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About Me
Towards the end of 2017, my husband said he was going to try giving up meat for January. I'm competitive by nature, so thought I'd trump him by going vegan for January. It was going to be for a month, and I joined the Veganuary campaign for advice and support. By the end of January I knew I was never going back to my omnivore diet. Primarily this was because I'd noticed a complete remission of the symptoms of Crohn's Disease, which I'd suffered from for 3 years. But by now the blinkers had been removed about the plight of farmed animals and I realised that even if my health didn't continue to improve I still didn't want any part of the organised abuse and slaughter of animals.
I started posting pictures of my food on Instagram - mainly as a way of remembering some of the delicious meals I'd cooked and eaten so I could use my feed as a kind of recipe book... but soon built up quite a following! The fact that I cook quickly and don't 'stage' my photos or post complicated recipes with hard-to-find ingredients is part of the appeal I think.
As I grew in confidence in the kitchen, I realised I was using my recipe books less and less - and have now given most of them away to friends. I started Intuitive Cooking - opening the fridge, seeing what was there, and thinking how I could combine ingredients into a delicious but simple meal. I discovered that recipes actually slowed me down. I had to choose what to cook, go out and buy the ingredients, and something about following a recipe step by step seems time-consuming! Now I cook quickly, often preparing several dishes at the same time while I'm in the mood, and then having loads of delicious food at the ready for the next few days. I use lots of nuts and seeds in my cooking - things that I had to really limit when I was suffering from Crohn's disease, but can now eat to my heart's content! They provide a lot of my nutrients now that I'm off meat and dairy...
For many years, before I became vegan, I tried many diets - mainly to do with losing weight: high fat, low carb, calorie counting, intermittant fasting, Atkins, Weightwatchers, Slimming World... you name it, I've tried them all! Some of these described themselves as a "lifestyle, not a diet" but all of them ultimately had the same effect: my weight went down while dieting, and up again when not dieting! Since becoming vegan I haven't tried a single fad diet. As long as the food on my plate is vegan, then the only concern is: does this look nice, does it taste nice, is it what I feel like eating right now? As long as the answer to those questions is "yes" then I'm happy! And guess what? My weight hasn't changed - I've stayed absolutely steady right in the middle of the 'healthy' zone for my height and weight! This is what I mean by Intuitive Eating.
Intuitive Veganism also explores some of the grey areas in veganism, that many people find uncomfortable... not all vegans are the same. Some are happy to cook meat for their partners, children or relatives while others are not. Some are happy to buy second-hand wool or leather from charity shops while others wouldn't want to do this. Some might even eat an egg from a rescued hen, or their own back-yard rescue hen... I'll be honest with you: my pet hate is vegans telling other vegans that they're not vegan. Surely we want as many people in the club as possible! And so I follow the tennet of the Vegan Society itself which rather than saying that vegans must exclude all animal products from their diet and life, instead says that veganism is "a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude - as far as is possible and practicable - all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose." Of course the usual way of putting this into practise is to avoid all animal products in your diet, clothing and household products, as well as avoiding zoos and other forms of entertainment that exploit animals. But it allows a little more room for interpretation and means we can think for ourselves. This is what I mean by Intuitive Thinking. After all it is a philosophy and not a religion.
I started posting pictures of my food on Instagram - mainly as a way of remembering some of the delicious meals I'd cooked and eaten so I could use my feed as a kind of recipe book... but soon built up quite a following! The fact that I cook quickly and don't 'stage' my photos or post complicated recipes with hard-to-find ingredients is part of the appeal I think.
As I grew in confidence in the kitchen, I realised I was using my recipe books less and less - and have now given most of them away to friends. I started Intuitive Cooking - opening the fridge, seeing what was there, and thinking how I could combine ingredients into a delicious but simple meal. I discovered that recipes actually slowed me down. I had to choose what to cook, go out and buy the ingredients, and something about following a recipe step by step seems time-consuming! Now I cook quickly, often preparing several dishes at the same time while I'm in the mood, and then having loads of delicious food at the ready for the next few days. I use lots of nuts and seeds in my cooking - things that I had to really limit when I was suffering from Crohn's disease, but can now eat to my heart's content! They provide a lot of my nutrients now that I'm off meat and dairy...
For many years, before I became vegan, I tried many diets - mainly to do with losing weight: high fat, low carb, calorie counting, intermittant fasting, Atkins, Weightwatchers, Slimming World... you name it, I've tried them all! Some of these described themselves as a "lifestyle, not a diet" but all of them ultimately had the same effect: my weight went down while dieting, and up again when not dieting! Since becoming vegan I haven't tried a single fad diet. As long as the food on my plate is vegan, then the only concern is: does this look nice, does it taste nice, is it what I feel like eating right now? As long as the answer to those questions is "yes" then I'm happy! And guess what? My weight hasn't changed - I've stayed absolutely steady right in the middle of the 'healthy' zone for my height and weight! This is what I mean by Intuitive Eating.
Intuitive Veganism also explores some of the grey areas in veganism, that many people find uncomfortable... not all vegans are the same. Some are happy to cook meat for their partners, children or relatives while others are not. Some are happy to buy second-hand wool or leather from charity shops while others wouldn't want to do this. Some might even eat an egg from a rescued hen, or their own back-yard rescue hen... I'll be honest with you: my pet hate is vegans telling other vegans that they're not vegan. Surely we want as many people in the club as possible! And so I follow the tennet of the Vegan Society itself which rather than saying that vegans must exclude all animal products from their diet and life, instead says that veganism is "a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude - as far as is possible and practicable - all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose." Of course the usual way of putting this into practise is to avoid all animal products in your diet, clothing and household products, as well as avoiding zoos and other forms of entertainment that exploit animals. But it allows a little more room for interpretation and means we can think for ourselves. This is what I mean by Intuitive Thinking. After all it is a philosophy and not a religion.
