a very vegan anniversary.

This May marks one year of me living a vegan life. What an occasion to dedicate a tiny blog post to it.
So here's what veganism did to me.

The plus side:
+ I met a lot of new people through my veganism. Seriously, I never made so many new friends in such a short time before. For the first time in like ever I have something you could call a social life.
+ Never tried so many new food before. Just some examples: avocado, goji berries, hummus, falafel, dried tomatos, eggplant (I tried them before, but didn't like them at all, now I tried them again and I love them), mustard (not kidding), chickpeas, peanut butter (also not kidding), artichoke, fennel, lentils, cabbage,...
+ It made me obsessed with cooking. I never want to stop.
+ I started to dislike sweet things. I don't like cake and candy anymore. Only sometimes and then I regret it afterwards. My dislike of sweet things goes to an extent where I don't like fruits because of its sweetness.
+ The reactions I got from family and friends. I'm so thankful that I didn't get any negative reactions to my decision to go vegan. Some of my friends where asking me if I was sure about it and my mom told me that I should be careful to get enough iron (sorry, mom, failed at that one), but that's not what I call negative feedback. And I will never forget some of the very positive reactions I got (for example my grandma's excitement when she made Salzstangerl for me using soy milk and they turned out so good that said that she'll always make them with soy milk from now on (not sure about that, but who cares))

The not so good side:
- Cutting out meat and dairy products hasn't changed anything about my health. I suffer from ulcerative colitis, so my initial thought was, that it's probably going to make a difference if I drastically change my diet. Well, sadly it didn't.
- Nothing changed about my rather unhealthy relationship with food and bad eating habits.
- I still don't like fruits and I dislike raw food. Like a lot.

I don't regret my decision. Although nothing changed about the things I wanted to change, a lot of good things happened. I learned a lot. Tried new things. Got interested in new things.
It's definitely worth it, but with very mixed feelings...

Ps: You're wondering if I miss or crave any of the food I gave up? Full English Breakfast is the answer. I don't miss sausages, or bacon or eggs, but every now and then I'd like to have a full English breakfast.