I just need to write.

That's what a blog is for, right?

I have to admit guys I've not beel feeling my best lately and university is getting on top of me. I'm finding it more difficult to sleep than ever and my eating habits have taken a turn for the worst. I am still vegan, but every single pound that I lost I have put back on. I might not be eating dairy or meat or anything including animal products, but I'm making up for it in those products that I can eat, clearly. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have put the weight back on. This has depressed me greatly, and even though I attempted to convince myself I'm fine with how I am, and other people are too, I just can't shake this feeling.
       About 20 minutes ago I took my 'before' photograph. - A little backstory - When I first lost weight I didn't take a photograph of when I was 11st 7lbs and 10st 7lbs, so physically I could not see a difference in myself. Now, I'm going to take the photo this time and scrape this weight off with every thing I have.
       I went back to the doctor about my legs and was given the all clear to start training in order to run. I got pretty new running shoes that support my legs and feet so they should be useful in keeping the shin splints away. My running should be able to help me keep the weight off and tone my body up a little. I've visited the gym a few times this week and have really enjoyed it. I do so enjoy being in the gym, sweating my stress out. The idea is to make it a regular thing and build up my core strength. My goal is I want to be able to jog the 5k by the end of the summer. Ambitious goal if you ask me!~
       Ah... after writing I can already feel my mood lifting. It's 00:39 and I should probably go and get some sleep now. Thanks for reading guys. Until next time.
      

Little life update

Yo, everyone!

Haven't posted in a while, pretty much thought it's about time I did, so here's a random update!

Uni stuff

Baaah, uni is great. Handed in two assignments this semester, cutting them both pretty fine by starting them the day before and finishing them the morning they were due. Luckily I got them both in on time! Phew!
       I got my first assignment back and was so lucky to have gotten a B! Not a B-, not a B+ but slap bang in the middle. To be honest, with the amount of effort I put in, I was super lucky. It helped that I really enjoyed the assignment which was on Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. It is fantastic! I found that many other people on my course didn't enjoy it, but personally I loved it! Our assignment was to write a CV for either God, Satan, Adam or Eve. EVERYONE on the course picked Satan. Literally everyone. Can't say I'm surprised, though. He is very interesting to write on!
       I'm waiting for my second assignment to be returned, which were two short essays of 400 words each on a topic of our choosing (I chose destructive imagery and power and order) in two texts (Pink Mist and Animal Farm) that we could pick from any we had studied thus far. Although I did quite enjoy the assignment, I have to admit, I really did struggle with keeping within the word limit! I have always had a problem with that though, I could wittle on for hours!
       Along with attending my lectures and doing my assignments and stuff I've been having a lot of fun with my friend Isobel. It's fantastic to have a friend to go out drinking, shopping and just general socialising with, but it's even better to have a friend you can just slob around and watch movies with, something we do often. :P We decided that in the summer of 2015 we're going to go on a little trip to Paris to see the sights, have a few adventures and definitely not go there just so I can visit the brand shops they have. Nope, not at all. :P So that's another important thing that's keeping me sane! Knowing I can rely on my Isobel! <3
       I'm back home now for Christmas, though. It's nice. I didn't feel Christmassy at all until I got back. The livingroom looks very festive so I was hit right in the face with Christmas as soon as I walked in! Fantastic! My mom and dad got a real tree, too! Which is really awesome. Everyone is coming round for Christmas as well, so that's going to be super cool.


Other stuff

 I hit an awesome milestone in my weightloss. Ever since I've been wearing womens clothing (probably since I was about 13/14) I've been a size 12. Never bigger, never smaller.
Last week I bought a pair of size 10 jeans from Primark. Now, I've tried getting into Primark size 10 jeans before, and I couldn't even get them over my thighs, so imagine my face when I bought a pair, thinking "this is a great goal to aim for" and could already get them on. Yep, zipped up and buttoned and everything! Never in my life have I been able to do that. I compared them to the same jeans, just in a size 12 and you can definitely see the difference, and I can feel the difference. They're tighter and fit 1000000x more snug than my size 12 jeans do, so now I don't have to keep pulling them up every five minutes! They're amazingly tight in the leg, so skinny fit is an understatement, but they look awesome (if I do say so myself.) So, I strutted around in my size 10 jeans being all happy and stuff. It was great.
       Also! My weight now from 11st 7lb is 10st7lb! I've lost a full stone. Very happy. I mean, it's taken a while, but I expected it to. The greatest thing is that it's coming off and staying off. I know a lot of people have trouble keeping off the weight once they've lost it, and my ridiculously changed eating habits have helped me soooo much. Now I just need to excercise more and on a regular basis to lose even more weight and keep it off! c: I'm really happy.

So, that's just a little update on my life I guess. c:
Thanks for reading, guys!

Vegan Festival!

Hello, my darling dears!

Today I went to the West Midlands' Vegan Festival with my mom, and my two cousins Ryan and Sophie. There were loads of really cool stalls at the festival and I just wanted to make a little post to show you a few things I bought today!

  This is the stamp for the Vegan Festival! It has the Vegan registered trademark symbol on it! (The stamp was drying out I think :P)






When we first got in there we saw a girl practically hanging from the ceiling doing some crazy gymnastic stuff. I have no idea what they are called, but it was really cool. It's a shame I didn't get any great photos of her, but here's one. 

 I was terrified for her! She did a really great job entertaining the huge crowds, though. c: 



Now for something completely different...

CAKE. 

Now, not only are these cakes absolutely mahoosive, they were rediculously delicious (if a little sickly after a while!) I would definitely recommend the Big Fat Vegan Bakery for all you with a sweet tooth (vegan or not!)



 This is my (almost) complete haul of the things I got from the vegan festival. It includes, vegan popcorn, chocolate cookie thingies, wagon wheels and turkish delight, vegan cosmetics: lipgloss, foundation and a lip balm a vegan cookbook and a couple of necklaces and wrist bands and a VEGAN for life t-shirt. c: 

The reason I say it's almost the full haul is because there's one major item missing...

 I bought a coconut! Drinking fresh coconut water is the best thing in the world. We all got vegan fever. :P  Afterwards my dad cracked open the coconut with a meat cleaver and I ate the fleshy bit inside. It was really nice, but not how I expected it to taste. It doesn't taste how most people would expect it to. Like coconut. Anyway, that was my vegan festival haul!

Lolita Fashion Diary: #18 - My Wish List #2

Hello my darlings!

My wish list has been updated again c: (Every update is really an addition to the previous updates. So the list will just grow and grow...)

Here we go! My wish list update #2!

So that's my wish list update guys! c:

Why are you vegan?

Hello my lovely darlings,


Recently I've been getting asked more and more questions about why I chose to be vegan. There are a few simple answers I give, but I think some people who ask me expect me to lecture them on why they should be a vegan demi-god like me.  Before I get on to that though, I will share with you my extremely simple reasons for becoming vegan. 

1. Animals are adorable.
2. Being abused, caged, branded, castrated, slaughtered etc is shitty. 
3. Health.
4. The planet, dude.

There isn't much more to say about my reasons other than that. It's true that for me it was mostly about my health rather than the welfare of animals and the planet, but it's hard to ignore those things when you really know how much it affects them, too. Now I will get on to the main reasons why I don't lecture people about eating meat and dairy products and why it doesn't bother me that people eat those products in front of me (and all other things vegans are supposed to hate about meat eaters.)
       The first reason that I don't lecture people on eating meat and dairy products (etc) is because I wouldn't like it if they lectured me on my eating habits. I personally do not have the right to tell them what they can and can't eat, and I'd expect anyone else to feel the same about telling vegetarians and vegans (etc)  what they should be eating. As vegans, I think we have to be tactical in how we advise people about their eating habits, because it's easy for them to turn it on us and criticise us right back. Of course it's easy for us to say "but the animals...", "but you're killing yourself...", "but the planet..." If things were easier to digest and understand, I don't think people would be as offensive towards the idea of veganism. Right now many people are at the point where they think vegans are going to shove hugging trees down their throats and so completely abandon the idea before they have even heard it out. This I completely understand because when people are being bombarded with information in a way that criticises them, they aren't going to want to listen. It's about being careful and explaining things properly.
       The second reason is because I understand why so many people are set in their ways. From the moment they are born they are taught that animals are put on this earth to feed and sustain us as humans and something that is drilled into you as a child is very hard to break away from in later life. I know what so many people are thinking. "Well, I managed to do it and I was brought up eating meat and dairy products (etc.)" While that may be true and certainly is in many cases, some people are scared of diet change and find it physically, mentally and emotionally difficult to prise themselves away from certain foods that were said to be good for them. The media these days tells us that everything is bad for us, everything is killing us. So, it's no wonder people are terrified of these kinds of diets, because they just don't know what to expect. This is where many of the concerns of not getting enough protein and certain vitamins come from, because people just aren't taught well enough about nutrition and are just going on what they have learned over time from when they were a child. I'm not going to penalise people for that. 
       The third reason I don't lecture people about eating meat and dairy products is because I know many of them aren't going to listen to a person who has been vegan for a little over a month now. I'm in no way shape or form the perfect vegan, I don't know everything and I'm glad to be learning and growing every single day. I've been documenting things I've learned in a journal and it's exciting to be trying new recipes and food ideas and I think if more people were informed and had an excitement for new foods and healthier foods it would be an insentive to carry on and be a healthier person but also help animals, the planet and the people around them. 
       The final reason I don't lecture people about it is because people all around the world need to realise for themselves the problems they face every day and the problems every other thing in the world faces due to it. Bad health, bad environment, bad food, feeling bad, low energy, fluctuating weight and emotional instability are all things I have experienced and many people experience it still now. My environment isn't changing, but I am and that circles round to help the environment by reducing waste and not promoting the destruction of environment for animal factories and other horrible places. I can control what I eat, how much I eat, how much effort I put into it and who it harms. If it harms animals or the inside of my body I'm not going to eat it. I've realised something in myself the past month; you can lecture someone for as long as you want about changing their bad habits, they might moan about their weight or how they look or even how they feel, but just lecturing them doesn't work. If anything it makes them even lower. What we have to try and do is find a way to help them come to that self realisation, teach them how to make the changes and have themselves feel better and in the end, make everyone feel better. A good feeling is infectious, as are smiles and laughter. That isn't a bad thing, but in the end we all have to do it for ourselves. 

So, I've been at University for 3 weeks now!

Hey, all!

I haven't posted for a little while, so I thought I'd vomit something out now I'm done reading Animal Farm for my 9:15am lecture tomorrow. (Recommend it, but don't recommend reading it the day before your lecture, give yourself some more time :P)

I moved out of my house! Ahhhhhhh!

So, yeah I'm living in the halls at university now and I've been here for almost three weeks. I haven't really had much to post about until now, so I can tell you guys a few things about what's been going on!

My first and only night out in three weeks.

I met some really awesome people three days into my time at university. And we decided to go out to the club that is linked with the university for the fresher's week nights out! Mode, Tramps and Velvet are all connected. We only got as far as Mode then Tramps, though. :P
It was a UV paint party for that night, so people, including myself were covered in glowy paint! Woo!
Here's a couple of pictures! (It isn't difficult to spot me in them both, it's embarrassing xD)

Gotta say, pretty photogenic in the first one eh? How about that guy with the massive glow stick and the beard in the second one! Super photogenic!
Man it was a great night I have to admit. Can't say I'm bothered about going out again, though.

Being VEGAN at university.This has been a fun experience for sure. Yesterday I bought vegan cheese for the first time. I haven't tried it yet though. We're having pizza at Freya's flat and they're going to be ordering from Pizza Hut, so I'll be making a pizza from scratch instead! Just a pitta bread pizza mind, I'm a poor student. :P
       There's a couple of other things I've discovered as well while being here and having to feed myself. I absolutely loveee almond milk. Especially on cereal. It's sweet enough to not have to put sugar on your cereal if you have a sweet tooth and mild enough to not be too full on to ruin the cereal in general. I would suggest from personal experience just plain Wheetabix (or the cheapest imitation a student can afford...) with almond milk, with fresh banana pieces if you feel like it. Absolutely delicious and 100% vegan!        I had a nice surprise today when I went to the post office! A parcel for me! My mom told me she was sending me something nice, so I was really happy. It was nice. She wouldn't tell me what she sent, though! I didn't have long to wait. So I'll show you here...!

      
Delicious chocolate, dried fruit, fruit and nut bites, bagels, bread wraps, rocky road and caramel rice squares treats! <3
It's annoying looking around for vegan treats, but now I don't need to for a while at least! <3

Soooo, yeah. There's that.
I'm going to take a photo of my pizza from tomorrow and post it on here. I'll also let you know how the vegan cheese goes... because apparently it isn't very high regarded...
Anyway, thank you for reading my lovelies!

Going Vegan.

Hey, everyone!

I decided that I wanted to become a vegan instead of vegan here and there. I wish I could say that it's easy but it really isn't! It's true what they say. When you first start, you're so focussed on what you can't have rather than finding out what you can have. Everything I look at recently has eggs, milk or cheese and it's difficult to really tear myself away from those foods.
       Bit by bit it is getting easier and I've been discovering foods that are "accidentally vegan" which is really cool. Like, oreos for example (apparently the American ones have whey? not sure, but then they aren't vegan) are vegan also the sweet chili Dorito crisps. Which is awesome because I lovee them!
      Today I was talking with my family about going out for a meal the day before I leave for univeristy and was asking about where they wanted to go to eat. A couple of them suggested that I choose because it needed to be somewhere I could get a vegan option (or as close to vegan as physically possible) but they all eat meat so I wanted somewhere they could eat meat but where I could get a vegetarian meal, too. In the end we decided on Sizzler. I only have a choice of two things on the menu, but they both seem nice so I'm down! :) I've heard it is quite difficult to find restaurants that cater specifically to vegans, but I suppose there's more money in a restaurant that serves meat.
     While I was searching for vegan restaurants on the net I came across a little take-away restaurant very close to me that does vegetarian and vegan pizza, which I didn't know about. It's about 10 minutes from my house! Very happy. I definitely want to visit there before I move!

I searched on google for "vegan memes" and picked some of my favourite to share with you.
I find them hilariously funny. I think it's silly that some vegans get upset about this stuff...
Anyway here we go!

 Good guy vegan!

Hope you enjoyed those, guys!
Until next time.