Turning Veganese, I really think so

Hello. If anyone is reading, I hope you will understand that my lazy blogging is because I am getting ready to leave Dubai and move to Bangkok.

But today I felt like I must blog. I think walking around Safa Park clears my head and gets my thoughts in perspective.

Today I decided to go back to being a vegan. I have been vegetarian for 20 years, and vegan for six of those, until I gave up when I found love and wanted to stop having so much trouble in restaurants – sending food back and explaining to every person I ever met about why I was a vegan. Sometimes you just want to eat your food in peace, you know?

But, I feel as though, like it or not yoga has made me more aware. I’m much more in touch with my body since I became serious about yoga. I know I am allergic to onions now. I feel hungover the day after I eat them, and I can taste them for a full day afterwards. It hasn’t made me give them up, but it certainly makes me think twice about them.

I’m also more aware of my body’s natural cycle. For the first time I know when I am ovulating (sorry if that’s too much, but I find it amazing that I can now realise this when I never did before), I know when I am due on – thanks to chocolate cravings and being a bit short with my ex boyfriend – and most other people. I’m more aware of my libido, and my appetite, and my hydration levels, what is important to me and what makes me feel good and what does not. Dairy does not. It makes me feel sluggish and phlegmy (and my blood pressure seems to be lower so that I get very lightheaded and faint when I’m a veggie, not a vegan..?) Also – I’m doing it for the cows. It was one of Alicia Silverstone’s Tweets that made me take the plunge.

Perhaps I won’t be vegan forever, or perhaps I will follow a mostly vegan diet so that I can be flexible and avoid the inevitable troubles and attention the diet brings. But I know at the moment that I feel wretched after eating a pizza last night. Nothing about me felt right this morning. I worry I’m feeling that about alcohol too. I like alcohol, but I fear it doesn’t like me. I’m not going to give it up, but two pints of beer made me feel HORRIBLE even the night I drank them. Not drunk in any way, but I could taste them in my mouth until well into the next day. Ick.

Last time I became a vegan, I gained weight. I think this is down to my love of chips and bread. Great separately, even better together. This time, thanks to my job as a journalist, I am much more informed about nutrition after interviewing loads of nutritionists. And being more in tune will help too. So, no more chip butties (or at least not nearly as many), this time veganism is going to mean tofu smoothies, pistachio and date tabbouleh, wild rice salads and the like. I have no desire to eat one last tub of Ben & Jerry’s. I have a desire to purge!

In exercise news… well, I’m leaving the country, so there are lots of goodbyes to be said, and lots of 6km runs are being missed. I’m fitting in exercise around the tête-à-têtes, but it’s like walking up a downwards escalator. I’m not getting anywhere. Holidays are coming – I’m off to Istanbul on 4th April, and I ALWAYS lose weight on holiday. I’m a freak of nature. I think it’s because I don’t walk much in Dubai (there are few walker-friendly areas, it’s too hot and I work 10 hour days), so sightseeing holidays are a shock to the system! When I get some routine back, my new aim is to burn 1000 calories in a day. It’s easy when you can squeeze in two sessions; a morning run and a dance with weights in my room, for instance. Today, though is a lost cause on that front – leaving drinks tonight. Say a prayer for my waistline.