March 12, 2012 to March 19, 2012
“It’s so hard being a vegan in South Korea!” haha…it isn’t really. That’s just what I keep telling people because I feel like its what they want to hear. *cough cough* Ok…it was a bit harder this week. But let me explain why.
Being Vegan at school
The school lunch Gods were not very nice to me this week 🙁 I ate mainly rice and a veggie if I could. There was one day that I actually pulled some of the bean sprouts and tofu out of a fish soup to mix into my rice. Starving! I had to double up on my office snacks to sustain myself through out the day.
Cooking at home
Still the best option 🙂 I experimented making some Indian cuisine this week which included samosas and jeera rice. I made more Doenjang chigae, which I am sick of now. Haha. I need to put that recipe on hold for a few weeks. But I went to the market and stocked up on veggies and fruits for the week and found some awesome snackies for the office (and to put in my bag).
Eating out
We had an all school lunch on Wednesday. The main course was roast duck. Looking down the table at all the dead duck carcasses left me feeling a little ill. They were nice about my change in diet and kind enough to order me a cold buckwheat noodle soup. I don’t even know if the broth was vegan friendly. But most likely it was not. So I just focused on eating me some noodles! I actually hated the cold noodle dish when I tried it first in September. But on Wednesday, mm mmm it was delicious!
I also noticed I’ve turned some of my friends into food police. I love my friends haha! They always look out for me.
While shopping in Daegu on Sunday, my friend and I had the nastiest kim bap and tteokbokki ever! Just look at the picture! Gross!
I totally felt like I was starting to look emaciated last week. One of my friends thought I was crazy/overreacting since it has only been 2 weeks. Maybe she was right but that’s how I really felt.
Do you remember that song “Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart, the more you eat the more you…”
Let’s just say I’m glad that phase is over :-/
Also I was pretty busy this week and pretty drained once Friday came around. I think the feeling of “more energy” during week one was some kind of “vegan high” I was experiencing. Think something similar to “runners high”.
My skin (on my face) is breaking out in some places and clearing up in others. I will continue to monitor these changes.
I’m still doing research daily and reading different peoples views on veganism. I’m also looking into some books to order from “What the Book” an English bookstore in Itaewon. The concept of veganism doesn’t feel so “foreign” to me anymore.
I was thinking today that maybe I will extend this “challenge” an extra 2 months. Why? Because I think 90 days is a better amount of time to judge the effects.
And besides, they say that it takes about 90 days for something to become a habit and this wouldn’t be a bad habit to keep up!