Vegan for 100 Days

As far as I know for Veganism in Singapore, it started becoming a big trend or the most talked about topic in fashion and against animal cruelty in 2012. And yes, it might have been around for ages but not being surfaced into a trend. When I first heard about it, its all about saving the animals, reducing pollution due to mass farming of livestock, more land was needed so they cut down trees, methane gas harming the Earth's atmosphere.. etc. Whether its the truth or a conspiracy theory. It got me thinking. Which was why, it got me first into being a vegetarian, then a vegan. It was tough definitely, especially eating out. The best is Indian vegetarian food, even though not all are vegan-friendly. Chinese vegetarian/vegan food on the other hand, often tastes similar to me. So most of the time, prefer to cook my own meals.

After a year of being vegetarian from 2013 to 2014, I lost 2kg, looking skinnier than ever, which was scary to me, as I am already a slender. Honestly, I was feeling terrible mentally and physically. I felt unhealthy, and always hungry. My parents dislike me avoiding meat, saying that I am not getting the nutrition a body needs. At that time I had no knowledge on nutrition, so my diet was pretty much crap. Its always pasta, sushi, vegetables, fruits (a lot of tomatoes) and vegan snacks like Oreo, dried seaweed, fries and some nuts. My acne got worse, I was so stressed with the limited food choices. I couldn't go on with it. I decided to go easy on myself, lowered my restrictions, to having whenever is given to me. For example, whatever my parents and grandma cooked, I would eat them, which is 3 times a week. And whenever I eat out it would chose vegetarian, when I cook it would be vegetarian. I would avoid animal's milk or eggs. Only on vacation and special occasions, I would eat what is being served, or just to taste some traditional culture's dishes. But I have my exceptions as well, example, duck meat, sea urchin, animal's milk, frog meat and turtle soup. Fast forward to 2016, where I came across a company selling Negative ION clothing, with testimonials from over 200,000 people or more. Using their blanket, it has fixed my period cycle and low the pain of cramps, but I still had acne. I thought to myself, oh well, maybe this could help with my acne and overall health maintenance. About 7 months later, I realized the proper way to improve your health still relies on what you eat. You could still wear the clothing, still be eating junk and still feel terrible. Whatever it is, I started doing my research on foods to take and to avoid for different types of disease, illnesses and all the vitamins that the human body needs.

At this time, I cut out all the food with artificial chemical names that I can't pronounce, soy lecithin, emulsifiers, coloring, artificial flavor, shortening, vegetable oil and syrup. Which is about 75% of the food in the supermarket, are processed food. This lead me to studying nutrition. Nutrition for bodybuilding, for an athlete vs an average person with a sedentary lifestyle. Halfway through the thick theory book, I looked up on Youtube for some real life explanations on certain diets and food people eats. It brought me into all sorts of diets, keto, paleo, pescatarian, low carb, carnivore and holistic. While doing my research on Youtube, I came across a guy sharing a book on Common food allergies, opened up my mind.

Book written by Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby

Here's an interview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sda3NzhZo54

Its about common food allergies, from the food you consume every day. In his book, he explains how certain food can affect different people differently, by using real life stories, he had encountered over the years with his patients.

In the next blog post, I will be sharing some references. Stay tuned.. Here are a few of my favorite homemade vegan dishes :D