Category Archives: More about me

My zine is finally done!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Girls Rock RI, Kid Friendly, Ladies Rock Camp, More about me, Original Recipes, Recipes, Veganized Recipes, Zine and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

zine1

You can buy it here on Etsy (but if you live in RI email me first at pleasinvegan@yahoo.com before doing so, because we may be able to arrange a pickup or something so you don’t have to pay/wait for shipping)!

zine2

zine3

IMG_3529_2

I was selling these for donations for Girls Rock RI at Ladies Rock Camp this weekend. Maybe you’ve seen my posts about it in the past, here, here, and here. You can also see this video of me during the camp, where I gave a speech about being food coordinator and some other fun stuff. I love this organization!

Here are some cool pics of it there!

IMG_3573_2

IMG_3642

Also, this is so cool! It’s the shout out wall at camp…IMG_3616_2

Another blog? Yup! And some other exciting plans!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Fitness, More about me, Other, Update and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey everyone!

I have started to train for a half marathon. Don’t ask me why I am thinking this is a good idea as Winter is just about starting, but regardless, I am.

In response to my training I have decided to start a blog where I document what I am thinking about while on my runs. Sometimes I think about some really interesting stuff, other times not so much, but either way I thought it would be cool to see. I hope to inspire people with the way that I share my thoughts and that’ll encourage them to tackle things they think are scary but want to do anyhow (like how I did with running).

You can check it out here at http://streamoflaura.net

Over my winter break from school I’ve decided to produce a cookbook zine. I am hoping it will be ready to go by January 20, but we shall see! It’s going to be chock full of kid-friendly recipes, since it is about my favorite recipes that I grew up with turned vegan, and the memories I have about them.

For a project with school right now, I am designing a series of posts for this blog about Labor History for vegans. I hope to educate my readers about issues of labor in our food choices and how we can understand labor issues past and present and consume foods that are not just helping save non-human animals, but also are treating the human workers that make our foods nicely and honoring their rights. Look for that, as well as some more educational topics I will be exploring soon!

Vegan Mofo 2014 Bonus Post: My nomination for a Liebster Award!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in More about me, Other Vegan Food Blogs and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So I was nominated for a Liebster Award by the Judgmental Vegan. Thanks! I like the idea of this.

8389606534_889e04943e_m

Here are the rules:

  • Answer the questions provided by the nominator, then come up with 10 new ones to ask your nominees.
  • Nominate 8 other blogs, let them know you have nominated them and put a link to their blog in your post.
  • No Tag backs (i.e. you cannot nominate the blog that nominated you)
  • Nominees must have under 200 followers on any platform.
  • You must tell all the blogs that you nominate that you have nominated them.

Why did you decide to go vegan?

I originally went vegan because I saw a documentary about the carbon footprint of food and how much food we produce that is of animal origin as a country and as humans and it really disgusted me. I had already been toying with the idea of it for awhile, but that’s what set me over the edge. I have slipped and stopped being vegan a few times, and have currently been vegan for a year and a half as of October 24 of this year. It’ll be 2 years April 24. But I plan to stick with it permanently now. I recommitted to veganism this time around for all the other reasons I have before (environment and animals) but also my health this time.

Is there any non-vegan food that you miss?

Not really. If there is something I miss at this point then I’ll try to veganize it myself, and usually it comes out pretty awesome. I was missing cheese Danish awhile ago and then made them myself after that, and it was amazing. Also I made chocolate filled croissants…OM NOM! Here is a picture of me eating that! I was pretty excited.

10616019_10100188731203479_5918738206113768356_n

What vegetable do you feel like you should like, but somehow, just don’t?

Raw grated carrots. Whenever I have them in salads I avoid most of them. Actually maybe all raw carrots…They’re not that bad really, just too crunchy and hard to chew fast.

Is there a recipe that you’re dying to try, but haven’t gotten around to it yet?

Some of the new Chloe Coscarelli recipes from her new book that she emails to her email list. Except I was going to make the carbonara but then I was disappointed to find that a pound of shiitake mushrooms would cost me around $10. 😦

Who is your favorite cookbook author? Why?

Chloe Coscarelli again. I have tried so many of her recipes and she cannot create something that tastes bad. I especially love her book “Chloe’s Kitchen” and cannot wait to obtain her new Italian food book. I don’t own the dessert one because I don’t need the temptation for that! haha. But yeah. There are a lot of vegan cookbooks I’ve bought where I’ve been disappointed that they had so much hype around them and then there’s hardly any recipes that look appealing to me. Sometimes I’ll even make a recipe thinking it sounds so good and it’ll taste gross. Not with Chloe.

What was your first vegan cookbook?

Vegan with a Vengeance. I think that was the book that had me make seitan one of the first few weeks of going vegan for the first time like in 2009. I didn’t actually realize how impressive me making it from scratch was as a new vegan. In fact I met up with some vegans for the first time and told them “I made seitan” and I think they assumed I bought store bought brands, looking back on it now…I didn’t even realize when they asked me whether I made it myself from scratch or not. I hadn’t realized there was kinds you could buy in the store yet, so I was confused if maybe there was another process to making it or something (I think actually you can make the gluten part from flour and it’ll take even longer and be more complicated? I can’t remember if I did it that way or with vital wheat gluten and I’m too lazy to look in the book right now…) but yeah, it’s something I think is funny that I associate with my first vegan cookbook.

What was the best meal you ever made for yourself or someone else?

So this recipe coming tomorrow for Vegan MoFo is definitely the best brunch meal I’ve ever made. That’s all I’ll say for now!

Do you find it easy to be vegan in the area you live in? How do you make it work?

Yeah, there’s a Stop and Shop grocery store nearby me that has so many vegan items in their organic/natural food section. They even sell vegenaise, all kinds of vegan yogurt, daiya, earth balance butter and snacks, silken tofu, nutritional yeast, all kinds of tofurky products, daiya pizza, ice cream, etc! I recently bought the new Dr. Praeger’s Asian burgers there and they were so good! If they don’t have something I need I have to travel into the City (which is only 15 minutes away by car) to go to Whole Foods. I’d say it’s easy and there are lots of new vegan friendly restaurants and restaurants with vegan options here too. Providence is the first city to have a vegan soft serve truck, too!

If you could only eat one processed, vegan product (with the rest of your diet being whole foods). which would it be?

Hmm, I dunno really. Some type of vegan mayo, probably Just Mayo.

What’s one thing about yourself that you feel has very little to do with being vegan?

I don’t really understand this question but I’ll attempt to answer it. My love of arts and crafts. Not that my arts and crafts aren’t vegan themselves, but I don’t usually make arts and crafts that have a vegan message or anything related to that.

Okay, that’s all done and was very fun!

Here’s who I nominate (sorry if you have more than 200 followers, don’t be offended if you have more, some of your blogs don’t actually list that for me to double check if I’m nominating the right people for this). Also my apologies if you’ve been nominated before…It got to be too much to try and double check.

Ellen’s Vegan Kitchen

Evolution of Jill 

Vegan Chai

Easy Vegan

Miss Muffcake

Busy Vegan Mama

My Apologies for the Novel

Deerly Beloved Bakery

And your ten questions to answer (please draw my attention somehow to your answers because I can’t actually follow all of you who don’t have wordpress and I may not look in a timely manner. I’m really interested in your responses to these, though):

  1. What is your all time favorite vegetable?
  2. Pick a holiday you celebrate. What would you like to make for the meals you eat for it this year?
  3. Do you care about giving veganism a positive example through your life and what you put out into the communities you interact with? If so, how do you strive to maintain that positivity?
  4. Do you have a favorite vegan type of saying? For instance, I really like what my Compassion Company shirt says “Anything you can eat I can eat vegan?”
  5. Are you interested in other types of ethical/philosophical justice issues? What are they and how do you involve yourselves in them?
  6. What would you tell someone who confided in you they were thinking of going vegan but felt overwhelmed about it?
  7. What was the first thing you cooked for yourself when you went vegan?
  8. How long have you been a vegan for?
  9. Do you celebrate your veganniversary?
  10. If you could travel to any vegan friendly city in the world, where would you choose to go?

Vegan Mofo day 24: Worldly Wednesday: Walnut Meat, tofu ricotta, and pesto lasagna

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Italian flavors, More about me, Original Recipes, Recipes, Vegan Mofo 2014 and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

photo 5 (1)

Hello everyone! I’m very excited today because I just got put up on my college program’s website about the work I’m doing. They interviewed me and I talked about my blog and my future plans of incorporating a vegan project into my education plan.

You can view that article here!

Anyways, on to the food!

This lasagna is quite rich with the walnut meat, and has tons of protein due to the tofu ricotta, and a healthy dose of greens due to the pesto (with basil and parsley!).

This walnut meat here is very similar to my earlier recipe but changed slightly to change the flavor from a hamburger style to a more italian style. The tofu ricotta is also quite similar to the one for the pizza recipe I posted earlier on Sept. 12, but I changed it again because there is a separate basil factor with the pesto, so extra basil in the ricotta was not necessary.

Here is the recipe:

photo 4

Ingredients:

For the walnut meat:

  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 portobello cap
  • 1/2 cup diced tomatoes in juice, no salt added, canned
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp salt

For the pesto:

  • 2 cups basil, packed
  • 1 cup flat leaf parsley, not packed
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

For the ricotta:

  • 1 block extra firm tofu
  • 1 tsp salt free italian seasoning blend
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 3 tbsp water

Other necessary ingredients:

  • 1 & 2/3 cup Tomato sauce, either homemade (your favorite recipe) or store bought (I love Victoria brand marinara)
  • no-boil vegan lasagna noodles
  • 1/3 cup Daiya brand vegan mozzarella style cheese, optional

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Prepare the walnut meat. Place walnuts, onion, garlic and portobello into a food processor and blend until everything melds together but remains chunky.
  3. Place this mushy walnut meat into a bowl, and fold in the remaining ingredients.
  4. On a parchment lined baking sheet, pat down the “meat” into a thin layer with a spatula.
  5. Bake 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and with a spatula, scrape up the “meat” and flip it.
  6. Bake for 15 more minutes and set aside.
  7. Prepare the pesto. First place the basil, parsley, and garlic and chop in the food processor until finely ground.
  8. Add the pine nuts and olive oil into the mix, and blend. You will need to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to ensure that everything gets properly mixed together and to get a good consistency. Set aside, in a bowl, but leave some of the remnants of the pesto in the food processor for the next step.
  9. Make the ricotta by adding all the ingredients into the food processor and blend until smooth. Scrape down the sides with the rubber spatular once or twice to get everything together.
  10. Grease a 9 x 13” pan with cooking spray.
  11. Lay out three dry lasagna noodles (or more if you could not find the no-boil type after boiling them, of course) on the bottom of the pan.
  12. Spread 2/3 cup of the sauce on top.
  13. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta and pesto on top.
  14. Crumble and sprinkle 1/2 the batch of the walnut meat on top with your hands.
  15. Place another layer of dry lasagna noodles on top and repeat steps 12-14.
  16. Place the final layer of noodles on top, and add just 1/3 cup of the sauce and the remainder of the pesto and ricotta (with the ricotta on the top layer!)
  17. Sprinkle 1/3 cup daiya mozzarella on top.
  18. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
  19. Let sit 10 minutes after taking out of the oven, and enjoy.

photo 1 (4)The pesto

photo 2 (5)

The ricotta

photo 3 (2)

The first layer of the lasagna

850X315_g3_fb-1

Buon Appetito!

Bonus Blog Post for the day! Definition Magazine.

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Blissful Chef/Christy Morgan, Fitness, Getting Healthy, More about me, Vegan Health and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey! I’m back. I sort of miss being able to post things without them needing to fit into my vegan mofo theme, so I thought I’d make an extra post.

09.13.2014_001DefinitionCOVER

I have recently started editing at an awesome vegan fitness magazine for women. It’s called Definition and currently it is available through various online sites for free or by donation (but the donations go directly to trying to get it published for newsstands!). You can find more information on it here!

It includes some great vegan Rosh Hashanah recipes, (which was actually the topic of my first ever blog post here a year ago) by the lovely Emily Segal! And it includes lots of other amazing nutrition information, recipes, workout tips, and plant-powered fitness stories!

Another post about food and Girls Rock! Rhode Island.

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Events, Food for good causes, Girls Rock RI, More about me and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello hello!

This past week I finished off my time of being the food/hospitality coordinator for the Girls Rock camp.

As you’ve been reading on my blog in the past perhaps, I have done this before for the Ladies Rock camp, which is one of their many programs they offer to women and girls in my state.

The Ladies Rock camp is 3 days long. Many women go from not having any musical experience in what they are trying to having enough to pull off an awesome performance on the third day and wow the crowd that has assembled to support them and cheer them on.

The past two Ladies’ camps I had organized all the food (for campers and volunteers), by getting donations of products and food from restaurants, asking volunteers to cook for us, and cooking and baking a lot myself.

It is very similar to my role at this Girls’ camp, except it is 5 days long, and a team of 25-30 volunteers get a separate lunch from the campers who also get lunches provided from them.

Many volunteers and campers (at Ladies rock mostly) have special dietary needs, like gluten free, vegetarian, or vegan, so I fit in well. It is usually easiest to try to make the bulk of the cooked meals vegan and gluten free, because then they accommodate everyone.

This year’s girl camp took about a full month of planning, organizing, and well, hustling basically, to get it all set up. I was very nervous about pulling it off prior to the start of camp, but it turned out ridiculously amazing by the end of it.

Before you read a bit about what we ate (I might forget some of it as there was so much food and my memory is a bit foggy!) check out this blog that was written about day 4 of camp, there is a section about me and my food and role at the camp (read the whole thing though!)

Monday- Breakfast was mostly bagels and pastries from White Electric (local coffee shop extraordinaire), and fruit. We had vegan chili, tortillas, and vegan brownies I made from this recipe here. Campers had sandwich supplies and lots of yummy snacks! There was also a snack time for campers and plenty of snacks of all types for everyone throughout the day, donated so kindly from Chex Finer Foods.

Tuesday- We had a similar breakfast as Monday. We had this salad I made, this recipe for chana masala , rice, and other various snack and meal options.

Wednesday for lunch? PIZZA DAY! We had a ton of wonderful pizza donated by Providence Flatbread Company! They make gluten free pizza, vegan pizza, and vegetarian pizza, as well as put their own spin on other classic pizzas. It was a huge hit.

rock! gluten free pot pie

rock! gluten free pot pie

Thursday was also a special day. I had made some savory pot pies. One was gluten free and a bit difficult to describe, but it was a gravy based veggie selection with some daiya cheese on the bottom. The next was a broccoli, nutritional yeast cheese sauce, and tempeh bacon one. The final one was the vegan samosa pot pie from the cookbook Bake and Destroy by Natalie Slater. I used her crust recipe for all the pies except the gluten free one. For the Gluten free one I made it with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Crust Mix.
There was also a pea and Orzo salad with and without cheese made by a volunteer, and biscotti! The campers received lunch donated from Blaze restaurant, which was really great and generous. Check them out, they are actually where I went for my college graduation dinner and are awesome. They have a great vegan selection on the menu!

For snack Thursday we had an exceptionally special treat. Providence’s own, the world’s first vegan soft serve truck, Like No Udder, paid a visit and donated an ice cream or lemonade to all campers and volunteers. I was ridiculously excited about this, as you can see by the picture below.

vegan ice cream truck!

vegan ice cream truck!

On Friday everything was winding down, but the food didn’t stop coming. I had gotten up ridiculously early because I was so excited, and went to make this jackfruit untuna for the vegans because I was concerned they may need more selection. Since I was up so early, I also had time to make waffles for all the volunteers, which was a big hit. For lunch there was a cous cous salad, 2 different green salads, pasta salad, brownies, cookies, a large selection of fruits, and leftovers! Campers finished off the wide selection of sandwich supplies for their lunch.

I am so thankful to all of the volunteers, businesses (including New Harvest, who donated coffee) and parents or volunteers who helped with the cooking/procurement of food. It was a great success.

Now, last but not least in any sense, I leave you with the culmination of the camp, the grande finale, which is a link to the final showcase! I highly recommend you watch it, it shows why I am involved with this organization quite clearly and is totally amazing to watch.

How running as a vegan might save my life somehow.

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Getting Healthy, More about me, Personal/about me, Vegan Health, Vegan Lifestyle and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Okay, I have to try to write this out fast because I need to be on time to a job interview (!!!)

Good thing I already have it mostly formed in my head.

This isn’t a food post as usual. But, it has a lot to do with my life story, my interests, my path to a better life, health, and wellbeing which all fits into why I started and continue with this blog. Plus, most of my followers are people who I care about deeply, and it will hopefully make them happy to see me write about this!

It also relates to my most popular post ever, which was also not about food (go figure?!) that you can read here.

Anyways, I have been feeling horrible mentally lately. My mind is often telling me I am unable to make important decisions, motivate myself to get out of bed, do anything important, and that I am basically crap, even though I know deep down I am not and am much more capable than I feel, which is the most frustrating part. It may be my old friend depression returning, but it may be something else as well, because recently my doctor told me my thyroid test came back abnormal, and I have to get it rechecked soon. That would be nice if I actually had a hormonal reason for this misery, although I remain quite doubtful.

However, despite all the negativity creeping into my life these days, I am still plugging along at many things I hold dear to me now and somehow managing to convince myself I have to do them to feel better, or just do them regardless even if I do not feel better.

One of these things I have been keeping up with is running.

I may have mentioned somewhere that you have read that I could never really run, even as a child. I had completely given up on the idea long, long ago that I would ever be able to run at all, even if I was almost late to somewhere I had to walk more than 5 minutes to get to and being late would get me in trouble. It was especially evident in school when I had to run whatever they make you do for the physical fitness testing, I often felt I tasted blood in my throat after running for about 5 minutes.

This was seriously something I thought was impossible. But a year ago, apparently I set out to do just that. While I still can’t run 30 minutes straight which is my goal eventually, I am well on my way. I am registered for a 5k in mid August, and it is going to happen by then, I know this.

How do I know? I started the couch to 5k program on my phone a few days before I graduated from my community college on May 16. Today I just finished week 5, day 2 of the program. At first, it was easy, even with my long-held beliefs and self doubt about being able to do this. Week 5, day 2 of the program I am using is as follows:

5 minute warm-up

5 minute run

3 minute walk

8(!!!!!!) minute run

4 minute walk

5 minute run

5 minute cool-down

Before I started this run my mood was hopeless, and as I began to walk the warm-up, I was telling myself I was not going to be able to do it, especially the eight minute run.  But as soon as the buzzer went off to start the 8 minutes, something somehow changed! I was telling myself “here we go, you can get through this!” Then, before I knew it, it told me I had five minutes left. And since I had just finished running for 5 minutes successfully about six minutes ago, it triggered even more positive self talk! For a short second a negative thought crept in, reminding myself I still had to run another five minutes after I got to walk for four minutes after this (would I even finish these eight minutes?) but it quickly returned to all this self praise as my legs kept moving regardless. I told myself “I am really going to do this!) and as the buzzer went off telling me to start walking for four minutes, I was crying tears of joy.

Then I ran for another five minutes and cooled down and finished the work out, like a pro (gotta tell myself that! haha).

This run was exactly what I needed. Running is saving my life, I believe, because when I am most down on myself and feel like giving up, I am able to run. And in my mind, it was something I had previously deemed impossible. Yet, when I am feeling
my worst, I prove to myself I can do the impossible.

Here is a picture of me shortly after. It was hard to force myself to smile because I was fighting back some proud tears, which actually I have had lately more than I realize…

 

post run

 

 

 

An Update finally! As of yesterday I am a graduate with an Associate’s degree!

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in More about me, Pasta, Restaurants and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hurray! I graduated from my community college yesterday with high honors (my gpa ended up at a 3.72!). This was an extremely important milestone in my life, as it’s been a long time coming, and there was a point in my life where I never thought I would graduate from any college or even finish a semester. 

 

ImageAfter the ceremony and reception, we went to a local restaurant, Blaze, which has a whole section on the menu of vegan dishes. I got the Penne with pink vodka sauce, which also had a variety of mushrooms in it, and a huge portobello mushroom on top. It was quite good.

Then we went home, I whipped up some hot fudge sauce and some coconut whipped cream, and this happened:

Image

 

A vegan hot fudge sundae with FoMu salted caramel ice cream. FoMu is a Boston based vegan ice cream company that just started selling pints of their ice creams in RI Whole Foods stores! It is pricey but so worth it! http://www.fomuicecream.com/

I’m really excited to have graduated, and I’ll probably relax for a few days, and then get back to regular blogging activity! The last month and more of this semester was tough, but I got through it (even got straight As!) 

 

 

 

This is a non food related post. It’s about my personal transformation in many ways

Posted by Banana Curl Vegan Girl in Blissful Chef/Christy Morgan, More about me, Other, Vegan Health, Vegan Lifestyle and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Awhile ago, I was having a conversation with a friend whom I had not talked to in a long time, but we are friends with each other on facebook. She said, “this is your year.”

I told her I didn’t want just this year to be my year.

I actually think this next calendar year will be even better! I have a lot planned for it. But really, I think each year can get better and better, considering all the things I have accomplished this year, and how much my attitude and mindset has changed!

Image
In 2013, starting in April (I’m not one to care about new year type things really, I need more personal reasons to make change in myself), I have gone from being very unhealthy with my food choices, to being a conscious, healthy (with unhealthy vegan food in moderation, which I personally feel is important) vegan. I have lost 65 pounds. I have made working out a routine. I have tackled many of my fears, for example, being afraid to run, math, making up my own recipes, etc. I have started this blog and though I don’t write in it as much as I’d like to or as much about what I want to write about, I keep up with it and do it. I have even improved my health in measurable ways, like my hemoglobin a1c levels, my bmi, my blood pressure, my cholesterol, and my iron levels (they were very low). I took on an important role in an organization I love and that empowers me and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy (Girls Rock). I have tried to make practice of being more creative and doing more awesome things. I am starting to work on having a better social life, something I’ve been neglecting to do for awhile.  I accidentally discovered a recipe I created two years ago was semi famous. And other awesome things I am forgetting or not putting a priority on.

Image

Next year though, I believe will be even better. I will graduate a college program, something I have been longing for a very long time but never quite achieved. That’s a big one for me. I would like to see if maybe I can win the contest to speak at my graduation, but that’s not something I can control the outcome of (I also think I might start bawling if I started to speak about all the things I’ve accomplished during my time in school. It’s one thing to write about it, but to speak it? heh). I will continue to write in this blog.  I plan to either start a new college program, or begin to work on my career goals. I will volunteer at an animal shelter (which I’m actually starting this year after finals hopefully). I will be a vegan for the longest stretch of time so far. I will continue to be a healthy person and have goals for that…including running a 5k by the time I turn 30 on my Birthday in October (or thereabouts), and starting to lift weights. I will have stronger relationships with my friends. Most importantly, everything about me will get stronger. My mind, body, everything.

Image

My mom and I! She’s a big supporter 😉

I am sharing this because maybe someone is reading my blog and is feeling badly about their ability to meet their goals, or get healthy, or change their bad habits, or whatever else. I want to inspire people, that’s my primary goal. Well, that and help as many people as possible. If 2013 is the year of the Laura and 2014 will be an even better year from what I can see and so on for the rest of my life, then other people can do the same thing! I don’t want to spew too many cliches. But really, believe me when I say that anything you put your mind to is possible.

Okay. Now here’s the part where I talk about what/who has helped me out when I thought I couldn’t do it. I’m not going to mention everything, but there are some clear, concise things I want to share that everyone can use if they want to.

Mostly it’s just support from other people. Like especially my mom, my aunt, my friends, mentors, doctors, etc.

Also myself, which I’ve already alluded to. Like really. It’s all about my mindset. I watch the Biggest Loser sometimes on tv, and I would tell myself I am my own biggest loser, as silly as it sounds. Actually it’s not really silly. It’s true. I did it without having to go on a tv show that’s actually pretty extreme and a last resort kind of thing. Or, I’ll be my own therapist sometimes, by anticipating the advice another person would give me, but instead it’s me giving myself actually helpful advice, and then just doing what the advice tells me I should do instead of waiting to feel bad I haven’t done it, or have someone else telling me to do it. Like today, I beat my own personal record for running. First of all, I walk and run in intervals, and I keep track of my progress with an app called Runkeeper. Usually I have been setting my activity to “walking” but today, I was like “okay I am going to run!” and set it to run. And I ran. I ran as far as I could for as long as I could, as fast as I could, until I needed to walk, and kept going for 45 minutes. Plus, I set a goal to run faster than my usual record when I was walking more. I wanted to go just under 13 min/mile. Instead, I ran 11:51 min/mile! I was proud and sort of in shock. But I am not surprised. If someone else could hear the awesome things I was telling myself while they were running, I bet they’d do just as well (considering some factors, of course).

Another final thing I want to mention, to make it more inline with the purpose of my blog which is spreading, sharing, and showing the awesomeness that comes with being a vegan is this facebook group I belong to. I really like to follow the work of Christy Morgan, author of the Blissful Bites cookbook, and awesome athlete/vegan educator extraordinaire. After commenting on one of her photos on instagram, she asked me if I belonged to her vegan ladies who lift facebook group. I was hesitant because I don’t think I am ready to be lifting weights quite yet, but she still encouraged me to join. And it’s one of my favorite vegan facebook groups! It is so supportive and everyone there is awesome. Not only do I get inspired by so many other strong vegan ladies, but I can also inspire others there. And it’s very informative and just…really cool for lack of a better description. So, I highly recommend it if you’re a vegan lady and interested in also getting stronger.

Okay, well, sorry this isn’t about food this time! But I hope this is just as tasty a read as any of my other entries. And I hope you were inspired in some way from my story. Here’s to having each year be the year of us for a very long time!