Being Vegan is Awesome – But You Don’t Have to Go ‘All The Way’ to Make a Difference! | #ThisGirlEats

My friends have told me the many ethical, health and environmental reasons that they did away with animal products. I’ll be honest, none of it really stuck – I respected their views and was definitely interested, but carried on tucking into my chicken club sandwich as I nodded along. Sorry guys.

For me, the only thing that really hit home was watching Cowspiracy – for the first time ever, I really started to think about the ethics of meat and dairy.

Below are just a few Cowspiracy facts that really opened my eyes.

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cowspiracy.com

I want to put it out there right now – I’m NOT vegan. I’m not vegetarian. Sadly, even with these mind-boggling facts, I’m not brave enough to make the move right now – but that’s the point. I’m writing this as someone who eats meat but would still like to start making positive changes when it comes to this whole issue, at least until I get the guts to make a heavier commitment.

Perhaps I’m not ready for a full-on transformation. But after watching the documentary, my boyfriend and I decided we could definitely shake up our diets a bit – we did a few really simple things that, I hope, make a difference when it comes to the staggering consumption of animal products. And here they are…

 

1. The thought of drinking cow’s milk made us feel a little queasy, so we decided to swap to alternatives – hazelnut and oat milks are yummy, almond milk is great in recipes, and soya milk can be bought super cheap. 🥛

2. We used to buy eggs every week and almost always throw them away because we hadn’t managed to use them up – so we simply stopped! I can’t remember the last time we bought eggs, so that’s a lot less waste.

3. Our first attempt at cutting down on meat was to only eat one meaty meal a day – for example, bacon sandwiches for breakfast meant we wouldn’t eat meat for the rest of the day. If we planned pepperoni pizza for dinner, we’d have a veggie lunch. It’s easy, really.

4. What started out as a way to make our food shop cheaper actually turned into a conscious ethical decision – all our weekday meals are now veggie (vegan on a good day!) and we only let our carnivorous side out on weekends, or when we’re ordering in / buying out.

 

I really do try to make better choices. I try to buy cheese and tomato pizza instead of meat feast 🍕 order mixed bean instead of chilli con carne 🌶️ choose mushroom tagliatelle instead of lasagne 🍝. I’ve gone from eating ham sandwiches every lunchtime to eating meat twice, maybe three times, a week. It’s not perfect – but it’s better!

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I’m definitely not one to preach about what you “should or shouldn’t” eat. Like, at all. I just want to show anyone who is reconsidering how they consume animal products that yeah, going vegetarian or vegan is scary, especially if it’s an alien concept. But you don’t have to go cold turkey (excuse the pun)! If we all make little changes, just try to cut down or choose alternatives every once in a while, the impact really could be huge.

Think about it.

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Feeling Demotivated? These Songs Always Help Me Get Back Into My Groove | #ThisGirlEats

Lately, I’ve hit another slump. It’s difficult, trying to keep up this whole blogging thing, one minute you’re buzzing full of creativity and the next you can barely muster up the energy to open your laptop. The blogging bug comes and goes it has definitely, for the time being, packed up its bags and left me. Probably for someone hotter with more money and a nicer car…

A whole load of things that can lift that dark cloud. Sometimes it’s getting a little positive boost out of nowhere, sometimes the ideas just hit you. For me, these tunes definitely help! I’m not saying they’re going to turn your world upside down, but they always perk me up and get me back into the swing of things, even if only for an hour or two.

I’ve got a “FEEL-GOOD!” playlist on Spotify and I’d really advise doing something similar. Throwing together a bunch of positive, upbeat, fun songs that make you feel better and having it to hand whenever you need a pick-me-up is one of the many benefits of living in the modern age!

Hakuna Matata – The Lion King
Who doesn’t feel better after hearing this awesome song from the BEST DISNEY FILM EVER?! Don’t even try arguing with me.

Rose-Colored Boy – Paramore
Paramore are masters of creating songs about feeling kinda rubbish but with a cute, upbeat melody that always makes you feel good.

You Need Me, I Don’t Need You – Ed Sheeran
Whenever I feel like I’m not quite where I want to be, this song reminds me that I’m awesome and have plenty to bring to the table.

Pork and Beans – Weezer
‘Pork and Beans’ always reminds me, when I’m having a bit of a self-confidence wobble, that I’m totally fine just the way I am, and should never worry about just being myself.

Born This Way – Lady Gaga
The ultimate positive anthem, you can’t help but feel better with this song and its life-affirming message!

 

Happy As F**k – MOD SUN
Just a small nudge to appreciate life, and all the little things we should be grateful for.

Hard Times – Paramore
Put on ‘Hard Times’ and I’ll relate. BIG TIME. But I’ll also start dancing, it’s inevitable.

 

Give Me One Good Reason – blink-182
This is a great one for telling yourself that you don’t need to change or compromise for others, that you don’t need to be just like everyone else. You do you!

Weirdo – VUKOVI
There is NOTHING wrong with being weird! All the best people are…

 

Unstoppable – Sia
Want to feel empowered? Strong? Totally capable of absolutely anything? This song is the one!

 

Survivor – Destiny’s Child
Need I say more?!

Stop Stressing About Your Job, You’ve Got So Much to Thank It For! | #ThisGirlEats

We’ve all had jobs we hate. God knows I grew so sick and tired of my last job that I took a temp position with LESS pay just to escape it!

You might be stuck in the job you hate right now, spending your working day desperate to get out or being filled with dread every Sunday night at the thought of starting all over again on Monday, and that’s a rubbish place to be.

When you don’t like where you work or what you do, it sucks. It’s the worst. We spend more time at work than anywhere else so if you don’t enjoy it, it can kind of consume you. You spend so much time wrapped up in all the bad things – crappy pay, bad managers, horrible co-workers, nasty customers, long-ass commute, boring tasks, awkward shift patterns… There’s a lot that can make you feel down about  work. So much so, we often forget about all the great things about work!

I’m not talking about perks of the job as such, but we all go to work for a reason, right? I was really down in the dumps at my last job, but in reality I had an awful lot to thank it for.

While I was working there, I moved out and rented my first flat 🏠 I took driving lessons, passed my test and bought my first car 🚗 I took holidays to Disneyland Paris, Edinburgh, Tenerife and Ibiza 🌴 I set up this blog, paid for the domain and bought all the foodie bits that have gone along with it 🍕 So many things have happened in my life that would never have even come about if that job hadn’t enabled them to.

Alright, so I’m skint right now, but I’m much happier doing what I do on a daily basis and, hey, my current job is helping me out with plenty too. It’s keeping that same rented roof over my head, it’s putting petrol in my car and feeding my recipe ideas, it’s buying festival tickets and saving up spending money for summer days out. It’s keeping me afloat, really.

It’s natural to complain about work, we’d all rather be somewhere else 99% of the time. But to keep it from dragging you down, think every now and again about what your job actually does for you, rather than just the negative. Ask yourself what would happen if you DIDN’T have your job. What would you do if you lost your job? I’m sure you’d appreciate what it does for you a hell of a lot more then.

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Fuck Shame: How This Blog Snubbed My Career-Shaming Habit (Yes, That’s a Thing) | #ThisGirlEats

Like a decent cuppa, #ThisGirlEats has been brewing for a long time. As it became less an idea and more a reality, my passion exploded and it was suddenly super important to me. It was like a new lease of life (is a mid-20s crisis a thing? It really should be) and I wanted to make it work.

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Image: Pintrest.com

If you’re sitting at home, perhaps feeling defeated, perhaps finding comfort in a bag of Kettle chips and a bottle of wine (no judgement here), wondering how a foodie blog that probably only my family and some very nice friends will ever read lifted me out of a similar funk, let me tell you…

I don’t like my job – I know; newsflash, I’m not the only one, bla bla bla. I mean, it’s not toooooo bad (‘cept rude customers, late nights and the absolute nightmare of Christmas retail, obviously), it’s just not my passion. And when you slog away day in, day out, at something you don’t feel any passion towards, it can get kinda depressing.

I’m SO guilty of letting my day job knock me back – I can’t count how many times I’ve come home feeling utterly rubbish. Still working at what I imagined to be a temporary stop-gap (HA HA HA) and not exactly making waves with my degree – or the £30,000 of debt I spent getting it! – led to endless hours punishing myself. I’d often turn a completely fine day into a living hell because I’d make myself feel so down about it.

full length selfie - editBut then I came up with this blog. Something to focus on, to aim for, to work on. Something exciting, motivating. It was a new adventure, the start of something. Once I realised that, everything else, including changing my negative mindset, just seemed to fall into place.

What was I criticising myself for? For being fortunate enough to have a job? For earning money, which allows me to have my own creative space, a decent laptop, and food to cook and experiment with? Is that really so awful? Isn’t that actually something to be proud of? Everyone who is successful, who I admire, has been in my shoes at some point. I’m a work in progress.

I thought having an “ordinary” retail job instead of being an award-winning journalist, music mogul or internet sensation of the blog-o-sphere made me unambitious, uncreative, underachieving. But did I look at my colleagues, doing the exact same job as me, that way? No. I saw them as funny, independent, interesting, creative, etc.. So why did I find it so hard to look at myself the same way?

We need to stop thinking that if we aren’t creating, organising, housekeeping, social media-ing, exercising, seeing friends and finding time to chill, all in one day, that it’s not a successful day. Productivity doesn’t have a time limit. The clock doesn’t refresh and start all over again after 24 hours. There’s no shame in working hard for bloody ages to get what you want. Fuck shame – take shame, disappointment and frustration into your own hands and mould it into inspiration, motivation, work ethic, passion, hunger.

Starting this blog gave me a bigger picture. It made me see my day job as a stepping stone rather than an obstacle. We are all a work in progress, and that’s okay.