Feeling a whole lot happier!

Since starting a more fruit based diet, I’ve felt so much more… I guess energized.  Well, the thing is that with my on/off insomnia, other health issues, especially IBS, and stress at work and some other issues in my life, I have felt really tired for the longest time. I need to snooze the alarm like 10 times in the mornings and I don’t feel like doing anything. With me living in Finland, when autumn comes and winter approaches and the days become shorter and darker, I usually tend to get more depressed and tired, but this time it hasn’t been that bad. I mean, this hasn’t been a miraculous change or anything, but I notice myself having more energy and actually caring about things, which I usually don’t do during the winter. I need to give credit to all the fruit I’ve been eating, especially bananas!

Speaking of darkness, did you know that Finnish summer is known for the nightless nights? It literally does not get dark in the summer time. Here’s a throw back to me coming home on a beautiful summer late evening after a friend’s birthday party (gosh, I miss summer):

So for the longest time I’ve been feeling like I really want to and need to get married soon because of reasons I am not going to list right now, and my boyfriend on the other hand isn’t ready for it at all (for very valid reasons I’m not going to tell just yet either) and it has been making me feel really down. I mean, it’s not like I am unhappy, or that I feel unloved or anything, it’s just that getting married is one step towards other goals that I have and by us not getting there, feels like I’m missing out on things. I wish I had the strength, the time and the words to explain everything, but right now I don’t. The point behind this ramble is, that since feeling a lot better in my body, I’ve also felt less stressed about the whole marriage issue among other things.

I am so very glad to inform you that it has been about a month and a half since the last time I had intestinal spasms or other kinds of severe stomach pain. I am 100% sure that it is mostly due to the combination of eating less meat and dairy and being less stressed about everything. I’m so happy that I’m feeling healthier!

One of the people who inspire me the most is Sarah Argo from http://southernblondevegan.com/. I’ve gotten so many good recipes from her and been inspired to come up with some of my own! Go check her out everybody!

Here’s a picture of a lovely strawberry-banana treat I made following her recipe:

No wonder I feel better, huh? 😉 🙂 ❤

Well, time for me to go to bed! Good night everyone (or good morning/day, depending where you’re located). 🙂

XO,

Hanna

I’ve been in a funk.

HEY EVERYONE, IT’S MEEEEEEEE! Finally. 🙂

So lately I’ve been struggling with sadness and dissatisfaction about my life. There’s things I want to do but can’t yet and it frustrating, sad and plain annoying. I’m irritated, especially at work, and don’t find life motivating.

I sound like I’m depressed right? I’m really not, it’s more like quarter-life crisis.

The one thing that manages to motivate and interest me constantly in food and especially vegan food. Still not completely vegan or vegetarian, but it just seems to pull me in more and more.

I’ve been making some incredibly delicious vegan food and I’m loving it. Too bad for me and my blog, I don’t have a good camera and absolutely no photography (or table setting) skills so I cannot put on display everything I’ve made. You’re just going to have to trust me. I have tried taking pictures of the food I’ve made but it never looks as good as it tastes so I’ve given up on it.

I’ve been so good about eating vegan, but oh man, I’ve been struggling with not having excess sugar. 😦 Booohooo. Of course there’s no-one I can blame other than me, but it’s still irritating. I’ve tried baking lots of healthier options and avoiding sugary things I would have gone for before and sometimes it works. But the other times I walk by a pick and mix isle and I can’t help myself. Needless to say, my weight hasn’t gone down as much as I thought it would have. Luckily I my appointment with the nutritionist is approaching (Nov 26th) and I’m sure she will be helping me with my sugar addiction (and me not having a backbone).

Speaking of sugar and baking, I will try to develop a recipe for breakfast muffins with very little sugar. I’m going to try replacing sugar with dates and/or bananas. We’ll see how that will work out. 🙂

Take care lovelies,

Hanna

Work, work and more work.

I’m having a horrible week. Well, it’s not really that horrible. I just need to whine a bit to get it all out of my system… You know what I mean?

I do have to work a lot this week though. I won’t go to much detail about my work, because of several reasons. Let me assure you though, I’m not a secret agent, a stripper or anything interesting like that. Just a normal person in a normal job. This week I just happen to have a lot to do and no matter how much I work, there is even more work to be done!!! Do any of you ever have weeks like this? This week I have to work on Saturday too, boooo.

And how has this semi stressful week affected my eating and my overall mood? BLAAAAHHHH! I want to eat everything, and I mean everything. Like a plate of everything sounds pretty good right about now. But luckily I’ve stayed pretty strong. Also for the first time in a surprisingly long time I haven’t slept very well the last 2 nights. Sun-Mon night I fell asleep at around 02.00 and woke up at 07.00 and Mon-Tue night I slept from 23.00 to 03.00 and then for about 06.15 to 06.50 and then I just had to get up to go to work. So I’ve gotten only about 4-5 hours of sleep per night. It could be a lot worse and I’ve had it worse, but still… I’m tired.

Really Insomnia, really? You have to step back into my life right when I most need the energy? Sure.

The most annoying thing about this week is that I’m doing the early morning shift. I usually like them, but lately I’ve gotten used to preparing and having a smoothie every morning for breakfast and I’ve been loving it. This week I have to go to work very early and I can’t use our blender that early in the morning, because it would disturb our neighbors. I don’t like making my smoothies the day before, because they tend to go brown and weird in the fridge. Does anyone know a recipe for a smoothie that doesn’t turn weird in the fridge? Or do you have any other ideas on what I could eat on early mornings? It should be quick, vegan and tasty. I would love it if it also were raw, but it’s not a must. And no, not just fruit. I don’t have time to stuff my face with enough fruit to make me feel full and satisfied until lunch.

Speaking of lunch. For lunch and dinner (yes, both because I made so much of it) I’ve been having smooth vegetable soup. I replaced the cream, that I used in the original version, with oat cream to make it vegan and it’s just as yummy. 🙂

Oh and I almost forgot, I made suuuuuuper yummy vegan burgers on Friday last week. I made so many patties that I had to freeze some of them. I ate my burger so fast that I forgot to take a picture of it, oh well… Next time. 🙂

Now I really need to start getting ready for bed. I’ll try reading a book until I notice I’ve read the same line 3 or 4 times and I know I’m tired enough to put the book down and sleep. 🙂 Do you want to know other remedies I have for insomnia? How do you guys treat your insomnia?

Love,

Hanna

Food, food and more food!

I have been sick for the last 4 days. Sniffling, coughing and sneezing, eeww… But although I still have a nasty cough, I am getting better, slowly.

A couple of days ago I went to meet up with the nurse helping me with my weight loss. We talked mostly about IBS and the psychological aspects of losing weight (or not losing it) but she finally was able to write a referral to a nutritionist, yay! Tomorrow I will make an appointment to meet up with her for the first time. I am so looking forward to meeting her. I hope she’s going to be my kind of a person, a no bullsh*t type of professional, who doesn’t speak down or patronize me. I hope to gain knowledge and support from her.

Right now food has taken over my life. I suppose that is how it always is when you try to lose weight, but not only that, trying to keep away painful symptoms of a digestion problem. The hardest part for me right now is to figure out where to get my protein when I don’t want to eat meat, and beans, peas, lentils and such, give me stomach issues. Soy of course, but I don’t only want to live on soy. And I freaking love beans. Today I ended up making bean curry for dinner, even though I know it makes me bloated and achy. But boy was it yummy. Seriously…. I guess the nutritionist will be able to give me some ideas on what to eat to get enough protein and still avoid stomach problems.

I haven’t gotten too many followers yet and I don’t know if anyone is interested in hearing what I eat on daily basis, but I will tell you anyway. Here’s what I’ve eaten so far today:

– 8:30 Smoothie (3 bananas, big fistful of baby spinach, 4 dl water, 3 dl almond milk, teaspoon of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar)

– 11:00 A big salad (lettuce, baby spinach, tomato, cucumber, avocado, spices and a tablespoon of olive oil), 2 slices of crispbread withmargarine on top, 3 dl water

– 14:00 About 2 dl of grapes, a banana and fistful of oat cheerios to snack on, 3 dl water

– 16:30 4 pieces of Toblerone chocolate

– 17:30 A big plate of rice, vegan bean curry, cucumber slices, 3 dl water

I am not happy about the chocolate (obviously it’s not vegan and it’s fatty and sugary), but oh well… We still had some left in the closet from the cruise (5 days ago). I have to be happy about having not devoured it right away when we bought it, but instead enjoying a piece here and a piece there over several days. I would have never ever been able to do that before. So GO MEEE! 🙂 Now the chocolate is gone and I won’t be buying any in a while. Otherwise I’m quite happy with what I’ve eaten today. Looks like a good mix of carbs, protein and good fats and of course lots of fruit and veggies. 🙂

Smoothie time (yes, I drank all of it):

A colorful dinner (those beans are enough for about 4 portions):

Enough with the food already. Since my lovely spouse is visiting his aunt and uncle and I have the apartment to myself, I am going to enjoy alone time and just do me. I plan on going for a long walk with my dog (I’m gonna dedicate my next post to my dog, he’s seriously the cutest and most lovable creature in the world) and afterwards stretch a little bit while watching tv. Sound like a plan, right? 🙂

Ciao,

Hanna