When we decided to stop eating meat (at that time we were vegetarians) over 20 years ago, we did not know anything about plant based diet. To be honest, we were not interested in healthy eating habits at that time. But we were kids! What mattered to us was to stop eating animals.
Now, when we recall what we actually ate for so many years, we feel sick:)
1. First of all soy steaks. Yes, when we stopped eating meat over 20 years ago, we could not imagine our lunch without soy steaks. Coated in breadcrumbs and egg. Fried in oil. And every day we had it with potatoes and some salad. Luckily there was a salad;)
Instant soy cutlets :D That was perfect solution for a quick lunch when we were students or when we started our working careers. After all, when you come back home tired and hungry you just want to eat instead of spending time on cooking and creating amazing food;) So, you simply take instant cutlets, combine them with some water and what’s left is just to fry them. Easy, right?:)
2. Soy sausages with lots of mustard and a few slices of bread. It’s easy to make and so “good”;)
3. When we stopped eating meat we didn’t know that there was lentil or chickpea :D Really!
4. Instant soups. It’s hard to believe it but we had to be really lazy to have instant soups. At that time we thought that instant soup is not a bad choice. After all it was vegan :D
5. Frozen food - frozen pizza, frozen sandwich, frozen pierogis. So disgusting! But we spent many years having it.
6. Sweet fizzy drinks. Unfortunately that was something we used to drink when we were kids at our home. We could not imagine drinking water. After all water is disgusting and it’s impossible to drink it;) Unless you add some sweet juice in it. Then you can have it:) We must admit that we started drinking water when we started doing sports (gym, fitness).
7. Salad dressings. Three years ago K. used instant salad dressings that she mixed with vegetable oil and water. At that time she claimed that such dressings were delicious. Now, she really feels sick when recalling the taste of it. Artificial and plastic flavor.
8. Tons of bread. For many years we were wondering why we were hungry all the time. And when we felt hungry we had bread. But don’t be mistaken. We are not against eating bread now. Not at all! The problem was that for many years we did not provide enough plant based protein in our diet. That’s why we felt hungry all the time;)
9. And the biggest problem - not only were we not aware of our mistakes, but we also did not pay any attention to what we ate and bought. The only thing that interested us in the list of ingredients was whether the food was vegan or not. We did not care about aspartam, fructose-glucose syrup, palm oil or other chemicals in food. We did not care how much protein, fat or carbohydrates there was in our food. At that time we thought that the food we had was good and healthy!
10. Monotony - eating the same food every day. BORING!
This is how our story with plant based food began. Being unaware of our mistakes, we ate lots of disgusting and unhealthy food for many years. It’s really a miracle that we did not have any problems with our health.
But when we started doing sports, going to the gym or fitness classes, we suddenly discovered that what we had so far was bad and we got interested in the food we eat. And it turned out that there were other sources of plant based protein than soy. But this that not mean that we avoid soy. Not at all. But we have it in the form of our favorite tofu, soy milk or soy yogurts. We also prepare soy cutlets out of soybean from time to time. And now we do not feel hunger all day long.
Our diet is diverse and full of fresh colorful veggies (check out our Instagram profile and blog). When we started running this blog, we got motivated into trying new foods, looking for new flavors and got encouraged to creating new recipes.
Does our story seem familiar to you? Have you also made similar mistakes? Share your stories with us.
K. & M.
Etykiety: english, lifestyle
