Hi there! Welcome back into my weekly diary in which I want to show you how I try to live an eco-positive impact. The past week I’ve changed my diet a bit, volunteered at the Food Bank and got my thesis company approved! Do you want to read along?
Thursday
I’m currently writing down what I eat every day. I fill it into an app (currently FactSecret), an then I see of which nutrients I eat too little or too much. I found out that I eat very little proteins. I’m feeling very good, but I want to change that a bit. Not too much, since I’ve read in books about aging that too many proteins in your diet speed up the aging process. But just a little, till proteins are about 20% of my diet. So, I’m now having breakfast with any plant-based yoghurt. That does a lot already. But, most are packaged. I want to find out how I can make my own blant-based yoghurt in the future and see if that’ll give just as many proteins. Towards another zero-waste switch! Since I got my paycheck again recently, I bought some new products for Loose which I think will be just perfect for the shop. That always feels great! Also, I got an amazing call today. I’ve got a go for my thesis at a company I’m so enthusiastic about. The rest of the day was a party really!
Friday
Another day volunteering at the Food Bank! I still get a lot of fulfillment out of it. I love doing it! Hello good karma points! But since I work there a full day, there is not much time left to do anything else that day, but that is fine. I took home some food again, the food which the clients of the Food Bank won’t take home and otherwise will be thrown away. For me it is amazing, because even though all the food is packaged, I still consider it zero-waste because it would otherwise be thrown away.
Saturday
I had to work today, but only till 12 am. Since I had time on a Saturday I went to the city center. There is a market there on Saturday. It is not exactly a farmer’s market, but I know one stand which is a local farmer and all organic. Hello zero waste, local, seasonal and organic food! There is nothing better than that, nothing. So, I brought my own bags and got some mushrooms and carrot. Then I also went to the library to get some books. And I loooove spending time at the library (yes, I’m such a nerd). I have a list of books I still want to read and it just gets longer and longer every day haha. But that’s fine to me, I love reading and think I will always continue to do it. I got a lot of books I wanted to read there. Lending books is awesome, it is very sustainable because you share the books with so many others. And it saves me money. I think I read about 60 books a year (maybe more, I should count it one time) and if I’d have to buy all those books I’d be very expensive. The library costs me 42 euros for a full year. Also, buying books doesn’t really align with my minimalistic values. I almost always read a book once, so why keep it? At night I had a party from my boyfriend. He graduated at an University of Applied Sciences and that should be celebrated. I am the proudest girlfriend! It was a great night.
Sunday
I got up early to go back home, I had a game of handball to play. After I think 4 years my ball broke. It’s has a leak and so I have to get another one, since I can’t fix that. Since I don’t want to buy a new one, I’ll probably buy or get an old one from a teammate. If that doesn’t work out I’ll look online for a used one. For lunch I had some leftover from yesterday, I make vegan rice rolls. Oh my it was sooo good! Easily vegan too. At night me and my dad ate pizza. Pizza is an easy dish to eat when one of the people eating along is vegan and others are not, because you can choose what you want on your pizza. My half was vegan and dad’s half was not. Easy.
Monday
For breakfast I had a smoothie today (I like to switch that up with the vegan yoghurt, since I don’t like having the same breakfast every day). This is a way to get a lot of vitamins immediately and for me not to eat so many carbs. Spinach is a good thing to put in smoothies, but unfortunately, we did not have that. Maybe next time on the farmers market (or even better, from my garden!). Also, smoothies are a simple zero waste breakfast. Just put in some things you like in the blender and tadaaa, there you have it. While me and mom were getting our winter clothes from the attic, I saw an amazing old wall piece standing there. I remember it used to hang in our living room, but now we have something else there. I figured my room could use something else and took it downstairs to my room and switched it with the old wall piece hanging there. It was a framed flag of Sziget (oh the memories, which I could go there again now). I love this ‘new’ piece upon my wall! My mom made it herself back in the day. I even believe she used old wood, so it’s actually zero waste and upcycled. I’m thinking about changing my room up a bit too by changing the color of the wall. I want it yellow, so soon I’ll be looking for some secondhand paint. Hopefully I can find that. Another good thing to share: there is a Youtube account which I found out about and which I’m currently addicted to. It is in Dutch however. It is a girl who vlogs about her life and she has such an inspiring life to me! She saved animals and has a sanctuary, she is vegan, she tries to live zero waste and is just very funny. Perfect combination to me. I watched in the train while going to my boyfriend. Once in Harderwijk we went out to dinner, since it was the father of my boyfriend’s birthday. We went to an Indian restaurant. The choice in vegetarian food was huge there, so a vegan choice was also easily made. It was delicious!
Tuesday
Today was kind of draining. School was really not so much fun because we had to listen to presentations for 3 hours straight. Then when I wanted to go home, I had an hour delay, which meant I had commuted for more than 5 hours that day and it was freezing. I had to stand very tightly in the train for a long time and got soaking wet due to rain on my way home. I missed my handball training because of it and ate at 9 pm at night. I had extreme nightmares of people who I love dying and so could not sleep that good. What can I say? Some days suck.
Wednesday
A new day! With new goals and things to enjoy! I got up early to go to the gym. I want alone in the group class but still it felt very good and I enjoyed the class. I prepared some orders for Loose and vacuum cleaned the whole house. Those productive morning make me feel very good. And then the rest of day still has to begin. I had a company visit today and I was exited for it. It was about vitality and preventing employees to go sick and what to do once they are sick. I really enjoyed since health is something I really enjoy learning more about.
This was my week! How has your week been?
Yours sincerely,
Romee