grains and cook it and eat it. The fridge is half empty, because most of the vegan grocery goods don't have to be stored in the fridge. I might add that I am not fond of texturised soy and fake meat.

Summer was great. It was the hottest summer ever - above 40°C and I cooled myself with delicious smoothies, made with oats, blueberries, icecubes, mango, soy-yoghurt, maple syrup, raspberries etc.

Autumn is great, too. Pumpkin soup, Apple pies, cooked millet seed for breakfast (a dish I got to know and love in the Ukraine) just to mention a few.

I thought I'd let you know.
:-)
Paula